I was wondering recently if he was still alive, and obviously he's not.
I remember "Chick Tract" mini-brochure comic books back to the mid-1970's when I was growing up. And discovered his THE CRUSADERS comic book series in the back issue bins in 1996 and sought out all 16.
They had an EC brand of "shock", and were deliciously rich in anti-Commie, anti-Catholic conspiracy theory. There was one CRUSADERS comic (I think issue 10) published in the late 1970's that dealt with Satanic influences on rock music, and the cover showed a Stonehenge made of giant 8-track tapes! (an updated version 25 or so years later changed it to a music-CD Stonehenge cover.) There were 16 CRUSADERS comics in all, as well as a number of one-shots. But the bulk of Jack Chick's lines were the shorter tracts.
Amidst a lot of mockery,
this article at least gives some analysis of Chick's work, as well as links to multiple other opinions, and to Chick's own website that continues marketing his tracts after his death.
I recall reading an interview of Jack Chick way back in the day, that his tracts evolved from prop illustrations he used at a podium while evangelizing to inmates in prisons, and the illustrations were well-received and engaged prisoners to listen to him. And at some point he evolved this into a tract that he could print and distribute.
The meanest part of the Vox article was conflating Chick with the alt-right. Granted he was anti-Catholic and anti-Communist, which has a surface similarity to the Alt-Right if you don't examine it any closer than that. But I think he was definitely not a racist, and Chick cared about people of all races, even Catholics and Communists, who he thought were just misled, and wanted to persuade them to salvation.
I think even if you're not a Christian (and in high school and most of college I rejected that as uncool, and was agnostic for a while if not atheist) but even in those years I enjoyed the occasional Chick Tract. The shock elements and conspiracy elements make them engaging, whether or not they make you walk up to the altar.
I kind of think of Chick as the R.Crumb of Christian evangelism.
