Cartoon startup panic3/27/2023 ![]() ![]() It’s this maddening vigor, this absurdity which can’t quite be dismissed, that has made Chick a mainstay where other entrepreneurial zealots of literature have come and gone. It’s a vision of justice filtered through the eyes of one man convinced of his righteousness, Dante’s Inferno as written by the Burger King. It’s the fervor of a man who found God in the chaos of the Second World War - Chick found Christ over the radio while touring New Guinea 1 and Okinawa. Chick tracts communicate their message with the efficiency of a bullet train and the subtlety of a bomb threat, every square inch packed with information and terror. ![]() ![]() ![]() All there can be is sin and salvation, witches and good little boys.Ĭhick’s stories are brutal, not only in their punishments but in their clarity. Chick, there is no mercy other than that of Jesus, none. We are told by a wise mother that this gruesome fate can only be avoided through acceptance of “God’s love gift - Jesus Christ.” In the world of Jack T. The kids flee, only for one to die by random car accident and burn in that hell for all eternity. This scene of literal hell combines the gaudy humor of American pop culture circa-Boris Karloff with the real satanic panic such kitsch tends to mask, the vaguely incoherent scribble-shading suggesting unseen evils in the periphery. The strip opens with some all-american, sweater-clad, ethnically ambiguous kids straight outta the Magic Schoolbus wandering into a HAUNTED HOUSE, given a few good spooks - all in good fun, right? - until a cauldron stirring witch deposits them in hell (pictured above). Yet at the time of his passing, I think it’s a good moment to acknowledge Chick’s commendable qualities, a prolific, imaginative and remarkable pioneer in self-published comics.Ĭonsider the anti-witchcraft tract “Happy Halloween,” not as iconic as “This Was Your Life” or “Somebody Goofed” (the latter being definitive proof that you should never trust a hipster) but a classic nonetheless. Chick’s work is vulgar hate speech, albeit of an enterprising nature that could only come out of late capitalist America. Chick, the writer, frequent artist and publisher of the tracts, has generally not been treated as the loss of a great artist. most of us), so it’s understandable that the recent death of Jack T. Over the years, these comic tracts have attracted mockery and sarcastic disdain from the skeptical readers (i.e. Targets of the Chick tract’s scorn have ranged over the years from homosexuality to Catholics to climate change to Dungeons and Dragons, harsh invectives inconspicuously left on park benches and bus seats by believers. These little pamphlets are the physical embodiment of American evangelical movements, audaciously insisting the reader will burn in hell unless they accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior, presented with jittery, vividly literal cartoon imagery. Chick tracts are short, punchy religious comics in a rectangular format, notable for their vitriol and hardline stance on the power of conversion. The phrase “Chick tract” may not immediately conjure up an image for all of you, but I’m sure most of you know what they are - like much quintessential Americana, the sight of a Chick tract conjures up strong associations regardless of our prior knowledge. ![]()
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