Chick Publications tracts
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This article describes some of Chick Publications' better-known tracts and other publications, written by Jack Chick. All of Chick Publications' current tracts are available for free viewing on the Chick Publication website. Some tracts are currently out of regular printing, but Chick Publications will print them if requested provided a minimum order of 10,000 is placed.
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[edit] This Was Your Life (It's Your Life!)
One of Jack Chick's earliest (circa 1960's) and best known tracts (and his best selling one) is This Was Your Life [1], a tract about a man who dies and is judged by God. The man had lived a good life, but claimed that he didn't need Christ. On Judgment Day, the man watches his life being revealed before God. The man is shown scenes of himself leering at women, telling dirty jokes, not listening to his pastor's sermon and committing other sins. God then condems the man to Hell in dramatic style.
The foreign adaptations of This Was Your Life [2] feature variants of the original art, in addition to translated text. One commentary [3] makes light of differences between these versions.
In 2006 Chick released It's Your Life! [4], an updated version of This Was Your Life in English but with art based on the African language versions of the tract. This is a part of Chick's "Black Tracts" series [5], created to appeal to African-Americans.
Although it has been parodied [6], there are not as many parodies of this tract as of Dark Dungeons.
[edit] That Crazy Guy!
There are two versions of the tract that differ slightly in plot: a 1980 version and a 1992 version. [7] The 1980 version is out of print.
This tract features a mustachioed, sunglasses-wearing lothario, "Craig", who seduces a young lady (Susan, or "Suzi") into premarital sex in his convertible. (The convertible's custom license plate reads "LOVER", with a frame that reads "do it in the dirt".)
An accessory to this seduction is an older, unmarried woman ("Ms. Damien") who advises Suzi to take the Pill.
Afterward, Suzi is repelled when Craig calls her by the name of another girl. Suzi is relieved to find she is not pregnant, but she has contracted a sexually transmitted disease, and Ms. Damien uses Lysol to sterilize the victim's chair.
A physician appears and notifies Suzi that she has contracted a STD. The particular STD depends on the version – in the 1980 version, it is herpes, while in the 1992 version, it is gonorrhoea. In the 1992 version, he then informs the victim that she also has AIDS and notes that condoms are porous (intended to denounce popular "safe sex" teachings based on Chick's view that condoms do not provide adequate protection).
In both versions, the doctor witnesses to Suzi, and she is saved from eternal damnation.
[edit] Somebody Loves Me (Hard Times) and Trust Me
A pair of tracts, Somebody Loves Me and Trust Me tell very similar stories with few, if any, words.
In Somebody Loves Me [8], a child is sent begging by his (implied alcoholic) father in the pouring rain (an older version features a young girl). When he returns with only a penny, he beats him and kicks him into the street. His only shelter is a cardboard box he manages to find. A tract with the words, "Some Body Loves You" blows into the box. Because he reads it before he dies (and, by implication, trusts in Christ as Savior), he is brought to Heaven by an angel.
A modified version of Somebody Loves Me, dubbed Hard Times [9], replaces the Anglo character with an African-American character as a part of Chick's "Black Tracts" [10] series.
In Trust Me [11], a young boy comes across a group that seems to be a mixture of Satanists, hippies, and bikers. He takes a pill offered by one, and gets high. Three days later, he's stealing televisions to support his habit. A day later, he's selling drugs in parks. Soon, an undercover policeman catches him in a sting, he is sentenced to prison, and he is raped. Three months later, he is dying of AIDS. But, because he reads a tract with the words, "Jesus Loves You," and accepts Jesus Christ as his lord and savior, after he dies he is brought to Heaven by an angel.
[edit] Dark Dungeons
One of Chick's most-satirized tracts is Dark Dungeons [12], which depicts a group of teenagers playing Dungeons & Dragons.
When one player's character dies, the other player tells her: "Marcie, get out of here! YOU'RE DEAD! You don't exist anymore." The game master then tells the surviving player that she will teach her how to cast real spells. The reader then sees a hidden underworld of dark sorcerers; Debbie starts casting real spells and with these magical powers is able to exert mind control over her father. This is followed by Marcie committing suicide because her character died. The game master tells Debbie that the game and her character are more important than real life. An evangelical, who looks like a 1950s wholesome athletic high school student, comforts Debbie, telling her that in fact, it is Jesus who is most important. After going to a church meeting, Debbie eagerly converts and attends a book burning of D&D-related materials, at which the preacher calls the game "filth of Satan" and possessed of "demonic forces."
Chick had been told by John Todd that C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, both noted christians, were satanic, so the original tract warned readers about these authors [13]. These admonitions are removed from the version of the tract published on Chick's website.
There are many parodies of the Dark Dungeons tract. In one [14], characters from MST3K respond to the tract. In others, the artwork is largely unchanged, but all of the dialog is replaced. In [15], for example, the characters are rewritten as the psychotically devoted partisans of various popular-music styles. In [16], the gamers face the evil of (Dungeons and Dragons publisher) Wizards of the Coast and the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The tract Devil Doll? by Dan Clowes, which was originally published in Eightball #1 [17], simultaneously spoofed Dark Dungeons and several other Chick tracts including The Poor Little Witch, Bad Bob, and Angels?; an apparently unauthorized reprint was included as an insert in the Jello Biafra album Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police.
In fact, while Jack Chick has never translated Dark Dungeons into another language [18], some have even translated the comic [19] for the sole purpose of creating a foreign-language parody.[20]. In any case, the tract is considered a cult classic of unintentional humor by those it was intended to convert. Owning the pamphlet is considered a sign of distinction among committed roleplayers.
[edit] The Bible Series
The Bible Series is a series of 25 tracts, each depicting or featuring a passage (based on Chick's interpretation) from the Bible:
- In The Beginning [21]--Creation and the Fall of Man
- It's Coming![22]--Noah's Flood
- Sin City[23]--Sodom and Gomorrah
- The Promise[24]--Abraham and Isaac
- The Big Deal[25]--Jacob and Esau
- Framed![26]--Joseph
- It's The Law[27]--Moses and the Ten Commandments
- The Outcast[28]--Rahab and the fall of Jericho
- The Scam[29]--Joshua and the Gibeonites
- The Loser[30]--Gideon
- The Last Judge[31]--Samuel
- The Nervous Witch[32]--King Saul and the witch at Endor
- Caught![33]--David and Bathsheba
- Payback[34]--Ahab and Jezebel and the vineyard of Naboth
- Real Heat[35]--Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace
- The Monster[36]--King Nebuchadnezzar
- Gladys[37]--Isaiah's prophecies of Jesus Christ
- God With Us[38]--The birth of Jesus Christ
- Fallen[39]--The Parable of the Prodigal Son
- Who Cares[40]--The Parable of the Good Samaritan. The cover shows an airplane about to crash into the World Trade Center on 9/11, and features a Christian helping a Muslim store owner who was beaten up after 9/11.
- Scream[41]--The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man
- Good Ol' Boys[42]--Peter's denial of Christ
- Man In Black[43]--Revelation 17 & 18, told from Chick's viewpoint that the "Whore of Babylon" is the Roman Catholic Church
- Who's Missing?[44]--The Rapture
- Here He Comes![45]--The Beast, the Return of Christ, and the Judgement
[edit] Anti-Halloween Tracts
Chick opposes Christians celebrating Halloween, and several of his tracts purport to tell a link between Halloween and Satanism. Among them are Boo! [46] and Happy Halloween [47].
[edit] The Little Princess
However, Chick believes that Christians can take the opportunity to witness to candy-seeking children by providing gospel tracts (preferably his) along with the treats. Chick features this opportunity in The Little Princess [48], which departs from Chick's normal Halloween-bashing.
The story tells of Heidi Spencer, a terminally-ill seven-year-old whose last wish is to go trick-or-treating dressed as a princess (her parents' nickname for her, thus the title). Knowing that she is dying, Heidi also asks what happens after death; her parents state that no one knows.
Heidi's health holds out long enough that she gets her wish. However, she passes out during the route, but begs her brother to visit one last house, that of the Smiths, who are new to the neighborhood. The Smiths place a tract (Chick's Happy Halloween) in her bag along with the candy, but recognize that something is wrong with Heidi and begin to pray for her.
Meanwhile, Heidi reads the tract and accepts Christ as her savior, but wonders about her family. She asks her father to call the Smiths over (which he quickly does, telling them of her condition). She then tells the Smiths what she did, and asks them to tell this story to her family. Remembering her dad's response to her question about the afterlife, Heidi tells her family to listen, and the family accepts Christ as well.
Later that night, Heidi dies and immediately goes to Heaven.
[edit] Tracts opposing Roman Catholicism and other Religious Movements
The Last Generation [49] and The Beast [50] are apocalyptic tracts which warn that Christians will soon face persecution at the hands of a brutal planetary regime installed by the Roman Catholic Church. The original versions of both tracts had a dispensationalist, pre-tribulation rapture view of the end times and did not include any overt anti-Catholic content. The content of both tracts was later changed to reflect Chick's increasing hostility toward the Catholic Church, and in The Beast, to portray the Pope as the antichrist. In The Last Generation, the government actively encourages people to turn in "sickos" (born-again Christians) in exchange for free drugs; the Christians are then tortured.
The Death Cookie [51] is another of Chick's anti-Catholic Church tracts. It portrays the Roman Catholic Mass as a religious system invented by Satan to trick people into worshipping a "cookie" (the communion wafer) as God. Other anti-Catholic tracts or tracts which claim the Pope is the Antichrist include Are Roman Catholics Christians? [52], Is There Another Christ? [53], Last Rites [54], The Only Hope [55] (mentioned in passing), and Why is Mary Crying? [56], as well as Man in Black from The Bible Series mentioned above.
The Big Betrayal [57] is the biography of another ex-Catholic priest named Charles Chiniquy who claimed that the Vatican was behind the American Civil War and Lincoln's assassination. The Big Betrayal is the comic version of Charles Chiniquy's autobiography 50 Years In The Church of Rome.
However, Chick does not limit his criticisms to the Catholics. His tracts also speak against Islam (Allah Had No Son [58], also drawn as Who Is Allah? [59]] for the Black Tracts series), The Little Bride [60], The Deceived [61], The Story Teller [62], and Men of Peace? [63]), Jehovah's Witnesses (The Crisis [64]), Jews (Where's Rabbi Waxman? [65]), Buddhists (The Tycoon [66]), Hinduism (The Traitor [67]), and Mormonism (The Visitors [68]).
In addition, Chick takes aim at ecumenical ministers (Reverend Wonderful [69] and The Chaplain [70]), social gospel missionaries (Flight 144 [71]), and even Christians who oppose tract witnessing (The Letter [72]). Why No Revival? [73] is a montage of various scenes, showing Chick's view of the current state of the Christian church.
[edit] Other Publications
Spellbound? [74] is, like The Big Betrayal, a full-sized comic, one of an 11-volume series titled Crusaders. It is based almost entirely on the claims of John Todd and features him speaking in a church under one of his pseudonyms, Lance Collins. Spellbound? claims that the rock music industry is controlled by organized Satanism and that witches are brought in to cast spells on rock music recordings before they are marketed to the public. The purpose of the spells is allegedly to bring listeners under demonic influence. Christians are warned to burn their rock music albums and that Christian rock is also Satanic.
A tract making the same claims about Christian rock is Angels? [75], in which a Christian rock band is required by their producer, Lew Siffer (a pun on Lucifer), to sign away the rights to their souls in exchange for a record contract and commercial success. The band members find themselves drifting far from their faith and getting involved in drugs and vampirism while their lyrics start running to the likes of "embrace me, love of death". After one of the members contracts AIDS and another dies after collapsing onstage, Tom, one of the members, realizes that he has been had and repents of involvement in rock music.
Two Chick tracts, The Slugger [76] and The Superstar [77], are nearly identical except for the main characters. Both feature a rich athletic superstar, who (after winning a championship and signing new multi-million dollar contract and endorsement) discovers he has terminal cancer. He comes to Christ through his gardener, then leaves his entire estate to the gardener upon his death. The difference is that The Slugger features a baseball player named Frank Stone (likely aimed at the American market), while The Superstar features a soccer player named Roberto Cordoba (presumably aimed at the non-American market, where soccer is more popular).
The Mad Machine [78] features spoofs of economic advisors, group therapy, drug and alcohol treatment, and especially modern psychiatry. It suggests that the only solution to stress and mental illness is to accept Jesus as personal savior.
The Sissy [79] features a tough truck driver and his younger sidekick being led to accept Christ by a Christian truck driver while eating at a truck stop cafe. The tough truck driver calls Jesus a sissy. The Christian truck driver responds with a novel explanation why Jesus said to turn the other cheek: Jesus being God, with "all that power still inside him", would have to turn the other cheek in a fight or else it wouldn't be a fair fight. The conversation ends with both drivers praying to receive Christ. A waitress overhears the conversation and asks if she can accept Christ too. The Chick Publications website advertises this tract as "great for truckers and bikers!"
Recently, Chick has featured two semi-recurring characters in some of his tracts:
- "Li'l Susy" Barnes, an elementary school student (whose parents are deceased and is being raised by her grandfather, whose eyepatch gives him a resemblance to the James Bond villain Emilio Largo) who stands for Christian values in her public school, usually against her teacher, "Ms. Henn", who promotes secular values.
- "Deacon" Carter, an African-American police officer.
