Jack Chick has died

He was 92...hope he was right about all that stuff. If not...HAW HAW!

I just saw this today on AVClub (though their article was from a few days ago). Someone in the comments linked to Chick's "Lisa", which is easily one of the most vile things I have ever read.

I never really understood who this guy was.

Here's who I think he was and how he was 'famous':

* He was a preacher or something maybe
* He made comic strips about the evils of D&D
* People repurposed his strips for parody
* Maybe there was a movie taken from the parody comics

Is that right?

Did he ever have any traction anywhere or was it just the folks making fun of his strips? I mean, I got the impression the lion's share of his viewers were actually gamers themselves.

I could be totally wrong about all of this though. I guess, I never bothered to get into it.

Sorry for his family's loss either way.

Mr. White wrote: I never really understood who this guy was.

Here's who I think he was and how he was 'famous':

* He was a preacher or something maybe
* He made comic strips about the evils of D&D
* People repurposed his strips for parody
* Maybe there was a movie taken from the parody comics

Is that right?

Did he ever have any traction anywhere or was it just the folks making fun of his strips? I mean, I got the impression the lion's share of his viewers were actually gamers themselves.

I could be totally wrong about all of this though. I guess, I never bothered to get into it.

Sorry for his family's loss either way.

.

He really only had the one comic about D&D and had several others that were about something from pop culture that wildly missed the target.

The vast majority of his work was extremely hateful things targeted against Catholics, Muslims, homosexuals, etc. It was a very similar worldview to the Westboro Baptist Church.

He was one of those American anomalies. You'd find the comics here and there when you were a kid, read them, and think "wow, this shit is messed up." He kind of created this ultra paranoid, hateful world of death worship out of Christianity, but what made it all so funny is how he would tackle pop culture, trends and everything through this totally fucked up, puritanical worldview. This is a dude that believed in fire pits and horned demons with pitchforks. His version of hell is sort of like what they would show on Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes.

As comics, they are definitely a curiosity and he worked with various other illustrators, some of them quite competent.

But yeah, he tackled D&D ("Dark Dungeons"), he did a blaxploitation thing, tackled homosexuality ("The Sissy"), did one about how Christian rock was just as Satanic as secular rock, one about how the Pope is the antichrist, another about how Islam is this ancient moon worship cult...some of it is just hilarious, weird and completely disconnected from reality. Usually someone literally gets thrown into hell. Demons say "HAW HAW!" For some reason.

There is some interesting stuff about him...apparently he had planned this epic length animated film for decades, supposedly the footage that exists of it is just insane. He worked up until he was like 85 or something like that.

But yes, this stuff is supremely hateful, ignorant stuff at its core. Obsessed with death, every kind of -ist you can think of, and full of lies.

So..this Dark Dungeons movie isnt a parody of his work, but is the same dialogue as his original strips?

Folks didn't do these comics up MST3000 style?

This sums it up well.

thenib.com/jack-chick-goes-to-heaven?t=recent

The killer line points out that he disseminated propaganda that damaged the lives of tons of children trapped in homes with fundamentalist parents. That's what he did. He's funny to laugh at when your parents aren't trying to beat your gayness away.

I remeber going to baptist Sunday school when I was a kid.
Chic tracts were passed out like candy. I bought into them for a short time. Luckily, I had a grandpa who saw past the bullshit and didn't buy into crazy or allow me or my sis to continue attending such a mess.

I'm glad he's gone, but his poison has a legacy we are feeling today.

I remember when my friends and I quit playing D&D and started worshiping the devil. Oh wait.

Clearly he was more than someone with stubborn ideas that folks goofed on.

Guess I really didn't follow.

Jack Chick has earned a kind of begrudging respect from many of his comic peers. Mostly due to his incredible DIY aesthetic. He made tons of shit and did it for a very long time. Possibly one of the most prolific comic artists of all time. He's almost like a Bosch type figure to me where his idea's on religion became fantasy to me.

I realize there is a certain danger to that, because his stuff has been used for some pretty vile purposes and he has genuinely harmed people. Yet taken as a wacko you can just read for enjoyment if you're already a mature human already it almost seems like satire. This stuff should not be read by kids.

Apparently in his early days he was pretty wild and his friends say he was the last one they would attempt to convert. He hated churches for some reason and thought he was bringing Christianity back to where Jesus was. He ended up working what was essentially fiction from a warped mind that believed in it. He had a version of mythology that came from a twisted notion of American Fundamentalist Christianity. It felt like a fantasy world unto itself.

Of course none of it was really well done, but it had an outsider art appeal to it that is kind of fascinating. Sort of studying of the human brain and where it can go. I guess the worst thing about all of this is that the vileness of it is part of the appeal in way because that's a big part of what makes it so unique. I've never met anyone who had to read it seriously so I've been left somewhat immune to being as disgusted by him as I should be.

When I first heard this my reaction was "mixed feelings" because for me he was a crank who made tons of these weirdo fringe comics that were fascinating in their oddness. But when I saw other peoples' reactions I realized that, as a straight white guy who didn't himself buy into his own Catholic upbringing and wasn't in or around any evangelical subculture, the comics were harmless goofery to me. They were just kitschy nonsense. But for many, many others, they did real and lasting harm. They were common ammunition used against them from a young age, and there was no room for "lol, Jack Chick" for them. So basically fuck that guy.

I wouldn't put too much stock into Chick Tracts having any kind of real impact on anyone...even for evangelicals, I think some of Chick's extreme viewpoints were likely off-putting and obnoxious. The Bible itself has damaged more live and led more people to grief than a Chick Tract ever did.

What's important to keep in perspective is that It's really pretty fringe stuff...his most widely distributed pamphlet ("This Was Your Life") was one that was pretty much just a basic "accept Jesus or go to hell" message. The others were much less common. But they are also weirder. If you can't laugh at this bizarro Christian paranoia where there is a Satanic conspiracy behind everything...we have different senses of humor I guess.

But it is important too to remember that these are essentially hate speech, so in a way it is like finding a Klan pamphlet or something like that expressing outrageously ignorant, practically fantasy beliefs.

I used to find them all the time. I tried on a pair of pants once and there was one in the pocket.

Dark Dungeons is a masterpiece...they go from a panel playing D&D to a full on black mass. Of course the handsome, moustachioed man of God shows up to tell everyone how what they are doing is Satanic and it literally ends with a book burning.

Back in the mid 1990s, I actually wrote a screenplay for a film of it before those jokers did...we got as far as rehearsing it, but life stuff happened and I never got to make it.

Yeah, that Lisa one is fucked up beyond all hope of redemption.

I'm sorry he died, but I'm sorrier he didn't lose the use of his hands early on. And even sorrier that people buy into his hateful bullshit.

I came across that "This is Your Life" Chick Tract when I was very young and impressionable, and it scared the crap out of me. I was at that age where you believe everything you read. I won't say it "messed me up for life," but it did cause quite a bit of anguish. Eventually I got distracted by all the fun things you can do by just running around outside with your friends, but it put unreasonable fear, dread, and guilt into me that probably lasted in my subconscious for years. But then again, a lot of religions can do that.

Many years later when I stumbled across them, I could laugh at their wackado nature from a more mature perspective. I did always admire their format. I'm surprised no other comic artists tried that easily-distributable pocket-sized book.