This Was Your Life, Jack Chick!

Personal feelings and biases aside, I can't help but feel bad about Jack Chick dying last week. He was 92 years old and was an instrumental figure (Pat Robertson and his 700 Club aside) for much of the religious right gaining traction within the United States. He became a Christian shortly after he got married and used his talents as a cartoonist to try and win as many souls as he could to Jesus Christ with little gospel tracts that can be passed out to anyone or left anonymously at the strangest of places.

I grew up reading those weird tracts due to my grandparents being religious and me reading every comic book I could find and as I got older I saw them as underground cartoon art. These tracts are misguided and hateful (several countries, including Canada, have even banned them for being hate literature!), but they're weirdly fascinating to read what kind of insanity that floated around Jack Chick's narrow mind. Even to the day of his death, Jack Chick never stopped drawing comics about Hell and Jesuit conspiracies. The man did a lot more harm than he did good, in spite of his calling of spreading the word of Christ. Still, I'm going to miss looking forward to the bi-monthly dose of insanity that would pop up on his website.

Please pass this online tract around as if it were the real thing. It's not gonna win your soul, but I hope I'll win at least a laugh or two.

-ray n. (@themistern)