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This article describes some of Chick Publications' better-known tracts, written by Jack Chick.
That Crazy Guy!
There are two versions of the tract that differ slightly in plot: a 1980 version and a 1992 version. * The 1980 version is out of print.
This tract features a mustachioed, sunglasses-wearing lothario, "Craig," who seduces a young lady (Susan "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 unfortunately 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; a blatant lie unless one is discussing seldom-used "lambskin" (actually using sheep intestine) condoms).
In both versions, the doctor witnesses to Suzi, and she is saved from eternal damnation.
This Was Your Life (It's Your Life!)
One famous Chick tract is This Was Your Life *, 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.
This Was Your Life was one of Jack Chick's first tracts, has been in print in one form or another since the early 1960s, and remains Chick Publications' bestselling tract.
The foreign adaptations of This Was Your Life feature variants of the original art, in addition to translated text. One commentary [http://www.fecundity.com/pmagnus/racedtract.html makes light of differences between these versions.
In 2006 Chick released It's Your Life! 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" [http://www.chick.com/newseries.asp?wpc=newseries.asp&wpp=a, created to appeal to African-Americans.
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 a child is sent begging by her father in the pouring rain. When she returns with only a penny, he beats her and kicks her into the street. Her only shelter is a cardboard box. A tract with the words, "Somebody Loves Me" blows into her box. Because she reads it before she dies, she is brought to Heaven by an angel. A modified version of Somebody Loves Me, dubbed Hard Times * series.
In Trust Me *, 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," two days before he dies, he is brought to Heaven by an angel.
Dark Dungeons
One of Chick's most-satirized tracts is Dark Dungeons *, 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 CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were satanic, so the original tract warned readers about these authors *. 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 characters from MST3K respond to the tract. In others, the artwork is largely unchanged, but all of the dialog is replaced. In *," target="_blank" >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? [http://home.flash.net/~manfre/miscellany/devildoll.html simultaneously spoofed Dark Dungeons and several other Chick tracts including The Poor Little Witch, Bad Bob, and Angels?; it 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 some have even translated the comic *. In any case, the tract is considered a cult classic of unintentional humor by those it was intended to convert.
Other tracts
The King of Kings tells major Bible stories in comic form while The Bible Series is a series of (currently) 25 tracts, each depicting a story from the Bible.
The Big Betrayal 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.
Spellbound? is, like both of the above, a full-sized comic. 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 smaller tract making the same claims about Christian rock is Angels? *, in which a Christian rock band is required by their producer, Lou Siffer, 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.
The Last Generation and The Beast [http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0007/0007_01.asp 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.
Two Chick tracts, The Slugger and The Superstar, are nearly identical except for the main characters. Both feature a rich athletic superstar, who discovers he has terminal cancer, and 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 Death Cookie is an anti-Catholic Church tract. 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. *
The Mad Machine * 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 * 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!"
The cover of Who Cares? * shows an airplane about to crash into the World Trade Center on 9/11. The tract shows a Christian helping a Muslim store owner who was beaten up after 9/11. The store owner asks "why are you helping me, you're not my Muslim brother?" The Christian responds by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan and leads the Muslim to accept Jesus.
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.
Anti-Catholicism | Christian fundamentalism | creationism | LGBT rights opposition | King-James-Only Movement
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