Ship of Fools: Jack Chick - What surprises are in store? (RIP)

Thread: Jack Chick - What surprises are in store? (RIP) Board: Hell / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Siegfried (# 29) on :

So, Jack Chick, cartoonist and purveyor of truly horrifying tracts, has gone to meet his maker. This man popularized the "magic words" approach to salvation, pushed an anti-Catholic, anti-semitic perspective of Christianity that was truly abhorrent. What do you think his biggest shock was upon meeting his Maker?

Posted by fletcher christian (# 13919) on :

Would Jack recognise God?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:
What do you think his biggest shock was upon meeting his Maker?

Not meeting his Maker?

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

That God is infinitely more gracious, loving, forgiving, understanding, and merciful than he ever imagined.

And that God will find a way to put his talents to better use. Perhaps a Chic booklet that's an intro to Heaven, stressing the above. If someone is familiar with his tracts and has beliefs similar to their content, a Chic intro booklet might help the person settle in.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

I just had this lovely image of Jesus jumping out of a massive cake which has "Jews are fantastic" piped in icing on the top and wearing a rainbow pride type t-shirt shouting "surprise!"

And poor old Jack disintegrating into a pile of shame.

Posted by Callan (# 525) on :

Meeting St. Peter.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:

quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:
What do you think his biggest shock was upon meeting his Maker?
Not meeting his Maker?

Chick will meet his Maker. Whether he recognises Him is another matter and who is to say what his Maker will do with him?

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

(Jack approaches the Pearly Gates, hears the faint strains of Ave Maria emanating from the cloudy yonders.)

JACK: Awww...shit.

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
pushed an anti-Catholic, anti-semitic perspective of Christianity

His views on Jews would be more accurately termed philo-semtitic than anti-semitic, ie. He honoured Jews as the Chosen People, but thought they all needed to accept Christ or be damned.

And, actually, those views weren't all that far removed from mainstream(well, everything's relative) Christian Zionism. Though it did often veer into somewhat problematic territory. One supposedly pro-Jewish tract was called Support Your Local Jew(pretty obvious overtones), and was later changed to the less inflammatory Love The Jewish People.

His anti-Catholicism was largely a re-hasing of nativist and Know-Nothing propaganda from the 19th Century, along with the stuff he picked up from Alberta Rivera(some of which also copied the nativist stuff).

Posted by Siegfried (# 29) on :

I was thinking more of The Passover Plot.

[ 24. October 2016, 20:42: Message edited by: Siegfried ]

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

The Chick.com domain is probably taking some very heavy traffic at the moment, because that was painfully slow to load.

Hopefully, the site will get to pay a vast amount to their providers in traffic fees over the next few days. That'd be a fitting legacy for Chick's tawdry little rags.

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
The Chick.com domain is probably taking some very heavy traffic at the moment, because that was painfully slow to load.

Hopefully, the site will get to pay a vast amount to their providers in traffic fees over the next few days. That'd be a fitting legacy for Chick's tawdry little rags.

Here's a link to most of Chick's full-length colour comic books, dating mostly from the 1970s and drawn by the genuinely gifted Fred Carter.

Spellbound and The Broken Cross are my personal favourites, though it's rather unpleasant to think about the role they likely played in fueling the Satanic Panic in the late 80s to early 90s.

[ 24. October 2016, 21:00: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

At least he'll now know what Our Lord actually looks like..

IJ

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

Tried to get on and read spellbound but the site seems overused. No matter.

As to the question, i agree with Golden Key.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:

quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:
What do you think his biggest shock was upon meeting his Maker?
Not meeting his Maker?

Meeting his own self.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Here's the Wikipedia article on Jack Chick. He seems to have lived wayyyy under the radar, but there are some personal details. His wife nudged him towards Jesus, before they married--and they were married for 50 years. Other things--including Chinese propaganda!--nudged him towards doing his little tracts. Etc.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

Seeing everyone else invited to the party.

Of course he may just huddle in the kitchen at the breakfast bar with Fred Phelps nursing soda water and nibbling Ritz crackers while everyone else is whooping it up and doing the conga through the pearly gates chugging this great vino provided by the Boss and his Mom.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
At least he'll now know what Our Lord actually looks like..

IJ

My first thought, given that huge faceless white figure he usually depicted.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Lyda--

FWIW: Fred Phelps began changing, before he died, so he might be out dancing with everyone else. Unless he wants to give Jack Chick some help.
[Cool]

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

He will probably be surprised to see Our Lady seated on the steps of the Throne and leading the prayers and hymns of praise.

Posted by Erroneous Monk (# 10858) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
I just had this lovely image of Jesus jumping out of a massive cake which has "Jews are fantastic" piped in icing on the top and wearing a rainbow pride type t-shirt shouting "surprise!"

Sometimes seems like there's not much to smile about these days, but this did it for me.

[Big Grin]

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Erroneous Monk:

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
I just had this lovely image of Jesus jumping out of a massive cake which has "Jews are fantastic" piped in icing on the top and wearing a rainbow pride type t-shirt shouting "surprise!"

Sometimes seems like there's not much to smile about these days, but this did it for me.

And then offering to introduce Jack to his mum ...

Tubbs

Posted by Robert Armin (# 182) on :

Seeing that Heaven is full of gays?

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

..and Catholics as well (with maybe a Pope or several...) [Two face]

Posted by Callan (# 525) on :

In one of Chick's Tracts he suggests the faithful should ensure that they read all the Bible on the grounds that it would be dead embarrassing in the life to come, if one should bump into the Prophet Habbakuk and have to confess that one had never read his book.

"Jack Chick! Welcome to heaven! I'm the Prophet Habbakuk!
"Great! I must have read your book half a dozen times. It has been a real inspiration!"
"You're too kind. Anyway, come over and meet St. Ignatius Loyola".

Posted by Mere Nick (# 11827) on :

While having a belief is one thing, not being hat in hand about it is another. Thinking of Job and Matthew 7:2, the idea of standing in front of God after spending life as a hard case, along with how difficult it was even for Job, a righteous man, to answer questions from God, I get more than a little hinky.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Callan:
In one of Chick's Tracts he suggests the faithful should ensure that they read all the Bible on the grounds that it would be dead embarrassing in the life to come, if one should bump into the Prophet Habbakuk and have to confess that one had never read his book.

"Jack Chick! Welcome to heaven! I'm the Prophet Habbakuk!
"Great! I must have read your book half a dozen times. It has been a real inspiration!"
"You're too kind. Anyway, come over and meet St. Ignatius Loyola".

Oh, God. I was about nine when I first read that, and I totally scampered away to read the book of Habbakuk.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

[Killing me]

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

Loyola? Isn't that guy, well, CATHOLIC?! In heaven?!! What about the Death Cookie? [Eek!]

[ 25. October 2016, 19:12: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

...and who knows? He might even come across some Muslims... [Eek!]

Posted by chris stiles (# 12641) on :

The barthsnotes blog entry on his death links to a number of stories that may be of interest given the direction of this thread:

http://barthsnotes.com/2016/10/25/jack-chick-the-worlds-most-published-author-has-died/

As would this document:

http://www.culthelp.info/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1091

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

I have an image in my head of his giant faceless Jesus surrounded by bunting, wearing a silly hat and holding a glass of champagne.

‘Welcome to the party Jack.’

Posted by Beeswax Altar (# 11644) on :

The last Fundamentalist has died.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

No - there are thousands left (behind).

Posted by Beeswax Altar (# 11644) on :

Jack Chick was a bona fide fundamentalist as the term was originally defined. The term fundamentalist now means nothing more than a conservative evangelical. Chick was the real deal. Sure, people who believe what Chick believed are still out there but they aren't as influential as Jack Chick. Jack Chick was a legend.

Posted by Siegfried (# 29) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
Jack Chick was a legend.

He brought more ridicule to Christianity and likely turned many away with his overly simplistic view. His tracts are regarded with a mixture of derision and disdain/disgust by probably the majority of people--Christians included.
His bigotry was blatant, as in the aforementioned Death Cookie.

[ 26. October 2016, 17:08: Message edited by: Siegfried ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

One big surprise for him in Heaven might be to realise that no-one there had been 'converted' by his tracts...

Has anyone ever taken them seriously ? (Apart from Chick himself, of course.)

IJ

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
One big surprise for him in Heaven might be to realise that no-one there had been 'converted' by his tracts...

Has anyone ever taken them seriously ? (Apart from Chick himself, of course.)

IJ

Well, keep in mind that his organization SELLS the tracts for money, to people who use them for evangelical purposes. If they were of absolutely no value whatsoever, I'd imagine the market for them would have cratered a long time ago.

As much as the more cerebral Christians on SOF etc may be loathe to admit it, a certain percentage of converts and native-born Christians do find threats of hellfire and damnation to be convincing arguments for conversion. And even the supposedly outlandish anti-Catholicsm is, to a large extent, just a re-hash of stuff like The Two Babylons and Babylon Mystery Religion, which I know at least some Christians consider credible.

Posted by Beeswax Altar (# 11644) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:

quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
Jack Chick was a legend.
He brought more ridicule to Christianity and likely turned many away with his overly simplistic view. His tracts are regarded with a mixture of derision and disdain/disgust by probably the majority of people--Christians included.
His bigotry was blatant, as in the aforementioned Death Cookie.

All true but he's still a legend. The over the top Anti-Catholic bigotry just isn't a part of conservative Protestantism like it used to be. It's one of the reasons I said he was the last Fundamentalist. For that kind of bigotry, you have to read secular authors like Dan Brown.

Chick's nonsense caused a moral panic among Christians. The moral panic led to parents being overbearing out of fear. The fearful parenting ruined relationships between parents and children. I know. I lived through it. Still, I doubt most of the panicked parents knew that all of their fears were based on the conspiracy theories of a reclusive cartoonist. Chick was every bit as influential as the revivalists in their tents or the preachers first on the radio and then television. For that, Chick was a legend.

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

YouTube has a lot of dramatizations, parodies and pastiches of Chick videos.

A dramatization The Broken Cross, with fairly good production values.

Though you kind of wonder how this group of Satanists has managed to stay out of trouble for so long.

MEMO

TO: Pastor Cooley

FR: Mayor Samuels

RE: Indiscreet ritual participants

____________________________________

Cooley, I know you're a very liberal pastor, but can you please stop bringing homeless drug- addicts to the Witches Sabbath? That guy eating fingers out on the highway almost blew our cover. Thanks.

[ 26. October 2016, 20:46: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Well, I stand corrected. I had forgotten the $$$ aspect of Chick's 'work', but it's sad to think that anyone actually takes his junk seriously.

Maybe he isn't in Heaven after all, but enjoying the hospitality of the boiler room... [Votive]

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Callan:
In one of Chick's Tracts he suggests the faithful should ensure that they read all the Bible on the grounds that it would be dead embarrassing in the life to come, if one should bump into the Prophet Habbakuk and have to confess that one had never read his book.

D'you know, I think that in isolation that's actually quite charming.

[ 26. October 2016, 21:59: Message edited by: Albertus ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

At least one wouldn't be alone in not being familiar with the minor prophets. Anyone for an in-depth study of Nahum and/or Obadiah, before it's too late?

IJ

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
At least one wouldn't be alone in not being familiar with the minor prophets. Anyone for an in-depth study of Nahum and/or Obadiah, before it's too late?

IJ

Well, you know which board can host such a discussion, and it's a fine idea to boot.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
One big surprise for him in Heaven might be to realise that no-one there had been 'converted' by his tracts...

Has anyone ever taken them seriously ? (Apart from Chick himself, of course.)

IJ
Well, keep in mind that his organization SELLS the tracts for money, to people who use them for evangelical purposes. If they were of absolutely no value whatsoever, I'd imagine the market for them would have cratered a long time ago.

As much as the more cerebral Christians on SOF etc may be loathe to admit it, a certain percentage of converts and native-born Christians do find threats of hellfire and damnation to be convincing arguments for conversion. And even the supposedly outlandish anti-Catholicsm is, to a large extent, just a re-hash of stuff like The Two Babylons and Babylon Mystery Religion, which I know at least some Christians consider credible.

--ISTM that, if hellfire and damnation are real, it's entirely reasonable to try to avoid them. Same with trying to avoid the bad happenings in Revelation.

--Some of the anti-Catholicism may be fall-out from Fr. Coughlin. (PBS) He wound up sounding rather like Sen. McCarthy, gone apoplectic during the Congressional investigation during the investigation of "Un-American Activities".

--Lots of people have taken his little tracts seriously. (Don't know about his other work. I don't think I'd heard of it until he died.) And I wouldn't be surprised if they "led someone to Christ".

--At my fundamentalist childhood church, the tracts had cautious semi-approval; but people did use them. I think maybe the objections had to do with points of doctrine.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
At least one wouldn't be alone in not being familiar with the minor prophets. Anyone for an in-depth study of Nahum and/or Obadiah, before it's too late?

IJ

All those poor fuckers probably have formed a support group.

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
--Some of the anti-Catholicism may be fall-out from Fr. Coughlin. (PBS) He wound up sounding rather like Sen. McCarthy, gone apoplectic during the Congressional investigation during the investigation of "Un-American Activities".

Actually, a lot of Chick's anti-RC stuff is taken from Charles Chiniquy and Maria Monk, 19th century sensationalisrs who had their respective heydays lone before Father Coughline was ever heard of(Chiniquy claimed to have met Abraham Lincoln, to show you how far back he goes).

Chiniquy and Monk were basically the 19th Century equivalent of the people back in the late 80s who showed up on talk-shows claiming to have eaten babies for Satan.

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:

quote:
--Some of the anti-Catholicism may be fall-out from Fr. Coughlin. (PBS) He wound up sounding rather like Sen. McCarthy, gone apoplectic during the Congressional investigation during the investigation of "Un-American Activities".

Actually, a lot of Chick's anti-RC stuff is taken from Charles Chiniquy and Maria Monk, 19th century sensationalisrs who had their respective heydays lone before Father Coughline was ever heard of(Chiniquy claimed to have met Abraham Lincoln, to show you how far back he goes).

Chiniquy and Monk were basically the 19th Century equivalent of the people back in the late 80s who showed up on talk-shows claiming to have eaten babies for Satan.

Well, that rings some bells. My folks had a book by Charles Chiniquy, when I was a kid. I believe its central thesis was that Lincoln was murdered at the behest of the Jesuits, or some such thing. My dad also had a friend who was big into Chick tracts and used to hand them out like candy. I remember thinking at some point: I'm only eleven years old, but these seem ridiculous, and you seem lame. What am I missing here? Thirty years later:- on that subject at least, not much.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Surely the biggest surprise for these people will be if they meet God at all: the second will be to discover that she is black and gay.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

L'organist--

I used to hope that God would present Herself to just-deceased Fred Phelps as a beautiful drag queen--just long enough to make a point.

[ 27. October 2016, 09:44: Message edited by: Golden Key ]

Posted by Mertseger (# 4534) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
L'organist--

I used to hope that God would present Herself to just-deceased Fred Phelps as a beautiful drag queen--just long enough to make a point.

So several millennia, then.

Chick did, at least, give his approval for the production of Dark Dungeons which is utterly hilarious (and surprisingly faithful to the original tract) and makes me want to see anything with Anastasia Higham.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Mertseger--

Though Fred did start changing before he died. IIRC, there was some kind of LGBT organization across from his home, and he got to know people a bit. He started accepting them.

Which got me to drop my fantasy of how he'd meet God. He was already beginning to get the point.

FWIW. Good to see you. [Smile]

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mertseger:

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
L'organist--

I used to hope that God would present Herself to just-deceased Fred Phelps as a beautiful drag queen--just long enough to make a point.
So several millennia, then.

Chick did, at least, give his approval for the production of Dark Dungeons which is utterly hilarious (and surprisingly faithful to the original tract) and makes me want to see anything with Anastasia Higham.

Here is a live action version of Big Daddy, the anti-evolution tract, which follows the original very closely(both visually and dialogue-wise), and is quite professionally made.

Hard to tell whether it's meant ironically or not. Going by the guy's other videos, I'd wager he's not a fundamentalist. My guess is that the video was made as a film-school project or something.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I met cartoonist Dan Clowes once, and got in a weird chat with him about how Chick impacted his artwork. Clowes had done a couple tract parodies in his comic. Despite the cringe worthy subject matter, there is something arresting about the way Chick and his cronies use the comic book medium that other artists have sought to duplicate. Maybe the film short is another indication of Chick's artistic impact.

(Somewhere in my stuff I have a first edition copy of Eightball #1 with Clowes' signature and "I [heart] Jack Chick" scribbled on it.)

Posted by Siegfried (# 29) on :

The style of Chick tracts is an awful lot like the old "Tijuana Bibles", when you come right down to it... (don't google Tijuana Bible at work).

Posted by Robert Armin (# 182) on :

Why should the Devil have all the best Bibles?

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

(Fistbumps Robert.)

Posted by Robert Armin (# 182) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
(Fistbumps Robert.)

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