Jack Chick

Jack Thomas Chick (born April 13, 1924) of Chick Publications is a U.S. comic book artist and publisher. Chick is known for his controversial comic-style tracts, known as Chick Tracts, as well as for larger comic books for the purpose of Protestant evangelism from a fundamentalist point of view. Chick is an Independent Baptist, a premillennial dispensationalist, and a follower of the King-James-Only Movement. He opposes abortion, Harry Potter, rock music, Roman Catholicism,^[1] Islam,^[2] modern-day Judaism,^[3] homosexuality,^[4] Mormonism,^[5] Jehovah's Witnesses,^[6] evolutionary science,^[7] and Freemasonry.^[8]

History

Chick was born the first of two children of commercial artist Thomas Chick (1903–1973) and his wife Pauline (1903–1991), in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California.^[9][10][11] He experienced health problems as a child. The family later moved to Alhambra where Chick was active in the high school drama club. After his graduation he continued his education in this area at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theater on a two-year scholarship. During World War II and his first year at the Playhouse, eighteen-year-old Chick enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army on February 1, 1943, and served in the Pacific theater.^[12] After the war he returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and met his wife while working on a production there. His wife, the former Lola Lynn Priddle, a Canadian immigrant,^[13] came from a family that held highly fundamental Christian beliefs, and Chick's current religious beliefs can probably be traced to their influence. It was Lola's mother who converted Chick to Fundamentalist Christianity. Chick also counts Rev. Charles E. Fuller as a major influence. In the 1950s, previous to Chick's publication of comic tracts, the producers of the Christian radio drama series Unshackled! put out comic book versions of some episodes. Chick is said to have drawn much influence from these. Chick said in an interview that he got the idea to draw cartoon tracts from the Communist Party of China, which handed out cartoon tracts explaining its philosophy to peasants. After marrying, he began working at the AstroScience Corporation in El Monte, California, and began an evangelistic hobby, self-publishing his first tract, "Why No Revival?". Chick founded his own company (originally based in his kitchen) soon afterward.

Personal

Chick lives a reclusive life; he has given only one interview since 1975 (to documentary filmmaker Scoobie Davis in 2004).^[14] His reclusiveness created speculation for a time that he never even existed except as a nom-de-plume for an unnamed author or authors. Several audio cassettes of his preaching distributed to his subscribers purport to contain his voice. He and his wife Lola had one child, a daughter.^[15] Lola died in 1998; he has since remarried. In the 1970s, Chick hired artist Fred Carter to help him with his work, and Carter has drawn many of Chick's tracts. Carter originally worked anonymously for Chick, creating much speculation among Chick's fans as to the identity of his "good artist." Chick revealed Carter's involvement in a 1980 issue of his newsletter Battle Cry. He collaborated again with Carter on the film, The Light of the World, presenting the Bible in oil paintings by Carter. Little is known about Chick, and he has never released a photograph of himself for publication. Catholic Answers apologist Jimmy Akin's Blog has a drawing of him and a high school photograph.^[16] At the 2003 screening of Jack Chick's film, Light of the World, Jimmy Akin exchanged a brief dialogue with Jack Chick.^[17] It was from this meeting that Akin produced his sketch (seen above). Akin reported that Jack Chick seemed polite and charming, though Chick did refer to himself as being "in the war" with Akin. Chick casually mentioned that the Vatican had copies of "all my stuff," and that the Pope personally viewed his work. A photograph taken of Chick in summer 2006 can be found at Jimmy Akin's weblog. Chick is to the left, and Pastor Bob Nogalski, supposedly the inspiration for Chick's tract Bad Bob, is on the right. Filmmaker Scoobie Davis, who has met and interviewed Chick, acknowledged that the man in the photograph is Chick.^[18] In the 1980s, Chick published two books by Rebecca Brown, M.D. (born Ruth Irene Bailey). These books were her reputed testimony of her activities in an international Satanist network. Much of her testimony became the inspiration for Chick's tract The Poor Little Witch.^[19] After Brown was exposed to have had her medical license revoked in Indiana after she had "knowingly and intentionally misdiagnosed her patients", blamed their illnesses on "demons, devils, and evil spirits" and over-medicated her patients [1] [2] [3], Chick and Brown severed ties. Chick took her books out of print (but continues to publish The Poor Little Witch), and Brown later married Daniel Yoder and started their own ministry that publishes their own books [4] [5]. In the September/October 2005 Issue of Battle Cry, Chick states that within the previous two years he had a flu which turned into pneumonia. His blood sugar dropped to 20 mg/dl (Chick is apparently diabetic); his wife called 9-1-1, and while help was en route Chick had a heart attack. A day or so later he had a triple bypass.^[20]

Publications

A frame from the Chick tract "Doom Town"

Main articles: Chick Publications and Chick tract

Chick published 19 comics between 1970 and 1989. The first 11 form the Crusader comics, starring two fundamentalist, born again Christians. The duo travel the world rescuing stray Christians, fighting Satanists, and winning converts. The next six comics focus on Alberto Rivera and present his claims about the Catholic Church in comic-book format. Two more long-format comics were published, one a comic based on the King James Version of the Bible and one about a conspiracy theory involving the Roman Catholic Church and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In late 2007, a twentieth comic was published about the formation of the Mormon Church.^[21] At the same time Chick produced small cartoon pamphlets, often known as Chick tracts, designed to be easy to distribute and understand. Chick created the Bible series, featuring a fundamentalist Christian, Robert "Bob" Williams.^[22] The character would attempt, though not always successfully, to lead people down what he perceived to be the right path. The Bible Series covers many of Chick's core beliefs on topics such as evolution, witchcraft, and the Catholic Church. Chick's tracts follow an established pattern whereby an individual, either a non-Christian or a doubting Christian, comes into contact with an evangelical who attempts to convert him. Chick does not bias the endings with only a repentant "sinner" going to heaven – unrepentant "sinners" going to Hell are featured regularly (when two sinners are featured, it is not uncommon to have both featured). Chick frequently cites Bible verses to support his tracts and often quotes them directly (always using the King James Version). At the end of every tract there is a "sinner's prayer", as well as recommendation as to what the new convert should do next. Several earlier comics were re-edited in the 1970s to reflect Chick's increasingly negative views towards Catholicism. In one example, in The Beast, a portrayal of the Antichrist as a man wearing a business suit was changed to a representation of the Pope. Chick's cartoons depict conspiracy theories featuring Satan, the Catholic Church, Communists, Muslims, rock musicians, scientists, and politicians, as well as other groups and subjects behind popular entertainment, role-playing games, and other perceived ills of modern culture. Chick believes many of the world's problems are caused by the Catholic Church. In the tract Holocaust, he claims that the Holocaust was part of a plot by the Roman Catholic Church, and that the Nazi party was run by the Vatican.^[23] Chick believes that Satanism is not only real but an active force trying to corrupt children as it helps bring in the New World Order.^[24] Some of his tracts have been regarded by Jewish groups as anti-Semitic, especially Where's Rabbi Waxman?.^[25] He has also published other tracts, especially '"Support Your Local Jew" and "Love the Jewish People" that have been regarded as pro-Jewish;^[26] however, he falsely claims that Stalin was "of Jewish extraction" and that the House of Rothschild controls the Illuminati.^[27] In some tracts where Chick denounces anti-Semitism, he claims that the blame for historic persecution of Jews rests on the Catholic Church which, according to Chick Tracts, created Nazism (and communism) as part of a plan for world domination and that Hitler was merely a puppet for the centuries-long Vatican conspiracy.^[28] He has started the Children's Series of the tracts, which stars a girl named Li'l Susy, the niece of Bob Williams, and also features her battling against a teacher named Ms. Henn, who represents schools as a corrupting force against God. Lessons in these tracts have included Chick's views that evolution is false, Halloween celebration and homosexuality are immoral, and put forward his belief that repentant homosexuals can renounce their lifestyle, should they so choose. Comics in this series are presented in a more simplified format with the intent of being read to children. Jack Chick currently publishes his own newspaper called Battle Cry.

Cultural references

David Cross's comedy DVD, David Cross: Let America Laugh, has the titles of each segment ("Is There Another Christ?", "Gomez Is Coming", "This Was Your Life", etc.) taken from the titles of Chick's tracts. (Mr. Cross is a self-proclaimed atheist.) The film Hot Chicks premiered in 2006 at the Los Angeles Film Festival, The New Fest, and Outfest. This Jack Chick inspired film featured nine short films, each based on a Jack Chick tract. "Titanic", "Wounded Children", "Doom Town" and "The Thief" are among the films. One author, Gary Dale Cearley, published a book entitled Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam (ISBN 184728731X) refuting Jack Chick's comic book about the testimony of Alberto Rivera. Three other books have been published about Chick Tracts. They are The World Of Chick? by Robert B. Fowler (ISBN 0-86719-512-6), The Imp #2 by Dan Raeburn, and The Unofficial Guide to The Art of Jack T. Chick: Chick Tracts, Crusader Comics, and Battle Cry Newspapers by Kurt Kuersteiner (ISBN 0-7643-1892-6, which includes a candid meeting with the reclusive Mr. Chick).

References

External links

• Chick Publications website
• Catholic Response to Jack Chick