IN MEMORIUM: that guy who wrote the crazy jesus tracts died

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > IN MEMORIUM: that guy who wrote the crazy jesus tracts died

Gazpacho: Jun 18, 2004; by Fluffdaddy; Slippery Tilde

its interesting how sin is gendered in the tracts. men sin personally; women (in Bad Bob and Dark Dungeons) do so by calling upon sinful men or the devil.

chick's claims of effective ministry can be judged from the fact that he put a female protagonist in a tract aimed at d&d players (the only one I can recall)

# ? Oct 27, 2016 17:42

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 05:29

uber_stoat: Jan 21, 2001; Pillbug

Gazpacho posted:

actually chick isn't in in hell bc it doesn't exist

Christian Hell doesn't exist, but Jack Chick's essence is most certainly trapped in an extra-dimensional prison as an emissary of the Moon God proclaims to him a never ending list of his sins.

# ? Oct 27, 2016 19:02

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

How can a man now dead have a never ending list of sins

# ? Oct 27, 2016 19:32

Hellsau: Jan 14, 2010; NEVER FUCKING TAKE A NIGHT OFF CLAN WARS.

Toadvine posted:

How can a man now dead have a never ending list of sins

How can an everloving god sentence someone to everlasting torment

# ? Oct 27, 2016 19:35

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

Completely different questions.

# ? Oct 27, 2016 19:40

muscles like this!: Jan 17, 2005

uber_stoat posted:

Christian Hell doesn't exist, but Jack Chick's essence is most certainly trapped in an extra-dimensional prison as an emissary of the Moon God proclaims to him a never ending list of his sins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhmFPvJldeI&t=92s

# ? Oct 27, 2016 20:36

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Toadvine posted:

How can a man now dead have a never ending list of sins

You know about the inflation crises of Zimbabwe? Sins work the same way!

# ? Oct 27, 2016 21:24

CannedMacabre: Jul 6, 2007; In space, no one
can hear you fart.

Sins are always a good investment.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 00:19

Gutter Phoenix: Jul 23, 2013; I preferred your last avatar, so I put it back. My apologies to the pedo who purchased your last one (it's always projection).

Young Freud posted:

I believe the guy who does stuff like Doom Town and Soul Brother is Fred Carter. Last I heard, he was a black guy, although I'm sure Gutter Phoenix will point out I'm wrong.

Carter worked on an actual comic for JTC called the Crusaders.

You are correct. Jack Chick had a really cartoony style, and Fred Carter is a legitimately great illustrator. Doom Town and some of the other Bible story tracts published between 1989 and 1991 were drawn by an unknown third artist, but Carter ended up re-drawing almost all of them.

He also drew most of the tracts that feature black characters. He is much better at drawing non-white characters than Jack Chick was (which will be evident when I finish up writing about This Was Your Life shortly).

Here is a picture and bio of Fred Carter from the most recent Chick Publications catalog:

And here is a screen grab from a video that was just posted on Chick.com:

I haven't watched it yet, but here's the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totLO3sV6-Y

That's Jack Chick on the left of the screen grab. Now that he's dead, they are finally allowing pictures of him to be published:

# ? Oct 28, 2016 00:43

Pvt.Scott: Feb 16, 2007; What God wants, God gets, God help us all

Gazpacho posted:

its interesting how sin is gendered in the tracts. men sin personally; women (in Bad Bob and Dark Dungeons) do so by calling upon sinful men or the devil.

chick's claims of effective ministry can be judged from the fact that he put a female protagonist in a tract aimed at d&d players (the only one I can recall)

He was just a visionary. Late 90s half my HS D&D group was ladies, same with college. I have gotten poor little Blackleaf into some trouble over the years.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 00:53

Prettz: Sep 3, 2002

Wow, he even looks insane.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 00:56

scuba school sucks: Aug 30, 2012; The brilliance of my posting illuminates the forums like a jar of shining gold when all around is dark

Fred Phelps did the Fusion Dance with Joe Arpaio.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 01:04

Xenocides: Jan 14, 2008; This world looks very scary....

Hellsau posted:

How can an everloving god sentence someone to everlasting torment

Because they keep sinning while in said torment?

# ? Oct 28, 2016 01:12

Gutter Phoenix: Jul 23, 2013; I preferred your last avatar, so I put it back. My apologies to the pedo who purchased your last one (it's always projection).

Gutter Phoenix posted:

This Was Your Life (1964).

This is the big one. Over 100 million copies have been distributed in over 100 different languages over the past 52 years. This was originally aimed at prisoners, and is the first tract to focus on absolving sin simply by accepting Jesus Christ. This sets the tone for every single Chick tract that follows.

The top left is the 8" x 5.5" version, the last of the Chick tracts published in that size. Underneath that is the rare 1969 standard-sized version. At the bottom is the ultra-rare version published by "Afro-American Gospel Publications," whose logo and address looks awful similar to the Chick Publications logo at that time. Those on the right are also extremely rare, 3.5" x 5" rather than the standard size.

As mentioned, this was published in tens of different languages, and over the years there were quite a few variations in the art to appeal to different ethnic groups. I might move on to later tracts and add to this one later. Beyond the differences in art, it is super simple, which is probably why it has been printed more than any other tract.

OK, back to the third Chick tract, 1964's This Was Your Life. I posted pictures of the larger 1964 versions and the reformatted 1969 version. It was revised again in 1972 and 2002.

Like A Demon's Nightmare, this one really hasn't changed much over the years. However, since it has been translated into over 100 different languages, it has been redrawn multiple times to appeal to different groups of people.

Here is the first page from the standard English version. The same art is used for most, if not all, of the European language translations.

Here is the default version for Middle Eastern languages. This one is in Arabic:

Here is the version used in and around India. This one is in Bengali:

Here is the version used in and around the Phillipines. This one is in Cebuano:

Here is the Indonesian version:

Here is the Japanese version:

Here is the version used for almost every other Asian language. This one is in Cambodian:

Here is the version used for most African languages. It's also quite similar to a 1978 English version aimed at African-Americans, but I'll get to that further down. This one is in Chichewa:

In the African versions, God is black, or at least slightly darker than the faceless white depictions used almost everywhere else. Here is a page from the Zulu version:

As a comparison, here is how God is depicted almost everywhere else. This is the Russian version:

In the Turkish version, God is depicted as a ball of light. If anyone can clue me in as to why that might be, I would be very interested to know.

I am sure that there are other interesting versions and variations among the foreign-language tracts, but those are the different ones I've noticed in my own collection.

Yesterday I posted a picture of the 1969 version of This Was Your Life published by the Chick Publications subsidiary Afro-American Gospel Publications. (I think the only other tract they ever published was a black version of "A Demon's Nightmare," although I've never even seen a picture of one of those). In 1978, a new English version of This Was Your Life aimed at African-Americans was published. Here is the cover, which can be differentiated from the regular English version by the red border around the title:

Instead of using the artwork from the 1969 Afro-American Gospel Publications version, they used the art used for African-language translations.

1969 version:

1978 version:

African version:

It's interesting that God is depicted with a darker skin tone in the African-language versions, but remains white in the African-American version.

God was white in the Afro-American Gospel Publications version as well.

Actually, as far as I know, God is depicted as faceless and white in every version except those translated into African languages, and also Turkey, where God is a giant ball of light.

Unrelated to anything, this tiny picture from This Was Your Life is one of my favorite bits from any Chick tract:

Coming up next: Chick Tract #4 Holy Joe (1964).

# ? Oct 28, 2016 01:59

Command Ant: Aug 9, 2010; I can make you
worth your weight
in gold!

Gutter Phoenix posted:

Here is the Indonesian version:

Here is the Japanese version:

Here is the version used for almost every other Asian language. This one is in Cambodian:

Man, these guys look so cool. I would want to be friends with all three of them, even knowing that they're Hellbound.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:04

Blazing Ownager: Jun 2, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

Anyone know where to find the White Wolf parody of this tract? It was pretty funny if I recall.

ED: Ah, here we go: http://www.theescapist.com/demonicdeviltry.pdf

Blazing Ownager fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Oct 28, 2016

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:05

Mordja: Apr 26, 2014; Hell Gem

Gutter Phoenix posted:

Like A Demon's Nightmare, this one really hasn't changed much over the years. However, since it has been translated into over 100 different languages, it has been redrawn multiple times to appeal to different groups of people.

Are there any metrics on how successful Chick Tracts actually are? Because that's a lot of translation effort and reprintin. I'm also curious as to Jack Chick's personal financial gain from all of this, even though he was obviously making his strips out of faith rather than greed, bizarre as it was.

Thanks for posting these by the way, it's absolutely fascinating.

Mordja fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Oct 28, 2016

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:10

Blue Raider: Sep 2, 2006

little faux chick tracts would be a killer marketing idea.

This is Your Life

first pages show fat goon playing xbox, watching netflix, etc

the punchline is that they should drink at the bar you own and have a good time

just leave those little fuckers on bus stops and such

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:18

uber_stoat: Jan 21, 2001; Pillbug

Mordja posted:

Are there any metrics on how successful Chick Tracts actually are? Because that's a lot of translation effort and reprintin. I'm also curious as to Jack Chick's personal financial gain from all of this, even though he was obviously making his strips out of faith rather than greed, bizarre as it was.

Thanks for posting these by the way, it's absolutely fascinating.

I have no idea, but if they've stayed around for as long as they have, and like you say they're spread all over the world, someone somewhere is buying the things and distributing them.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:31

Cuntellectual: Aug 6, 2010

i think the cthulhu parody one was pretty funny.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:36

Gutter Phoenix: Jul 23, 2013; I preferred your last avatar, so I put it back. My apologies to the pedo who purchased your last one (it's always projection).

Chick tract #4 - Holy Joe (1964).

On the left: 1964 version (3.5" x 5"), 1970 version, 1972 version. On the right: 1972 version with larger cover art, 2002 revision, Hebrew version

Everyone makes fun of Holy Joe for being religious. Everybody dies in combat. Everyone goes to hell except for Holy Joe. Who's laughing now, Sarge!!??

This is another one that hasn't changed much over the years. The original version was re-drawn to fit into the standard 2.75" x 5" size, but the story is virtually the same.

Coming up next is The Beast (1966). Prepare yourselves, because it is CRAZY!!

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:41

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Gutter Phoenix posted:

In the Turkish version, God is depicted as a ball of light. If anyone can clue me in as to why that might be, I would be very interested to know.

Islam has a prohibition against graven images, so god is usually shown as a ray or ball of light in media. Maybe Chicks company is trying to be culturally sensitive? It makes sense, if you are trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The Islamic aniconism could have also been transferred to Christians in the Arabic world too. But I'm just speculating over here. :shrug:

Mordja posted:

Are there any metrics on how successful Chick Tracts actually are? Because that's a lot of translation effort and reprintin. I'm also curious as to Jack Chick's personal financial gain from all of this, even though he was obviously making his strips out of faith rather than greed, bizarre as it was.

Thanks for posting these by the way, it's absolutely fascinating.

I'd like to know how many are actually read by the intended audience. I'd imagine more than half are promptly thrown away without a second glance.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:44

Gutter Phoenix: Jul 23, 2013; I preferred your last avatar, so I put it back. My apologies to the pedo who purchased your last one (it's always projection).

Dreddout posted:

Islam has a prohibition against graven images, so god is usually shown as a ray or ball of light in media. Maybe Chicks company is trying to be culturally sensitive? It makes sense, if you are trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The Islamic aniconism could have also been transferred to Christians in the Arabic world too. But I'm just speculating over here.

God is depicted in typical faceless human form in the Arabic version. The Turkish version is the only one I've seen that portrays God as a ball of light.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:55

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Gutter Phoenix posted:

...

I haven't watched it yet, but here's the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totLO3sV6-Y

is no one going to mention that Jack Chick socked both of these suckers in the eye before he ascended?

# ? Oct 28, 2016 03:02

Cuntellectual: Aug 6, 2010

I Said No posted:

oh wow.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 03:24

Young Freud: Nov 26, 2006

Gutter Phoenix posted:

You are correct. Jack Chick had a really cartoony style, and Fred Carter is a legitimately great illustrator. Doom Town and some of the other Bible story tracts published between 1989 and 1991 were drawn by an unknown third artist, but Carter ended up re-drawing almost all of them.

He also drew most of the tracts that feature black characters. He is much better at drawing non-white characters than Jack Chick was (which will be evident when I finish up writing about This Was Your Life shortly).

Here is a picture and bio of Fred Carter from the most recent Chick Publications catalog:

And here is a screen grab from a video that was just posted on Chick.com:

I haven't watched it yet, but here's the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totLO3sV6-Y

That's Jack Chick on the left of the screen grab. Now that he's dead, they are finally allowing pictures of him to be published:

Over at Mr. Kitty's Stupid Comics, they've done a retrospective on the Crusaders, which I had mentioned earlier as mostly Fred Carter's book...
http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics508.html

# ? Oct 28, 2016 03:45

Liquid Dinosaur: Dec 16, 2011; by Smythe

Egbert Souse posted:

I guess the Nazis didn't get the message from the Pope that they were supposed to make the world Catholic when they sent 3000 priests to Dachau.

I mean, it seems that the Catholic Church's main thing is making evil front organizations, and then making new organizations to destroy those organizations when they turn on the Catholics.

If he'd lived longer he would have shown that the next step would be Dungeons & Dragons player-eating gorillas.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 04:08

sticklefifer: Nov 11, 2003; by VideoGames

redneck nazgul posted:

Anyone have the drive-by edit where they replaced every word with BINGO?

Also looking for this. Anyone?

# ? Oct 28, 2016 04:16

Sentient Data: Aug 31, 2011; My molecule scrambler ray will disintegrate your armor with one blow!

I like how the Arabic version's panels read right to left, but the Japanese one doesn't

# ? Oct 28, 2016 04:23

The Phlegmatist: Nov 24, 2003

Liquid Dinosaur posted:

I mean, it seems that the Catholic Church's main thing is making evil front organizations, and then making new organizations to destroy those organizations when they turn on the Catholics.

Islam, Communism, Nazism, Masonry, certainly all devoted friends of the Vatican. Did Jack Chick ever stop and wonder why the Catholic Church was just so bad at controlling the entire world?

He was a true believer though. He lost the majority of his distributors when he received backlash for the anti-Catholic tracts but kept up with the whole thing, even after Alberto Rivera's death.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 05:20

Friginator: May 13, 2014; by zen death robot

RIP Dave Berg's evil twin.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 06:10

Risky: May 18, 2003

I have huge fascination with Chick Tracts. I remember finding these at payphones for some odd reason a lot back in the day. It seems like a chick tract would pop up in really seedy areas too.

RIP Mr. Chick. When the one world government and antichrist show up I'll be sure to remember that you tried to warn us.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 06:32

Hogge Wild: Aug 21, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Pillbug

Dreddout posted:

Pictured: QCS Goons in GBS

# ? Oct 28, 2016 12:57

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

I'm loving the analysis and comparison of all the different versions of Chick Tracts.

Mordja posted:

Are there any metrics on how successful Chick Tracts actually are? Because that's a lot of translation effort and reprintin.

I think it's just part-and-parcel with the "mission", meaning that the translation work will probably largely be essentially free, and the ones doing the translating could well just be missionaries who see it as their duty. To go with a super-nerdy comparison, Linux is available in far more languages than Windows for similar reasons.

Even if the translation had to be outsourced for whatever reason, there is almost certainly an infrastructure in place to have it done quickly and cheaply, especially given that these aren't that text-heavy and decent portions of the text are straight-up bible quotes that are easy to get between languages. "I want Genesis 19:11 in Tagalog" is something you can pull up in seconds in a 100% accurate way; no other language has anywhere near the Bible translation/multiple edition fuckery that English has, with most of the languages having multiple translations at all being European-based and well documented.

Printing itself is also fairly cheap; I've never seen a physical Chick Tract in person but I'm guessing they're printed on really cheap pulp paper? And it's extremely common for churches and other religious organizations to hold fundraiser events, or even just pass the Sunday service collection plate around while mentioning that "we need you to be extra-generous today so that we can have the word of THE LORD translated, printed and distributed for the mission we have in Malawi"

Combine that with the various tax breaks religious organizations get and, well, there's a reason the Bible is everywhere, including the drawer of the last hotel you stayed at.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 13:29