![[tmbchr]™](/journal/popocculture-blog-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Jack Chick on the End Times
Sometimes the enemy is the best teacher. In a way, I consider Jack Chick’s “Christian” comic books to be diametrically opposed to the work that I do. But rather than just dismissing him out of hand as a nut, I find it useful sometimes to see what his organization is up to. Over the past few days, I’ve read a ton of information from a whole host of sources on the End Times: popular belief, history, prophecy, etc. And I have to say that just reading one of Jack Chick’s outrageous tracts has been the most educational and entertaining of all.
Actually, he has a few which are about the end of the world:
- Here He Comes! - A man riding in a car, about to hear the word of God when his friends suddenly vanish in the Rapture. He’s then treated to a blow by blow explanation of what’s going to happen as the world unravels.
- The Last Generation - A near futuristic sci-fi peice about a Big Brother-esque one world government, and it’s hilarious persecution of Christians - who of course finally escape in the Rapture.
- Who’s Missing? - An apocalyptic piece which opens with the assassination of a top UN official, after which the world edges towards war. A nervous Catholic finds out her Church won’t save her. Evangelist Billy Graham is even targeted in this one.
While I think these are preposterous at best, and scare-mongering at worst, they are great because they both encapsulate and fuel hysteria in such a small space. It’s really something, actually. If and when I have more time on my hands, I want to put out little comic books which imitate Chick’s artistics style, but completely reverse his message. I’ve seen a couple examples of this online, but nothing that I thought was as potent or fun as we could probably put together. If anybody else is interested in working on an on-going project like this, let me know. I think we could have a lot of fun with it.
- Jack Chick Interview
- Jack Chick’s New Movie
- Revolutionary Literalism
- Jack Black’s Rat Fancy
- Seeking: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott Mp3’s (Or Torrent)
- Prev: Daniel 11:14
- Next: The Rapture & The Dark Night of the Soul
May 28th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
The simplest way to detourn Chick tracts is to white out the words in the talk bubbles and come up with new stories. Anyone can do it. Only slightly more complicated would be to rearrange the panels to fit the new messages. A friend and I used to do this kind of stuff manually (i.e. whiteout, scissors and paste) years ago for our own amusement. These days I have time issues but if people start doing this to a similar extent as the tarot cards, I might feel inspired.
May 28th, 2005 at 8:09 pm
yeah i WOULD do that, except that chick inc is extremely vigilant about people who do this sort of thing and publish it online. they hunt and persecute. ive read many cases of it online.
May 28th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
Wow, really? That’s creepy, but makes sense - they probably imagine that by protecting their copyright, they’re literally fighting Satan. But jeez, with those campy graphics, they’re asking for it!
May 28th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
yeah its crazy. you can still find some online though if you look, but none are done in an intelligent way.
anyway my cousin volunteered to help out in making some of our own. anybody else who wants to join in the effort, please drop me a line. we’ll be looking for artists and writers and people with computer skills, plus people to go out and distribute these things. ill write a more elaborate section on this project at some point
May 29th, 2005 at 2:14 am
There was a brilliantly nihilistic Chick tract called “Who will be eaten first?” wherein the priest tells the sinner there is no hope but to worship Cthulhu and Shub Niggurath in the faint chance that he may be eaten first when the Old Ones return. http://tinyurl.com/a6z7f
After climate change reveals the hidden lair of the Elder Gods as foretold by H.P. Lovecraft. see http://tinyurl.com/4bgyl for the truth if you are not afraid to be driven quite mad…..
May 29th, 2005 at 2:18 am
http://tinyurl.com/772go Will reveal to those with eyes to see and pineal glands to sense the location of the soon to be rulers of this wretched planet on its pitiful plane. Unaware of the horror which waits in the dark to drive us screaming mad into the night, gibbering like mad apes. If Shackleton had known he never would have ventured to Antarctica, luring other intrepid explorers to the Mountains of Madness……..
May 29th, 2005 at 3:16 am
I dunno, the guy at The Jack Chick Parody Archive, at least, seems more amused than anything else at the prospect of being sued by Chick.
http://www.weirdcrap.com/chick/
OTOH it appears you’re correct and most of the parodies are indeed no longer online, so maybe that guy’s just crazy-fearless. Still, I tend to doubt that Chick Inc can put the resources of say, Viacom or Disney into its persecution efforts. and could probably be successfully swarmed by a parody “contest” if enough people got involved. It would be easy for anyone to participate, people could tweak a single panel, juxtapose 2 for basic dramatic effect, or do something more extensive. If it got popular enough (admittedly a big if) any real or threatened legal action could be deflected into good publicity.
Anyway, we’re talking about different projects at this point, and I am neither brave, irresponsible nor web-literate enough to organize this one, so there it is in case anyone out there is looking for a crazy idea. Not that I’d ever encourage anybody to do anything illegal or anything.
May 29th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
i agree it sounds like fun but im not going to advocate it on my site at this point. anyway it seems like the jack chick parody archive mostly contains original art… theres also an explicit warning from that site: