Chick Tracts
 Expect huge amounts of derp and rage, punctuated by /tg/ extracting humor from it. |
Chick Tracts -- being steaming piles of ignorance and batshit-lunacy even by the standards of religious fundamentalists-- are a huge group of blatant moralfagging comics/stories done by Jack Chick Ministries, attempting to convince younger readers that: evolution is a lie, rock and roll is the tool of the Devil, the Catholic Church created Islam, Communism, Nazism and the Freemasons, (only two one of whom didn't turn on them ), the Catholic Church is a vile conspiracy created by pagans (Hint: He was a savage anti-Catholic, an Islamaphobe, a homophobe, an anti-semite, an anti-indian, and anti-everything! Though, his second marriage was interracial, however, and lasted until his death), and that celebrating Halloween makes you a satanist. He only avoided being a parody of American Christianity by the unfortunate fact that he was a real guy. The only reason that Chick Tracts are notable on /tg/ are two very specific reasons:
- They have a lengthy segment explaining how Dungeons and Dragons is a gateway towards Satanism and Witchcraft.
- They are so egregiously stupid that they've spawned dozens of instant memes, including this.
History
Jack Thomas Chick (April 13, 1924 - October 23, 2016) was an American publisher, writer and comic book artist of evangelical Christian tracts and comic books. He has been called the most published comic book author in the world. Yes, even beyond DC with its rodeo clown characters and prostitutes.
Chick was born somewhere in the unholy shitpit called California, for where else can such fail be given birth. The son of a commercial artist and his eldest at that, his family moved to Alabama, wherein Whacky Jacky joined the high school drama club and was most un-Christian, therefore proving that this man was a hypocrite and not a true believer in Lord Jesus Christ (A.S) - so much so, that the true Christians who abode there avoided him. In his own words, he claimed to be "the last man on Earth who would accept Christ." Some believe that he went from being a complete dickhead who hates everyone who then "converted" to Christianity just so he could be a complete dickhead to everyone else while using his selected religion as an excuse to insult everything around him (this is most likely true, as only a total fucktard like Jack would do something like this.)
After his graduation, he continued his drama education at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theater on a two-year scholarship. In February 1943, Chick was drafted as a private in the U.S. Army. He served for three years in the Pacific theater, serving in New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines and Japan. Chick credits his time overseas with inspiring him to translate his tracts into many different languages and says he has "a special burden for missions and missionaries." Therefore proving that he was not only an incompetent combatant, but also irreligious. Afterwards, he returned to 'Murka and apparently converted to Christianity by listening to a fucking radio show. Yes, this man did not convert by reading the Bible, or searching his soul, longing for spiritual sustenance, nor did he do so for the lulz, he listened to a fucking radio show.
If you're wondering why his beliefs are so far out there that even many fundamentalists go "wait.. what?" it may be because he spent a little too much time listening to drug-addicted-former-occultist-conspiracy-theorist-sexual-predator, John Todd. Truly a credible source on the evils of D&D, Christian Rock and Catholicism.
In 2005, a fine thing called a heart attack struck at him but failed to kill him. But it is no less a hero for trying. Shortly thereafter he had a triple coronary artery bypass. He then returned to seclusion and awaits death finally kicked the bucket, and is standing before God. Now we don't claim to know what God does with folks who try to serve them but fail so spectacularly at it, but we like to imagine that God is yelling at him "How dare you presume to speak for me! I have a mind to create a hell just to throw YOU in, Jack. You made me look like some deranged, psychopathic, egomaniacal, self centered, vain bastard... GUARDS!!! GUARDS get in here, NOW!!!!!"
And as of October 23, 2016, it's finally happened. One less total paranoid incompetent loony now roams the earth. However, his legacy has been so entrenched that his work will surely outlive him as his ghost-artists and writers continue to carry up his absurd views for the foreseeable future.
So, why is this guy so hated?
Perhaps because, besides being the Satanic Panic reincarnated into a single man he was woefully misinformed on several issues. Allow us to list his more general offenses against religion, rationality, good taste and tabletop.
- He was violently intolerant of all religions except his own. That includes but is not limited to: Islam, Judaism and ALL FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY THAT DO NOT FIT HIS PERSONAL VIEW. He had a special hatred of Roman Catholics, who he was sure were Satan's agents on Earth, and one of his tracts was (I kid you not) THE DEATH COOKIE. Yet somehow in one of his latest comics he portrayed Eastern Orthodox Christians in a positive light, though many would argue it is much more creepy and threatening when a batshit insane person likes you as opposed to hates you (especially when they involve you in one of their stupid and illogical conspiracy theories, which he, of course, did). Though it might simply be explained that he was just too uneducated about Orthodoxy, because if he would realize that Orthodox are quite similar to Catholics in absolute majority of things, he might've had... a different opinion...
- He has this insane obsession with the King James version of the Bible, an edition that's been considered inaccurate and outdated in translation *for centuries* when there have been better versions available. There's a sizable group of rather nutty Christians who live and die by the KJV translation, but none are anywhere near so delusional as Jack, who considered this all a satanic plot made to mislead Christians into going to hell because he considers it right.
- Non-Christians are invariably portrayed as either completely off their meds or pants-on-head retarded (usually leading to one of them asking "durr wuts a jesus" at some point), while Christians are invariably portrayed as smug, self-righteous twats, thereby managing to piss off everyone.
- He claimed that Dungeons and Dragons is a gateway to Satan, just like everyone else on that bandwagon. Nevermind the fact that Gygax himself was a Christian... sort of. Gygax was a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and covering whether it's a Christian denomination or its own religion is beyond this wiki's specific call of duty, but that's still a far cry from outright Satanism (not that it would likely have made a difference to Jack, of course), hence why D&D angels were the good guys and demons/devils/dameons/etc. were evil. He had a similar view about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (probably due to Tolkien being a Catholic). And *that* is why he drew /tg/'s ire, attacking fantasy fiction that was often based on Christianity itself. Sadly, we have no knowledge on his opinions about Narnia, written by one of the most charismatic and unambiguously Christian authors, C.S Lewis. We can probably safely assume that he only had frothing hatred for it however, owing to his inability to read into anything that isn't the KJV Bible.
- He outlived Gary Gygax on both sides, which is the cherry on this horrible sundae.
- His artwork is shitty. Fred Carter, a black guy who did the work for plenty of his tracts and comics, has a remarkably more realistic art style.
But, truly the only reason is due to his Dark Dungeons comic strip which is a vicious smorgasboard of unrivaled lulz that happens to be a metaphor for how Dungeons and Dragons is gateway to the Unholy. Due to the sheer audacity of this man daring to heap shame upon the favorite pastime of neckbeards, they have banded together unleash their copious rage and DERP upon him. Though they are justified in this, srsly, did you read the above?
However, any parodies of his comics espousing what is considered to be a more 'enlightened' point of view are often loaded with just as much FAIL and hypocrisy as the original tracts.
Quotes
- Ms. Frost: "Okay, Wizard, cast your spell!"
- Debbie: "Okay, Dungeon Master. My spell of light blinds the monster."
- Frost: "The thief, Black Leaf, did not find the poison trap, and I declare her dead."
- Marcie: "NO, NOT BLACK LEAF! NO, NO! I'M GOING TO DIE! Please don't make me quit the game! Somebody save me! You can't do this!"
- Frost: "Marcie, get out of here. YOU'RE DEAD! You don't exist any more."
- Mrs Baxter: "Don't make the mistake of believing that good people go to heaven and bad people got to hell. That's a lie straight from the Devil." (The Tract this comes from concerns a little kid getting hit by a car on Halloween night after he went to a Haunted House. Guess where he went? Go on, guess.)