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Jack Chick

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Jack Thomas Chick (born April 13, 1924) of Chick Publications is a comic book artist and publisher. He is known for his controversial comic-style tracts (informally known as Chick Tracts) and larger comic books for the purpose of Christian evangelism from a fundamentalist point of view. Chick is an Independent Baptist, a premillennial dispensationalist, follower of the King James Only Movement, and strongly anti-Catholic.

History

Chick was born in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California, USA, and experienced several 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 Chick was enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Pacific theater. 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, 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 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 Chinese Communist Party, which handed out cartoon tracts explaining its philosophy to peasants.

File:Jack Chick frame.png
A frame from the Chick tract "Doom Town"

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.

Publications

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Main article: Chick Publications

Between the 1970s and 1980s, he published 24 comics [1]. The first 17 comics are known as the Crusader Comics and star a white man named Timothy Emerson Clark and an African-American man named James Carter. These two men are fundamentalist, born-again Christians. They travel around winning converts and rescuing Christians that have gone astray. The two men also fight Satanists and other servants of the Devil. The last six Crusader Comics star Dr. Alberto Rivera as the main character and present Rivera's claims about the Catholic Church (see Rivera's article) in comic-book format.

During this period, Chick also began producing small, easily-distributable cartoon pamphlets (informally known as Chick Tracts), which embody his most well-known work.

In 2000, he started the Bible series [2] of his tracts, which starred one of his more famous creations, a Fundamentalist Christian man named Bob Williams. Bob, a rather smug character, would always appear to lead people down the correct path, though he was not always successful (see Gladys), and the Bible Series has served as a collection of many of Chick's core beliefs on topics such as evolution, witchcraft, and the Catholic Church.

Jack Chick has been heavily criticised for his views. His anti-Catholicism was not immediately evident in his earliest cartoons, and seems to have evolved during the mid to late 1960s. Several earlier comics were re-edited in the 1970s to reflect Chick's changing views on the Vatican. Example: a portrayal of the Antichrist, originally drawn as a man wearing a business suit, was changed to show the Pope in later editions of the same tract. The early 20th century pamphlet The Two Babylons was influential in popularizing a view -- held by Chick -- that the Roman Catholic Church is really a continuation of Babylonian religious practices.

Chick's cartoons frequently depict conspiracy theories involving Satan and/or the Roman 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. Chick believes that 16th century Satanism is not only real but an active force trying to corrupt children as it helps bring in the New World Order.

Personal

Chick lives a more or less reclusive life; he last granted an interview in 1975. His reclusiveness created speculation for a time that he never even existed except as a nom-de-plume for an unnamed author(s). Several audio cassettes of his preaching distributed to his subscribers purport to contain his voice. His wife Lola died in 1998 and he has since remarried.

In the 1970s, Chick also hired much-lauded African-American 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 recently-finished film, The Light of the World, presenting the Bible in oil paintings by Carter.

Jack Chick currently publishes his own newspaper called Battle Cry. Little is known about Jack Chick and there is no present portrait of him available, although Jimmy Akin's Blog has a drawing of him and a high school photograph. He has currently started the Children's Series of the tracts, which stars a girl named Li'l Susy and also features her battling against a teacher named Miss Henn, who represents schools as a corrupting force against God. Lessons in these tracts have included Chick's view that evolution is false, and that homosexual acts and celebrating Halloween are immoral, and they are presented in a more simplified format with the intent of being read to children. For more publications see Chick Publications.

Recently, at the screening of Jack Chick's new film, Light of the World (which premiered in Ontario, California) Catholic Answers reporter Jimmy Akin met Jack Chick, and exchanged a brief dialogue with him. 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. He casually mentioned that the Vatican had "All my stuff," that the Pope personally viewed his work, and questioned Akin as to whether he was a Jesuit spy.

Akin's summary of the interview can be found here.

In the September/October 2005 Issue of "Battle Cry" Chick states that within the last two years he had a flu which turned into pneumonia. His blood sugar dropped to 20 (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. [3]

See Chick Publications and claims by Chick Publications for information about Jack Chick and his views. Three objective books have been published about Chick Tracts. They are The World Of Chick? by Robert B. Fowler (ISBN 0867195126), 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 0764318926, which includes a candid meeting with the reclusive Mr. Chick)..

Official website

Pro-Chick websites

Relatively neutral websites

Anti-Chick websites


Others

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