|
||
|
||
Jack Chick's little comics are among the more popular forms of evangelization and message promotion for very far-right Christians. Chick's company itself claims that there are literally hundreds of millions of their comics in circulation in dozens of languages around the world. One sign of their popularity is the existence of a small underground industry of spoof comics. All make use of the Chick artwork and add new dialogue, some even directly attacking the evangelical theology of the tracts themselves.
What are these tracts like? About four inches long and two inches high, they are comics featuring usually two panels per page and are 24 pages long. Each story is a little different, although all are written with the single goal of converting the reader to the most literal, conservative and fundamentalist brand of Christianity possible. The last page (if not more) is always devoted to explicitly telling the reader that they have to either convert in order to go to heaven or they will burn forever in hell.
Most readers have probably stumbled across a couple from time to time, but I've obtained what I believe to be a complete collection of all available comics in English. I've sorted through them all and have developed what I think is a reasonable overview of the Chickean worldview, theology and attitude. What we find in the pages of Chick's comics is not very unusual among fundamentalist, evangelical Christians - he's not promoting ideas or attitudes which would be regarded as unacceptable among conservative Christians. However, the comic format and unabashed honesty with which everything is expressed makes it all much clearer than is often the case.
Why are Chick tracts so popular? Some of the reason lies in the popularity of conspiracy theories in general. As I wrote last week, conspiracy theories contain a very strong inner logic which, because of their ability to explain disparate events in a coherent manner, can at times be even more logical than reality itself. Chick really does believe all the nutty conspiracy stories he spins through his tracts, and because of that his tracts read better than some novels. For him, this is all the real thing so he pays attention to detail and makes a real effort to get it right.
As long as people like good stories, they will like Chick tracts. As long as people are gullible, they will buy Chick conspiracy theories. As long as people value intense emotional experiences but not skeptical reflection, then the conversion experiences which Chick tracts depict and encourage will continue to have a strong influence on people's lives. Overcoming this will be a time-consuming but worthwhile effort.
-->