Chick Tracts

[Jmustang1968]

That's weird, besides an occasional Jehovah Witness or Mormon who knocks on my door, I never get anyone approaching me for religious books or pamphlets. Ive never seen a chick tract either.

[TSTR]

Even though I got distracted posting other craziness here, there's actually a fascinating documentary called God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick that anyone with an interest in these tracts should watch.

[Gunstar Green]

That's weird, besides an occasional Jehovah Witness or Mormon who knocks on my door, I never get anyone approaching me for religious books or pamphlets. Ive never seen a chick tract either.

Public restrooms and restaurant waiting areas were where the tracts popped up the most for me.

I had a few instances of people coming up to me with literature in parking lots where they were leaving them on people's windshields.

Jehovah's Witnesses are pretty much everywhere.

The only thing that really pisses me off is those fake $20-100 bill things that you open up and SURPRISE it's fake. Fuck whoever came up with that idea. Though I took one of those to school as a kid and had a lot of fun with it.

Even though I got distracted posting other craziness here, there's actually a fascinating documentary called God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick that anyone with an interest in these tracts should watch.

This isn't the first time I've heard of this but I've not gotten around to watching it yet. I do know that Chick is quite an enigmatic figure.

[Hobie-wan]

That's weird, besides an occasional Jehovah Witness or Mormon who knocks on my door, I never get anyone approaching me for religious books or pamphlets. Ive never seen a chick tract either.

I haven't seen one since middle school, so I'm not too surprised you haven't either. Maybe there are more around Dallas and smaller more religious/conservative towns?

The only thing that really pisses me off is those fake $20-100 bill things that you open up and SURPRISE it's fake. Fuck whoever came up with that idea. Though I took one of those to school as a kid and had a lot of fun with it.

I've seen those twice too. I mean what, Are they trying to be all "shame on you for being materialistic and picking it up"? Who is really going to pick it up and go "whew I don't have to find the owner" or "shucky darn this isn't real money, oh I'll just join this church mentioned on the back".

[flojocabron]

These were handed out a lot when I was a kid.

I read a lot of them. Some were harmless but others woah boy.

When I was little I enjoyed seeing the pictures. I loved comics as a kid and I still enjoy thm now.

But I started to realize that those chick comics were mean about stuff.

When I was young, I gave up on collecting the few that I had. When I would be given one, I would skim through it and leave it somewhere, for someone else to take.

I take it some editions got copied more than others though. So there must have been some extreme ones that got limited printings?

I read a whole lot of them, and I'm still fucked up! LOL!

[KalessinDB]

FYI, I live in the Northeast, so it's definitely not a Southern-only thing. I mean, I don't see them CONSTANTLY or anything, maybe one every year, year and a half or so, but I definitely see them.

And yeah, they're... out there. And pretty mean about certain things. I'll typically read them once and then leave them somewhere else so that some other idiot like me can find them.

[flex wood]

I'm surprised the hipsters out here don't put them out ironically.

Now I miss the 24 hour kinkos. Are there pdfs of these on the site? Or anyone got any ideas on where I could find some? Is pdf the format I would even want?

I feel like causing some mischief.

[dsheinem]

Yeah, when i was a kid I read pretty much each and every one of these that was ever printed. Make no mistake, he might be "good intentioned" but Chick ultimately comes across as quite the ignorant bigot as his tracks are often grounded in easily debunked urban myths and are quite vindictive of any faith that's not protestant Christianity (he lambasts Catholics with regularity, for example).

He has enjoyed a few renaissances prior to the web. His style and "substance" fit really well into the Satanism paranoia of the 1980s and that's where I was exposed to him. As was mentioned, God's Cartoonist, a 2008 documentary, is generally worth seeing if you want to learn a bit more about Chick.



People are probably less familiar with the affiliated full sized comics that I also spent countless hours pouring over in the church library when I was a kid. The Alberto series is somewhat well known, I guess? A lot of this stuff was very dark, but the art was quite compelling and the themes quite impressionable for a kid.

On a related note, I remember being made to watch this at a youth group meeting once. It is also a bit of comedy gold these days.

EDIT: Awesome artwork on that one, too

[Gunstar Green]

I haven't seen one since middle school, so I'm not too surprised you haven't either. Maybe there are more around Dallas and smaller more religious/conservative towns?

I was south of Houston in Lake Jackson which is kind of a yuppie town but there were a lot of over-eager churches. I never ran into anything in the city but I didn't spend a lot of time in Houston outside of the hospitals and tourist places.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I live in Michigan and my experiences in both cities and the country are the same. My car is the only one with a tract on it and while shopping, or while working, or while waiting I am approached. I would say it happens about once every other month. I just look like a heathen I guess!