learning about Chick Tracts creator Jack Chick, an insane evangelical comics artist
I don’t have a read on how fun and interesting this is versus how horribly bigoted or uncomfortably QAnon-y it might be, but I wish these things didn’t look like a kind of cool indie comix publications
these are his works, some popular memes you may have seen
growing up in the midwest youd find chick tracts kind of randomly and as a child it seemed like a very apocalyptic view of christianity.
When I was a teenager I was dating this girl and a few times when I went over her place we found her bed just covered in Chick tracts. It freaked her the fuck out cuz she didn’t put them there and her mom (a young hipster atheist type) claimed she didn’t put them there either so we didn’t get up to much “hanky panky” cuz she was too busy crying over the creepy home invader who’d decided she was a sinner.
(It was a definitely her 20-something stepdad playing a prank and her mom definitely knew about it!!! They were awful!! But I guess if that hadn’t happened I may have gotten a girl teen pregnant!! So maybe it was good after all?! Who can say!!)
They’re such hateful, loathsome, fascinating comics, it’s easier to laugh at some strips than others of course, they actually sell more traditionally formatted comics and I bought the one about Mormonism as a gift for a friend who was writing a book on the topic, kinda regret that in retrospect, kinda wish I hadn’t given them like $7 but…it was $7 okay, that’s not much, and they probably lost money considering how they kept sending me free Chick tracts to my dad’s address for years after, boy he really hated getting those things, I thought it was pretty funny though, how much they irritated him. I finally burned them all when I moved years ago. I had so fucking many it was ridiculous.
The Fred Carter ones are probably the best, he’s the “good” Chick artist that often redrew older strips for Black audiences, didn’t know he died last year, oh well, complicated feelings about laughing at those comics but this painting, this painting I have no problem enjoying, damn
this is evangelicalism in general
Think we had a poster here back in the day who grew up in the same town as Chick and kind of knew him in the way people from small towns know each other or know of each other. Remember them saying he was basically a sweet old man to everyone he met and you’d never guess he was a hatemonger or something to that effect.
I still snatch these things up when I see them in the wild. Some dude outside a downriver flea market last summer had a rack of them, and I let out an unintentional “hell yeah!” when he said I could take as many as I want.
Pouring over the archive of them online was a big bit of excitement when I first got the Internet in 2000.
Just read a Tim Hensley story where Yayoi Kusama gets her pussy ate by Tommy Lasorda, always nice to be reminded that comics really are the best art
It’s really funny to compare the comics which are actually drawn by Jack Chick to the ones that have a different, almost competent artist.
anyway, the most classic chick tract is Dark Dungeons
I used to collect these whenever I’d find one sitting on top of a trash can or shoved into the phonebook of a long disused, piss smelling phonebooth. Eventually I just tossed them because an ironical collection of christofascist dross weighed too heavily on my soul
been meaning to tell y’all about Gleem by Freddy Carrasco. dude from toronto now living in japan. he doesn’t have a ton of picture books out, but this one is sort of an anthology that has several of his short stories
good cover!
my favorite kinda material- stuff about loneliness in cities, punk ass kids running around, cyber punk-ish shit mixed up with some surreal stuff
but mostly he has such cool characters
oops sorry for the head turners
I loved Gleem. The little drug ball is drawn to have such a sublime mystique. The level of interiority we get in that first story is huge too. The art he did for ecco2k’s ep from a year or so ago is cool too. He also has a band which im hoping to see when i get back to japan
It look great! Where can I buy it? I cannot find any scans for it so I will have to just purchase it 
Chained question: I will be in the US for work for a week end of April… Can you suggest me the best niche production comics that I could buy while in there?
Life, for example, the must buys from Glacier Bay Books. I bought F but it was very complex to source it and have it delivered in Italy, so I would take advance of this chance to get some nice comics
Many of these are not American, but they have a large supply in America.
Paradise Systems specializes in localizing Chinese comics. I personally enjoyed the South Park.
PEOW went out of business last year but their books are still available. I really enjoyed A Frog in the Fall. I’m sure they have many other great ones.
Retrofit Comics published a Baron Yoshimoto compilation titled The Troublemakers.
Bubbles published some old baseball comics called Bat Kid.
Living the Line has a massive Yokoyama Yuichi, Plaza. They also have something by Dave Sim if you’re curious what some of the chatter earlier was about.
New York Review Comics published Pittsburgh. I really like this one. Makes me feel all sentimental and stuff.
Maybe you can still find something by Picture Box. If you do, whatever it is, buy it.
I don’t need to mention Breakdown Press or kuš because they’re both stocked in Italy.
I should also mention that these small publishers aren’t always easy to find. If you are in a city, there ought to be at least one shop that stocks these kinds of things, but many comics shops in America cater to an audience that plays Magic the Gathering and wants superhero comics by the issue. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but I usually have to research beforehand to know what kind of comics shop I’m going to.
If you like Glacier Bay Books (I’m close friends with the creators so a bit biased on that front), I’d also recommend Star Fruit Books who publish similar work and often promote reach others work, they recently published Hideshi Hino’s pigs collection which has been a translation holy grail for a while now.
I recently read Cuckoo by Joe Sparrow which was very good although taking something clearly inspired by steven universe and setting it in london crossed wires in my brain that I’ll never fully recover from.
I will be visiting Chicago! Is there a comic books store that is worth visiting and might have rare stuff?
Thanks for all the advice!!
Forgot about Denpa! https://www.denpa.pub/ Will vouch for Pez and especially the two panpanya collections.
I’ve never been but Quimby’s is listed on kuš’ and Breakdown Press’ site https://www.quimbys.com/
yeah this is what i was going to say idk if its the best comics shop in chicago (probably tho) but its the one every Actual Countercultrual Person I Know who zines sells zines at
