Jack T. Chick

Infobox Person
name = Jack T. Chick


image_size = 200px
caption = Jimmy Akin's drawing
of Jack Chick
birth_name =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1924|4|13
birth_place = Boyle Heights, California
death_date =
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nationality = American
other_names =
known_for = Chick Tracts
education =
employer =
occupation = publisher, writer,
comic book artist
home_town =
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predecessor =
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religion = Independent Baptist
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website = [http://www.chick.com www.Chick.com]
footnotes =

Jack Thomas Chick (born April 13, 1924) is an American publisher, writer and comic book artist, and has been called the most published comic book author in the world.cite news
last = Akin
first = Jimmy
authorlink = Jimmy Akin
title = Meet Jack Chick
work = This Rock
publisher = Catholic Answers
date = March 2004
url = http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0403fea2.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] His company, Chick Publications, claims to have sold over 750 million comic-style tracts, [Chick publications website header.] known as "Chick tracts", comic books, videos, books, and posters designed to promote Protestant evangelism from a fundamentalist point of view. Many of these are seen as controversial as they target beliefs and cultures in what many perceive as a negative manner.

His views have been spread worldwide, mostly through the tracts and now online have been translated into more than 100 languages. As evidenced from his writings and publications, Chick is an Independent Baptist, follows a dispensational premillennialist view of the end times, and is a follower of the King-James-Only Movement.

Biography

Chick was born in the Boyle Heights section of city|Los Angeles|California, the first of two children of commercial artist Thomas Chick (1903–1973) and his wife Pauline (1903–1991).cite web
title = California Birth Index, 1905-1995 (free registration required)
work =
publisher = State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.
year = 2005
url = http://www.vitalsearch-ca.com/
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] U.S. Census, April 1, 1930, State of California, County of Los Angeles, enumeration district 909, p. 9-A, family 234.] [Ancestry.com, "Social Security Death Index" [database on-line] , Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.] The family later moved to Alhambra where Chick was active in the high school drama club.Citation
last = Ito
first = Robert
title = To Hell With You
journal = The Independent on Sunday
date = July 6
year = 2003
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20030706/ai_n12744201 ] Chick's official biography notes that he was not religious in high school and was in fact avoided by Christian students, who believed "he was the last guy on earth who would ever accept Jesus Christ."cite web
title = Biography of Jack Chick
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/information/authors/chick.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20]

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.cite web
title = Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records)
work = World War II Army Enlistment Records
publisher = National Archives and Records Administration
date = September 30 2002
url = http://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?dt=893&mtch=166&q=&cat=all&tf=F&bc=sl,fd&txt_24995=Chick&op_24995=2&nfo_24995=V,24,1900&sc=24994,24995,24996,24998,24997,24993,24981,24983&rpp=10&sort=24995%20desc&pg=7
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] 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."

After the war he returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and met his wife while working on a production there. Lola Lynn Priddle (1926–1998), a Canadian immigrant, came from a very religious family, and Chick's official biography describes her as "instrumental in his salvation." [Ancestry.com, "Detroit Border Crossings and Passenger and Crew Lists, 1905-1957" [database on-line] , Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.] Priddle and her parents introduced Chick to the Charles E. Fuller radio show, the "Old Fashioned Revival Hour", and Chick relates that he was converted while listening to an episode of this show. They married in 1948 and had one child, Carol, who died in 2001.cite news
last = Baber
first = La Rue V.
title = Spreading the "Light"
publisher = The Daily Bulletin
year = 2003
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/videos/filmreview.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20] In February 1998, Lola Lynn died and Chick has since remarried. In a 2005 issue of "Battle Cry", Chick reported that he had suffered a heart attack while being transported to the hospital suffering from hypoglycemia. Shortly thereafter he had a triple coronary artery bypass.cite news
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = A Message from Jack Chick
publisher = Battle Cry
date = September/October 2005
url = http://www.chick.com/bc/2005/jtcletters_o.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20]

Chick lives a reclusive life; he has given only one interview since 1975. [cite web
last = Davis
first = Scoobie
title = The Jack T. Chick Documentary
publisher = Scoobie Davis Online
date = October 31, 2006
url = http://scoobiedavis.blogspot.com/2006/10/jack-t.html
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] His reclusiveness created speculation that he was a "nom-de-plume" for an unnamed author or authors. Several audio cassettes of his preaching distributed to his subscribers purport to contain his voice. He has never released a photo of himself for publication, although photos purportedly of Chick have been published by others. [ [http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/02/the_face_of_chi.html] ]

Career

After converting to Christianity, Chick wanted to proselytize to others, but was too shy to talk to people directly about religion. Chick heard from missionary Bob Hammond, who broadcast in Asia on the Voice of America, that the Communist Party of China had gained significant influence among ordinary Chinese in the 1950s through the distribution of small comic books. Chick also began working with a prison ministry and created a flip chart of illustrations to use with his presentation. He hit upon the idea of creating witnessing tracts, which could be given to people directly or indirectly.

While working for the AstroScience Corporation in city|El Monte|California, he self-published his first tract, "Why No Revival?", with a loan from his credit union in 1960 and wrote his second tract, "A Demon's Nightmare", shortly afterward. He decided to create more tracts and began "using his kitchen table as an office and art studio." Christian bookstores were reluctant to accept the tracts, but they were popular among missionaries and churches.

Chick Publications was officially established in 1970 in city|Rancho Cucamonga|California. Initially, Jack Chick wrote and illustrated all of the comics himself, but in 1972 he hired another artist to illustrate many of the tracts. Fred Carter illustrated tracts anonymously until 1980, when he was identified in an issue of Chick's newsletter "Battle Cry". Carter also painted the oil paintings seen in "The Light of the World", a film Chick produced that relates the Christian gospel.cite web
title = The Light of the World: A Film by Jack T Chick
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/videos/lotw.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ]

Chick's influence as a comic artist led the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History to include several Chick tracts in an exhibit on American pop culture.

Chick Publications

Chick Publications has released over twenty "Chick comics" since its founding in 1970. The first 11 form the "Crusader comics" series, which follows the stories of two fundamentalist Christians and addresses topics such as the occult, Bible prophecy and the theory of evolution.cite web
title = Crusader Comics
work = Comics List
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/comiclist.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] Six comics present the testimony of anti-Catholic activist Alberto Rivera, who claimed that, as a Jesuit priest, he had become privy to many secrets about the Roman Catholic Church. Among Rivera's claims, the Catholic Church created Islam (the "Vatican Islam conspiracy") and masterminded the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Holocaust and started World War II.cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Godfathers
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1982
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0114/0114_allinone.asp ] There are also three independent comics, one telling stories from the King James Version of the Bible, one relaying the claims of Charles Chiniquy regarding the Catholic Church, and one detailing Chick's opinions on Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Chick Publications also distributes Chick's most notable creations, "Chick tracts", small comic tracts with religious messages. Over 200 have been published and most can be viewed in their entirety on the company's website. The most popular Chick tract, "This Was Your Life", has been translated into more than 100 languages,cite web
title = Tract Languages
work = Non English Tract Look Up
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/TractLookUp.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] and many other tracts are available in widely spoken languages such as Arabic,cite web
title = Stock Arabic Titles
work = Non English Tract Look Up
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlookuplist.asp?language=Arabic
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] German,cite web
title = Stock German Titles
work = Non English Tract Look Up
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlookuplist.asp?language= German
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] Spanish,cite web
title = Stock Spanish Titles
work = Non English Tract Look Up
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlookuplist.asp?language=Spanish
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] and Tagalog.cite web
title = Stock Tagalog Titles
work = Non English Tract Look Up
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlookuplist.asp?language=Tagalog
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ]

Chick's views are best documented in his tracts, which cover subjects such as abortion, homosexuality, non-Protestant religions, the occult, rock music, politics, popular culture, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and the theory of evolution, generally in a negative light.cite web
title = English Tract List
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlist.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] Chick believes many of the world's problems are deliberately caused by the Catholic Church. He credits the Catholic Church with founding Islam,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Storyteller
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1985
pages = 8
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0062/0062_01.asp] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, [cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Visitors
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1984
pages = 17
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0061/0061_01.asp] and the Jehovah's Witnesses,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Crisis
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1985
pages = 11-12
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0026/0026_01.asp] persecuting Jews and starting the Holocaust,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Holocaust
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1984
pages = 5-10
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0054/0054_01.asp] and founding and promoting Communism.

Chick also argues that Satan and his demons promote the occult through New Age beliefs,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Bewitched
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 2000
pages = 5-7
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0045/0045_01.asp] Wicca,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Nervous Witch
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 2002
pages = 3-4
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5012/5012_01.asp] cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Poor Little Witch
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1987
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0064/0064_01.asp] role-playing games,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Dark Dungeons
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1984
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp] and the celebration of Halloweencite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Devil's Night
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 2004
pages = 5-13
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1053/1053_01.asp] to deceive people and send them to Hell. Chick is opposed to abortioncite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Who Murdered Clarice?
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 2000
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1009/1009_01.asp] cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Baby Talk
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1995
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0077/0077_01.asp] and preaches against pre-marital sex.cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = That Crazy Guy!
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1992
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0090/0090_01.asp] He believes homosexuality is a sin,cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = The Gay Blade
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1985
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0084/0084_01.asp] cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Birds and the Bees
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 2004
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1052/1052_01.asp] and references the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah in tracts treating homosexuality.cite book
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Doom Town
publisher = Chick Publications
year = 1991
url = http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0273/0273_01.asp]

Chick's views have been the subject of extensive criticism by some of the groups he targets, including Pagans and Catholic organizations. Wiccan author Kerr Cuhulain describes Chick and his theories as "anti-feminist", "anti-Pagan", notes that a Chick Publications comic book was the source of a city|Rapid City|South Dakota police detective's presentation on the history of Satanism given in 1989, and describes him as "easily the least reputable source of reliable information on religious groups."Citation
last = Cuhulain
first = Kerr
author-link = Kerr Cuhulain
title = Jack Chick: Tracts for Every Occasion
newspaper = Pagan Protection Center
pages = 4
year = 2002
date = August 26
url = http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4639]

Many Catholic and Protestant organizations consider Chick to be anti-Catholic, based on his various claims about the Roman Catholic Church. Chick, on the other hand, considers himself opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, but not its individual members. On his "Roman Catholicism FAQ" Chick says he began publishing his theories about the Roman Catholic Church because "he loves Catholics and wants them to be saved through faith in Jesus."cite web
last = Chick
first = Jack
title = Roman Catholicism FAQ
work =
publisher = Chick Publications
url = http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p3.asp Roman Catholicism FAQ
accessdate = 2008-02-20 " [] "] "Catholic Answers" calls Chick "savagely anti-Catholic,"cite web
last = Newkirk
first = Terrye
title = Who's @fr@id of the Big Bad Web?: A Guide for Catholic Newbies
publisher = Catholic Answers
url = http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1997/9702fea2.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-21] describes Chick's claims about the Catholic Church as "bizarre"cite news
title = Chick Tracts: Their Origin and Refutation
pages = 3
publisher = Catholic Answers
url = http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p3.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] and "often grotesque in their arguments,"cite web
last = Keating
first = Karl
authorlink = Karl Keating
title = Burden of History
work = Up Front
publisher = Catholic Answers
url = http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0004up.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-21 ] and calls for the tracts to be pulled from the market and corrected.cite news
title = Chick Tracts: Their Origin and Refutation
pages = 6
publisher = Catholic Answers
url = http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p6.asp
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] In the early 1980s, Chick's stance on Catholicism led some Christian bookstores to stop stocking his tracts, and he withdrew from the Christian Booksellers Association after the association considered expelling him.cite news
title = Booksellers’ Group May Expel Chick
pages = 62
publisher = Christianity Today
date = October 23 1981 ] "Christianity Today" described Jack Chick as an example of "the world of ordinary, nonlearned evangelicals," for whom "atavistic anti-Catholicism remains as colorful and unmistakable as ever."cite news
last = Mark
first = Noll
coauthors = Carolyn Nystrom
authorlink = Mark Noll
title = Is the Reformation Over? (Registration and payment required for online access)
publisher = Christianity Today
date = July 1 2005
url = http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2005/julaug/1.10.html
accessdate = ]

References

External links

* [http://www.chick.com/ Chick Publications website]
* [http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p1.asp Catholic Response to Jack Chick]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20030706/ai_n12744201 "Los Angeles Magazine" article by Robert Ito]
* [http://enterthejabberwock.com/?cat=12 Enter the Jabberwock] , humorous dissections of Chick tracts
* [http://www.316now.com "Hot Chicks": a collection of 9 filmed tracts]
* [http://www.weirdcrap.com/chick/ The Jack T. Chick Parody Archive]
* [http://members.aol.com/monsterwax/chick.html Jack T. Chick Museum of Fine Art] Includes tracts discontinued and removed by Chick Publications.
* [http://www.jackchickmovie.com God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick] Documentary film about Jack Chick & Chick Publications