[The following post was written by Ron Edwards for his site Comics Madness and is republished here with permission. The entirety of the reader Comments that followed his writing are also included as of 9/16/2016; they have not been edited for content, and they reflect solely the views of their writers.]
Happy birthday to me! I grant you this is an odd topic for my birthday post, as I have zero affinity or resonance with evangelical Christianity. Its impact is definite at second-hand, though, as I think about the number of friends and family who became Jesus People (the early term) and (as soon called) Saved or Born Again during my pre-teens and teens, say from 1974 through the early 1980s. My previous column sort of got me going on the religion/comics topic and it turned out to be autobiographically non-trivial, so here we go.
According to Chick Publications, their CEO and founder Jack T. Chick died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday night. He was 92. His death is mourned by some, and celebrated by others.
Since the news broke, “Jack Chick” has been trending on Twitter. It is not a pretty picture that is being presented. This is in no way surprising. For all but a select few, the man did not have a nice word to spare. And for the rest of us, he offered only glimpses of the hellfire that awaits us.
I should back up a bit, though, on the off chance that anybody visiting this site doesn’t know who Jack Chick was. He was the creator of the famous and notorious “Chick tracts,” small pamphlets containing black and white Evangelical fundamentalist propaganda comics. Chick had been publishing these pamphlets since the early 1960s, and his oeuvre touches on an impressive array of topics, from evolution to Halloween to “false religions” (everything that is not Protestantism, basically) to the end-times to, famously, role-playing games. The basic message was always the same, however: it doesn’t matter how good or bad you have been in your life, you are going to hell unless you accept the brand of Christianity that Chick promoted. You can read most of them here. He also produced comic books and sold literature that promoted his world-view.
The local Mesquite News out of Mesquite, TX reported last month on a local-boy-done-good personality now putting his attention to Christian-inspired comics. Grammy-winner Art Greenhaw of the Light Crust Doughboys is trying his hand at comic books as editor and co-writer of God’s Silver Soldiers from Truthmonger Press.
Described on its site as “a creative entity whose mission is to bring the much-needed messages of mortality and spirituality to today’s youth through the medium of comicbooks [sic],” Truthmonger Press has premiered the God’s Silver Soldiers “visual novel” at the 2016 Comic-Con International. The series, described in its marketing materials as “approved by the Christian Comics Code Alliance,” features a band of do-gooders united by faith: “When God’s Silver Soldiers come together, the Holy Armor of God increases their strength a hundred fold, and they are able to call forth the powers given to these Christian Super Heroes by The Almighty.”
Greenhaw, who counts “Stan Lee and artists Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Al Hartley, John Buscema, Ben Dunn and Kurt Schaffenberger” among his inspirations, also produced a companion soundtrack to the series. He told Mesquite News that, if he wasn’t writing music or comics, he would likely be “reading, studying the greatest works of religion and philosophy and picking back up karate/martial arts.”
Activists hold a picture of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Wednesday at his funeral [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has reported on a story that may otherwise have eluded American media: as Al-Jazeeraand The Guardian both reported in late September, Jordanian left-wing writer and activist Nahed Hattar was assassinated while entering a courthouse to face blasphemy charges for a cartoon he posted on Facebook.
In the comic, God is depicted as taking orders from an ISIL agent cozily ensconced with two woman in Paradise. Hattar, part of Jordan’s 4% Christian minority, had intended the cartoon to criticize ISIL’s hypocrisy, but he subsequently deleted the offending piece and offered an apology in the face of Jordanian outrage.
Iconic painting of ‘The Last Supper’ by Hans Holbein the Younger, ca. 1520. Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 18, n. 15, March 28, 1963.
Readers of The Archivist’s Nook blog well know the popularity of the Catholic comic book, the Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, published for most of its history, 1946-1972, by George Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio. The digital version of the collection is especially popular and has been highlighted in three previous blog posts, the first reviewing the origin of Catholic University’s digital collections, ‘Hark! The Digital Angel Comes!’; the second examining issue covers featuring Jesus Christ,‘Treasure Chest – Your Own Virtual Jesus’; and the third an exposition of covers related to the celebration of Christmas, ‘A Merry Treasure Chest Christmas to All!’.
The Last Easter cover, silhouette of Christ’s profile while on the Cross,Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 21, n. 16, April 7, 1966.
It will therefore be no surprise The Archivist’s Nook returns to the Treasure Chest’s remarkable treasure trove to commemorate Easter, past, present, and future. From the first volume of the Treasure Chest in 1946, through the next twenty years, there was usually an annual issue with a cover marking an Easter related event. Occasionally, the Treasure Chest skipped a year, while other years had two Easter related covers. Overall, the most popular were scenes of the empty tomb with the resurrected Jesus Christ announcing his presence (6 occasions) or an angel or angels (3 times) proclaiming the good news to Christ’s followers. Also, there were usually no Easter related stories therein to march the covers, though there were sometimes short features such as ‘Easter Eggs You Can Make’ (April 1, 1947) and ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ (April 8, 1954).
The first Easter cover, presumably the scene from the Book of Mathew, Chapter 28, Verses 1-2, with the Angel of the Lord at Christ’s empty tomb proclaiming the Good News to Mary Magdalene, and another Mary,Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 1, n. 4, April 23, 1946.
The Treasure Chest of the post Second Vatican Council era became more secular in outlook and appearance so that few religious scenes, including any depicting Easter related events, appeared in its last five years, 1967-1972. Sadly, this change of direction was perhaps a harbinger of the Treasure Chest’s ending. Gone, but most certainly not forgotten!
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
Happy birthday to me! I grant you this is an odd topic for my birthday post, as I have zero affinity or resonance with evangelical Christianity. Its impact is definite at second-hand, though, as I think about the number of friends and family who became Jesus People (the early term) and (as soon called) Saved or Born Again during my pre-teens and teens, say from 1974 through the early 1980s. My previous column sort of got me going on the religion/comics topic and it turned out to be autobiographically non-trivial, so here we go.
![Activists hold a picture of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Wednesday at his funeral [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/9/28/1e04bc33997f4c7db5dc5093bb926379_18.jpg)
