Chick Tracts: Best-Selling Comics of All Time!!!

Рет қаралды 23,664

4 жыл бұрын

Ed's Patreon: www.patreon.com/edpiskor
Jim's Octobriana 1976 Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimrugg/fluorescent-blacklight-outlaw-comic-book
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Пікірлер: 198

@tartanphantom 4 жыл бұрын

They were often distributed as Halloween "treats" back in the 60's and 70's. I can't tell you how many I ended up with in my treat bag over the years.

@fatfreddyfreak6926 3 жыл бұрын

How is that possible? They weren't even around in the 60s. The first Chick Tract wasn't released until the mid 1970s.

@9-nine-ix528 2 жыл бұрын

@@fatfreddyfreak6926 New subscriber here.

@hashtagdag 4 жыл бұрын

"Have yuh heard th' good news today, brother?"

@gregoryguy1062 4 жыл бұрын

Found a prestine copy (Born Wild!) on top of a gas pump three weeks ago.

@BryceStradling 3 жыл бұрын

My first illustration job was to paint these soccer players in various poses, and it followed a loose narrative but I wasn't given a story or dialogue. It was just like "a guy scoring a goal, a guy getting a red card etc". Weeks later they sent me the print version and I had provided the illustrations for one of these things. To be passed out at the Olympics in 08 and they wanted to use it for the world cup... it's good to ask what your work is going to be used for. Hard lesson learned.

@harcoremonkey 8 ай бұрын

Can you name the actual title where your work was used?

@jonjameshogan1611 4 жыл бұрын

Always wanted to read Chick tracts out of curiosity, but never wanted to give them my money. Thanks for making both those goals happen, Ed and Jim!

@madhat2k Жыл бұрын

I work retail and often times find these things deliberately abandoned in random places for people to find.

@neilsanzari9723 4 жыл бұрын

I had no idea about this guy until I watched your video. But last month I stopped at a Wawa on the weekend. Wawa’s kind of like 7-ELEVEN, but better. Great coffee. Anyhow, the place was inundated by biker gangs. Reminded me of The Wild Ones and the old Mad Max. So when I used the facilities, I found the Sissy comic on top of the urinal (and took it home with me). Felt like prison, and I had to watch my back, haha. I didn’t know what to expect opening up that thing to read it. I was blown away to find out it was about Jesus. Crazy world.

@neilsanzari9723 4 жыл бұрын

Gotta preface never been in prison, but when I found that little comic I felt like the protagonist in Shawshank. Scary little moment.

@r.plante2916 Жыл бұрын

I was handed one in the cashier line of a pet store a few years ago. I treasure it.

@staticprevails 4 жыл бұрын

when i was a kid, being forced to attend summer bible camps and all, they'd hand these things out like candy. i had quite a few of them as a kid but over time would dispose of them. i vividly remember reading This Was Your Life in middle school. at the time i was getting into punk rock and i distinctly remember a panel that said something like, "Satan has kids listening to punk rock, thinking hell is party time!" so then i balanced it out with christian punk rock, lol. anyway, fascinating weird stuff. thanks for another well-done video overview!

@reprintranch 4 жыл бұрын

Back in the early 1980s, there was a Florida-based punk rock fanzine called "Destroy," which I used to pick up at the local indie record store (me being a metalhead interested in anything locally produced and crazy). In one issue, they did a multi-page reworking of "This Was Your Life" with new text, and the twist ending was that the protagonist went to hell because he didn't buy the new Roach Motel record, if I remember correctly. (I would scan and post here, but I loaned my stack of "Destroy" to someone who was supposedly going to use them in a film, and I never saw 'em again.)

@JxT1957 3 жыл бұрын

woe unto them that call evil good and good evil... isaiah 5:20, most of those tracts can be purchased pretty cheap from the chick website at about 17 cents each, some are out of print.

@itstravco 4 жыл бұрын

I live in the bible belt in South Carolina so these things have always been around. You find them shoved in credit card slots on gas pumps, randomly hid on store shelves, all over the place at flea markets. My friends and I refer to them as God Grenades coz people leave them around like pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing from cover hoping you'll blast someone with the good word of the lord haha I grab these whenever I see them coz reading them is straight like how fucked up is shit gonna get before someone comes along and hits em with the power of prayer. It's pure trash entertainment to me but I dig the art and format.

@guynarcomey4205 4 жыл бұрын

Dang, you guys brought back some memories. I remember these. Way to hit on this. This is very interesting. There's a lot of interesting stories in people who do comics.

@TattooedDragon32 2 жыл бұрын

I am in Canada and remember growing up in 80s being exposed to these. My parents were bikers and had these friends out of town that we would visit on way to Sturgis. These books were everywhere in the house especially the bathrooms. Read every single one of these books between ages of 12-16 out of pure boredom. They fascinated me in the sense that i couldn't believe people actually believed in a comic strip. They used to be sold in strange places, like gas stations NOTE: I was raised with no religion, churches were only entered for someone's wedding or funeral

@Former_Pastor 6 ай бұрын

I haven't been to a church for any reason in 25 years. Couldn't drag me to one !

@frdh1357 4 жыл бұрын

Hell of a presentation. I laughed too hard at the "in a state of PTSD" line.

@judywilson7059 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for making this video, I love how you two can have a simple conversation regarding the genius behind these tracts minus a lot of emotional commentary. I remember finding these as a kid in the seventies, in the Midwest. - I look forward to seeing these make their way into future distribution. Great video!

@jasonduran8324 4 жыл бұрын

I heard you mention Chick tracts a while back and I’m glad you got around to doing it.

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

I have a copy of "Kiss the protestants goodbye" . I think I found it on a bench in the change room at the gym I was frequenting. I also remember a young man handing me a tract back in 1978 or so at a junior college. I read it and it was the seed that fell on good earth.

@Therealmrmeow 4 жыл бұрын

Getting to this in a minute ...just finishing the Ron Frenz shoot interview from last year. It's like I'm diggin through your long boxes and you slap a new #1 in my face.

@footwinner1 4 жыл бұрын

Got some of these in high school from the cashier at a thrift store in a tiny town in Northern Arkansas. My friends and I laughed so hard at them but once I started thinking about the kids raised on these in earnest it really disturbed me. Some really toxic and horrifying ideas. Year later in college, I shopped at Walmart and saw the cashier running outside calling for me. It turned out that I had forgotten a bag and he was kind enough to return it. Then he handed me a couple of these booklets and started preaching to me while he was away from the counter. Always a story when you come across Chick.

@WhoopWu100 4 жыл бұрын

When I worked at the Words & Pictures Museum, Chick would wedge Tracts into the window display of Kevin Eastman's studio recreation. Cheapskate attempt to make time in a museum if you ask me. i did keep a few copies in my office though. For fun.

@davidc1664 4 жыл бұрын

Jack T Chick: the most widely read theologian in human history

@FrankGrauJr 3 жыл бұрын

This review could have gone sideways really quick, but as always, you guys did a great job of being objective while focusing on the comic aspect and history of the material. Well done.

@neilsanzari9723 4 жыл бұрын

OMG Ed you cracked me up when Jim showed you the art of the bruised Jesus, and you said “ugh.”

@neilsanzari9723 4 жыл бұрын

Also gotta preface that I’m not laughing at Jesus (Isaiah 53 KJV), or you. I just thought it was ironic, because you make the Red Room comic, and you revealed a goodness in you. You tickled my heart, because I love to write very rough stuff as well. The both of you are good people. Keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you.

@purciaraulsamuela.8901 Жыл бұрын

But it was really that gory.

@alexbraun3595 4 жыл бұрын

I know Dan Clowes would parody Chick Tracts when he was working on Eightball.

@fad23 4 жыл бұрын

I only remember Devil Doll. Did he do more?

@alexbraun3595 2 жыл бұрын

@@fad23 Other than the IMP, Devil Doll is the one that people know more. I’d be down if he did a whole series of them.

@paulhardman2515 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks guys! I totally missed this one!

@panthiopliconica 4 жыл бұрын

I remember coming across these at random benches and pay phones in the college I went to in San Francisco. I ended up buying one of those packs. His tracts are so filled with glee over the punishments of the damned. One thing he talked about a lot was that he was inspired by comics that he had seen that were made in China during Mao's rule that celebrated the dear leader and his ideas. So that may be where he got the idea for the size.

@dannymac1310 4 жыл бұрын

Jim did a great job with some very difficult subject matter, not condoning from a moral perspective but also not ignoring on an artistic level. I can relate to him here, my parents also let me read as many of these as I wanted (and there were a LOT of them). They terrified me. They were essentially my first exposure to the “horror” genre. But from a strictly cartoonist perspective, the seemingly innocent artwork that then becomes a demonic hellscape with the turn of a page is very effective.

@kevlar2000 4 жыл бұрын

I remember getting at least a few of these in my Halloween hauls every year as a kid. So disappointing at the time, but I wish I'd held onto them now.

@angelaseckinger4744 2 жыл бұрын

One possible answer to the "why are the tracts in this format?" may be in connection to the paperbacks that were distributed to servicemen in WWII which Jack Chick would have had access to during his service. These unabridged novels were sized so that servicemen could slide them in their pocket easily. They tended to choose shorter novels so that the books wouldn't be too thick or bulky. I have a copy of Cannery Row and it isn't much larger than a chick tract (maybe 3x6 or 3x7). The size makes it easy for people to carry with them and share with others.

@DiegoGarcia-tz5tp 3 жыл бұрын

Very glad you guys covered these Tracts. I grew up reading them in El Salvador and, although I despise their message, I loved seeing the cool crude art (specially as a 7 year old).

@jaybee8764 4 жыл бұрын

I've always found the ones I have from the wild at bus stops.

@blue_diamond_gem 3 ай бұрын

I loved reading these when I was a kid.

@jj3164 3 ай бұрын

I love Chick Tracts. Started collecting in 1979. Hi There and Frame Up were my first two.

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

Time for a trip to Canada!

@lonnieclemens8028 6 ай бұрын

What an incredible review! I believe the story of salvation contained in the Chick Tracts. 'This Was Your Life' is probably my favorite.

@theartofSkinner 4 жыл бұрын

Good lil video about this. The documentary is really good too

@carrion_man3700 4 жыл бұрын

I had a couple of these as a kid. My grandparents hated them. I liked the art and just thought it was typical prosthelytizing. Wish I still had them.

@peterdanielman 4 жыл бұрын

He... probably went the hell.

@sublime2craig 2 жыл бұрын

Is there a PDF version of The Imp? series by Daniel Raeburn? Would love to read them and can't find any hard copies to purchase...

@szcorpioilluzion 4 жыл бұрын

Anyone ever read THE GOOD MORTY? It is tract by Justin Roiland, Ryan Rydley and Erica Hayes that came with season one of Rick and Morty DVD set. Thanks for the tract enlightenment Jim and Ed it helped me decipher THE GOOD MORTY tract. Righteous

@samnoirstoysandcomics1169 4 жыл бұрын

I used to find Chick Tracts on the subway all the time. Recentyl found two after not having seen any in more than a decade.

@Gootie29 4 жыл бұрын

I got handed my first Chick Tract, Big Daddy, from a street preacher at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco back in the 90’s. Frankly, it took some balls to proselytize with homophobia and creationism on the streets of SF! I was repulsed initially but intrigued by the book and Jack T. Chick. I later found Scarface in a quarter box at Jelly’s in Hawaii. Most of these books are offensive but I do see value in reviewing them and the creators from an academic standpoint. Great video

@johnnydollar666 4 жыл бұрын

i have several if these - to show how old I am, I would often find them on top of Pay Phones ;D

@Oompa-dn9jm 4 жыл бұрын

The only one I have ever found in the wild was in the bathroom of Barnes & Noble in Homestead, PA.

@73north 4 жыл бұрын

looking forward to your interview of Pat Mills ( British Comic Writer / Editor from 2000AD ) being interviewed on SPACE WARP - and his reveal of British Comic Rights ( or the lack of them ) - and it seems to not really have improved over time !

@davidmoses6434 4 жыл бұрын

when I worked at Trader Joe's, I found at least one in the bathroom, just sitting on top of the toilet

@scottpalmer2063 4 жыл бұрын

They were so absurd I loved finding them on the bus - the size was for putting in your pocket.

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

You have to make sure your wife buys you shirts with pockets. If no pockets the demons will be happy. Pocket less shirts have no room for Chick tracts! I have purchased a couple of Chick tract wallets to keep the tracts from becoming dog eared. I love handing them out. I gave Doom Town to a high school kid who was hanging out with a few other teens. I told him to pass it around.

@Shoobster 2 жыл бұрын

@@PIANOPHUNGUY Luckily my wife only buys me dresses so I have nowhere to put these sorry ass tracts.

@christophernixonart 4 жыл бұрын

I had a lot of those Crusaders series comics when I was a kid. Some of the ones you didn't show in the video are the craziest ones, and have some pretty decent painted covers. I would check out The Force, Angel of Light, Spellbound?, The Four Horsemen, and The Big Betrayal.

@paulspence2815 4 жыл бұрын

Chick Tracts were available in Canada up until the mid-80's. I remember finding them on buses during the 60's and 70's. I was a bible thumper at the time and even then I found Chick Tracts beyond the pale. I appreciate your history of this peculiar form of religious propaganda. I don't think Canadians have become significantly culturally deprived by not having them around.

@fatfreddyfreak6926 3 жыл бұрын

They weren't out in the 1960s

@tomatomodest2487 2 жыл бұрын

My mom has stories of getting them at her church

@validcore 3 жыл бұрын

I knew he was cool and love the little tracts ...didn't know about the full comics, they look awesome!

@antdujar 3 жыл бұрын

I was just thinking about the origin of this dude, and lo and behold you guys have the answer! I grew up seeing these on the streets on NY, and handouts etc. you can still find these on the subways.

@wholewurrld 4 жыл бұрын

also have been collecting these forever and can confirm they are still available for free next to many a cash register all throughout the south

@mergopetrichor199 2 жыл бұрын

I love that this is in the Halloween playlist. 🤣

@gooddouble2 3 жыл бұрын

This was fascinating. I actually have a copy of "This Was Your Life" at home and I have no idea how I got it or any of this backstory.

@retrovideos1445 4 жыл бұрын

Can’t wait for the Pat Mills interview! Release the Guv’na!

@half_dane 4 жыл бұрын

Never heard of these. Wild stuff

@jabbajuju 4 жыл бұрын

@8:10 Holy Crap! I just picked up The Broken Cross this summer!!! I wondered why it looked so weird!!!

@pbgauthier5487 4 жыл бұрын

That was soooooo interesting. Thank God for Jim Rugg, truly a scholar.

@MrEdWeirdoShow 2 жыл бұрын

My, what a very excellent last name you have there, sir.

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

Wasn't Jim Rugg on the original Star Trek as a special effects designer?

@jgunnm1 4 жыл бұрын

Great story ... thanks Jim.

@ChristyHD27 2 жыл бұрын

They put these horrific comics on our middle school playground in the 90s. They were so graphic that I was afraid to bring one home because my Christian mother would have grounded me.

@jasonfate8026 4 жыл бұрын

Super fascinating

@Zeshin 2 жыл бұрын

The worst doctor's waiting room I've ever had to be in had a little metal display stand for them.

@raymartinez4956 4 жыл бұрын

These things are like tumble weeds in New York Especially the 42nd street station (Times Square). I used to ask the person handin em out for one of each. They were always more than happy to give em away. These things would be stomped flat into the ground like chewing gum!

@JamesParatiiArts 4 жыл бұрын

woo hohoho I really want some of those colour comics, they look insane!!!! so good

@comicsmisexplained 4 жыл бұрын

I still have one about a gang doing drive-bys. Sometimes I’ll keep those Watchtowers & Awakes that have dope art about Armageddon. Figure I’ll make a collage one day or something haha

@JNTjr 4 жыл бұрын

I got one as a trick or treat trinket when I was in the fifth grade I believe. It was the last year I wanted to go around town trick or treating, and someone dropped it in my bag. I remember exactly which one it was... It was "Happy Halloween," and before reading it I thought it was going to be a nice little Halloween celebratory comic. Boy was I wrong! That scared me more than watching The Exorcist in high school. That was so hateful and hell bent paranoid about being damned, it might be why I stopped trick or treating in town. Ha ha ha, now I want to find a copy of that as a morbid memento.

@DelmarPeet 4 жыл бұрын

As a a Christian I grew up around these things. Dude was definitely off his rocker... Great and honest review.

@kylecarson5723 3 жыл бұрын

They were distrupted as conversion tools. So kids in the neighbour hood could give them away. I first discovered these when I first moved to Toronto and I was on the subway listening to tool, maybe even wearing a tool shirt, and probably reading a comic. When this little asian girl handed me a comic and it was all about how I was going to hell because of metal music. I thought it was so awesome lol. I didn't know it was a thing until I saw a video, I think from vice.

@knownaigm 4 жыл бұрын

I used to find these all over town as a kid. I'd find them in restaurant bathroom stalls, left on gas pumps at gas stations, stuck in the napkin dispenser in cafeterias, laying around randomly in public places or put under the windshield wipers on your car etc. I always thought the illustration was nice but the messages were so vile and hateful I always threw them away.

@makoseda 4 жыл бұрын

Oooh snap. I remember seeing that Scar Face cover at a local Christian bookstore, early 90’s.

@MrDepechefan1 3 жыл бұрын

I love how anyone who encounters these in the modern age just feels dirty, I've found these in the bathroom at work

@markgrudzinski914 4 жыл бұрын

One of my friends in high school had insanely religious, evangelical parents. He had a giant garbage bag filled with these comics. We'd get high in his basement and laugh our asses off reading them.

@JoelMielke 3 жыл бұрын

Don't read them on acid, though.

@humanebeing6230 Жыл бұрын

@@JoelMielke, ‼️

@BreathLife777 2 ай бұрын

Jesus is real. Repent and believe before it is too late.

@randychris536 Жыл бұрын

You probably don't know how many people got saved off a chick track

@Used__Napkin 3 жыл бұрын

My first exposure to these were in a public bathroom.

@alexauclair1 3 жыл бұрын

I had “this was your life” don’t know where I got it but I had one . It was decent so I’m guessing there’s still being printed en masse

$@xrisfractal$

@xrisfractal 4 жыл бұрын

Oh man, my friends and I would follow the religious freaks dropping those little comics all over Times sq in NYC. That stuff, though so wrong(SO WRONG!) in intent, but was great for the lurid imagery.

@beeto45 Жыл бұрын

the holy joe comic left me wondering what really happened to him at the end cause he was not shown in the ending; did he reject jesus (it happens) and ended up in heaven? well never knows...

@samaxamen 4 жыл бұрын

I have definitely seen them in the laundromat.

@Ayanami0001 4 жыл бұрын

Nice blue The Imp! Got a nice condition red one yesterday. There is orange out there too

@josef2107 4 жыл бұрын

I have an orange one, third printing.

@Ayanami0001 4 жыл бұрын

@@josef2107 Jealous!

@BreathLife777 2 ай бұрын

How much hate would you have to have to not tell everyone the way to eternal life.

@xavigolden8287 4 жыл бұрын

you know it's upsetting when it unnerves ed piskor

@9-nine-ix528 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite Chick parody is the Lovecraft-themed Who Will Be Eaten First.

@matthewporter5048 4 жыл бұрын

These scared the hell out of me as a kid

@humanebeing6230 Жыл бұрын

They started terrorizing us with these in fourth grade, in Sunday school. We’d walk in, and they’d be laid out at every seat at the table. #RaisedBaptist

@Colt-ii4qn 2 жыл бұрын

Brings back memories for me, don’t agree with a lot of what he said but still enjoyed the read 😊

@gdkeen3307 4 жыл бұрын

Absolutely phenomenal video! I appreciate the objective analysis of Chick’s legacy. A lot of people, even historians, would dismiss him offhand because of his positions.

@williambrown1065 4 жыл бұрын

Kurtzman’s Humbug? More likely a reference to Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, and probably the cover drawing is of Scrooge (“Bah, humbug!”). And as for the printing size, the reason a row of the printed booklets don’t add up to a standard size is probably because they are trimmed. Note the bleed on all the covers.

@valmid5069 2 жыл бұрын

*One can argue that WW2 has also brought out authors with literary impacts. Military veterans turned writers such as George Orwell, William Golding, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Chick, etc are such examples*

@RingoHalliday 4 ай бұрын

I have a copy of "Dark Dungeons" I picked mine up on eBay. I think it was less than $10, but do not recall. It's out of print, but it's not one of the really really rare ones.

@fad23 4 жыл бұрын

I had no idea Chick produced out of Los Angeles.

@Kenneth_H_Olsen 8 ай бұрын

I just got into the Chick Comix, from watching lectures from Alberto Riviera. And man if you want to go to thru the rabbit hole, this is it, because the storys are real incidents . . The history and practice of religion/occult is so wild and full of control freaks, and world dominination . It put a fresh perspective on why Martin Luther , whycliffe and Jan hus protested against the Pope (who claims to be the emperor of the world and God on Earth ) . And that every bad road, leads to Rome. And yeah, Jesus is our saviour, the most hardcore dude around, and the most merciful .

@renegade_legend2583 4 жыл бұрын

Will you post Octobriana on ComiXology?

@Rimbranbt 4 жыл бұрын

I saw a while bunch of these on the grown durning state fair time's.

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

How do you spend your time in a laundromat while your clothes are being cleaned? Reading a CHICK TRACT of course.

@j.wallacemusic4401 3 ай бұрын

Are they still available?

@neilsanzari9723 4 жыл бұрын

You gotta take a shower 🧼 after this, haha 🤣

@Jaddaprog 3 жыл бұрын

Blast from the past. In the 00s when I was going to evangelical highschool these were pretty common. As a kid i didn't realize just how many of them these were.

@quebeccityoliver4742 3 жыл бұрын

Just to clarify the "banned in Canada" point at 5:24-5:30. Some tracts have been banned. But there is no blanket ban - I personally saw one as recently as 2 years ago in the hands of a child (I am certain it was a French translation but I couldn't see which tract it was). Lisa was withdrawn by the organization itself, of course

@PIANOPHUNGUY 2 жыл бұрын

Child molesters are sinners. They need to stop.

@amedeomodigliani4389 4 жыл бұрын

When I lived in Virginia for a few years as a kid I would come across these. This was the exact brand of Christianity that they were selling down there... FIRE AND BRIMSTONE! 🔥 ☠️