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The baby-boomer evangelicals will probably see the little booklets and be struck with sentimental memories of how Jack Chick sought to scare people into heaven.
But a group of 'never-trumpers' are turning to the novelty of the distinctive 3"x5" booklets as a way of catching the attention of a particular demographic who votes religiously (the 55+ crowd). Here's the narrative of the Seattle Times.. Little Dickie Glitz was born rich. His parents gave him lots of stuff, but he was never satisfied and always hollered for more. His parents were lax in the manners department, so Dickie earned a reputation as the loud, spoiled neighborhood brat. The other kids didn’t like to play with Dickie — every time he started losing a game, he stormed away, yelling: “I quit! This game is rigged!” |
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These habits continued into adulthood, and Dickie became a rich, arrogant loudmouth who made a deal with a devilish-looking guy (who bore a striking resemblance to Vladimir Putin) and somehow got elected President of the United States. That’s the basic narrative arc of “I’m Rich!,” a roughly 3-by-5-inch comic-book tract printed on cheap, newspaper-grade paper and lightly sprinkled with gallows-humor wit and relevant Bible verses: “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24), “Everyone who is arrogant is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5), “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness” (Luke 12:15). “I’m Rich!” and its companion tract (“Good Morning Amerika”) were created and published by an enigmatic group called Patriotic Christians for a Better America (PCBA), who have been anonymous — until now. (Its national headquarters is in a cozy house in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) These habits continued into adulthood, and Dickie became a rich, arrogant loudmouth who made a deal with a devilish-looking guy (who bore a striking resemblance to Vladimir Putin) and somehow got elected President of the United States. That’s the basic narrative arc of “I’m Rich!,” a roughly 3-by-5-inch comic-book tract printed on cheap, newspaper-grade paper and lightly sprinkled with gallows-humor wit and relevant Bible verses: “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24), “Everyone who is arrogant is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5), “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness” (Luke 12:15). “I’m Rich!” and its companion tract (“Good Morning Amerika”) were created and published by an enigmatic group called Patriotic Christians for a Better America (PCBA), who have been anonymous — until now. (Its national headquarters is in a cozy house in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) 
About Jack Chick - American cartoonist
Jack Thomas Chick was an American cartoonist and publisher, best known for his evangelical fundamentalist Christian "Chick tracts", which presented his perspective on a variety of issues through sequential-art morality plays. - Wikipedia Born: April 13, 1924, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA Died: October 23, 2016, Alhambra, CA Tract: Chick tract Books: Smokescreens, This Was Your Life!, The Death Cookie, MORE Children: Carol Chick |
Inspiration strikes
In January 2017, right around the time of President Trump’s inauguration, a group of Seattle friends (an artist, a doctor and a few others — who grew up in a variety of faith backgrounds) got together for a dinner party. Everyone was miserable. “It was just people sitting around feeling broken,” said Barry, one of the friends, who asked to be identified by his first name. The reality of Trump’s new presidency and concern about worst-case scenarios (which could change the lives of their friends, patients, of immigrants, Muslims and whomever else was vulnerable to Trump supporters’ most extreme and least charitable impulses) hung over the table like a ghoul. “It was just shock and worry,” Barry said, “asking ourselves: ‘What should we do?'” “I don’t even like thinking about how I felt then,” said Kathryn Rathke, the artist. “It really was kind of hysterical, the panic.” Among them, everybody in the group felt like they’d exhausted their options to resist the rise of President Trump: volunteering, donating, protesting, networking. Then inspiration struck: Chick tracts. Why not write and draw a parody of Chick-tract-style cartoons, but with a twist? Instead of the scare-’em-straight evangelical Christianity of the originals, they could make wry but serious cartoons about a different kind of wayward soul, a sorta-kinda Trump-ish character, then circulate them around the country. It would be satire in the classic mold of Jonathan Swift or Stephen Colbert — humorous, with a strong undercurrent of real-life urgency. For those unfamiliar with Chick tracts, a quick primer: In the 1960s, an evangelical Christian named Jack Chick started making and circulating pocket-size cartoons for distribution wherever potential sinners lingered: libraries, bus stops, train stations, college campuses. The tracts (which often featured graphic, gruesome tortures in hell and on Earth) took aim at anyone who didn’t fit Chick’s mid-20th-century, fundamentalist Christian mold: gay people, marijuana smokers, teens who played Dungeons & Dragons, kids who went trick-or-treating on Halloween, Muslims, Mormons. (One tract, titled “The Death Cookie,” claims the Catholic sacrament of communion was invented by Satan.) According to its 2019 sales catalog, Chick Publications has sold more than 900 million tracts since its start in 1961. The No. 1 best-seller, “This Was Your Life” (in which an angel takes a man’s soul to watch a movie version of his life, then tosses him into a lake of fire), has been translated into 119 languages, including Burmese, Low German, and various versions of Sotho and Hmong. “They’re just sad little tracts,” Barry said. “Insanely negative, no nuance, screaming all the time, a lot of hating others.” Which, he said, made them a fitting inspiration. “The Trump administration feels like a Chick tract. It’s all so loud. When I think back to somebody I disagreed with in the past, President George H.W. Bush, at least there was some nuance. Now it’s all yelling and cartoons.” “The idea took hold right away,” Rathke said. “Most things the Chick tracts address is so much hyperbole, fire and brimstone — but in this case it seemed to fit: ‘OK guys, we have a real fire-and-brimstone situation. This is serious.'” |
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