Chick Tract - Style and Themes

Style and Themes

The tracts typically follow the themes of fear of incurring the wrath of God and suffering an eternity of agonizing punishment, or redemption in the afterlife, or set up a confrontation between an evangelical Christian and a non-Christian or non-evangelical Christian in order to spread a religious message. Most Chick tracts end with either a non-Christian being converted to Christianity or a contrast between those who accept Jesus and those who do not; a convert receives entry into heaven, while a non-believer is condemned to hell, in a recycled scene in which God (portrayed as a giant, glowing, faceless figure sitting on a throne) condemns or welcomes a character. In one tract, Things To Come, God appears with a visible face.

Several tracts follow a spiritual warfare theme; during scenes of human interaction, the presence of angels and demons manipulating the situation is sometimes revealed to the reader. The actions and conversations of the spiritual beings go unnoticed by the human characters. Additionally, Satan himself has appeared occasionally, portrayed as a devil bearing horns and a beard, and the Grim Reaper, in a black robe and wielding a scythe, is sometimes seen during (or before) a character's death.

Several of them involve the eternal fates of those who accept and reject Christian salvation. His best known tract, This Was Your Life, is one example, telling the story of a man who dies and faces his final judgment before God. When the Angel of Death has come for him, he protests in vain, "JUDGMENT? -- but you don't understand. Heaven and Hell are here on Earth! I've always said that!"

Some of his salvation-oriented tracts deal with members of non-Christian religions, such as Islam (an example is Allah Had No Son), or groups that might be considered "cults" within fundamentalist Christian circles, such as Mormonism (an example is The Visitors). Chick has also written tracts on topics such as abortion, an example being Who Murdered Clarice?, about a doctor who is judged by God for having performed an abortion.

Chick tracts end with a suggested prayer for the reader to pray to accept Christ. In most of these tracts it is a standard sinner's prayer for salvation. In the tracts dealing with Catholicism or Islam, the prayer includes a clause to reject these religions. Included with the prayer are directions for converting to Christianity. Occasionally, there is a scene in which Satan tells the reader that there is nothing to worry about, followed by a Christian character warning the reader not to listen to him.

The comics are often drawn simplistically yet effectively, with dialog and thought bubbles present during conversation. Profanity is often used in the words of demons and non-Christians, obscured completely by random punctuation marks (grawlixes).

Strips, Toons, and Bluesies, written by Douglas Bevan Dowd and Todd Hignite, stated that "it's safe to assume Chick saw at least some" Tijuana bibles since the books and, according to Dowd and Hignite, Chick tracts were "strikingly similar" to Tijuana bibles; like Tijuana bibles the tracts mostly targeted youth of lower socioeconomic classes and "were loaded with stereotypes." The book stated that Chick tracts contained "way-out, wild" portrayals of recreational drug usage and portrayed "the sexual revolution." In addition the comics included supernatural elements, occult rituals, torture, and cannibalism.

Several specific topics are presented below: