# Does Jack Chick exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889 "2003-01-31T16:35:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/1 "2003-01-31T16:35:48Z")
Okay, we all know Chick tracts suck, but my question is does Jack Chick exist at all? The artwork in those tracts changes radically from one to another and surely were not all drawn by the same person. Yet his biography at [http://www.chick.com/information/authors/chick.asp](http://www.chick.com/information/authors/chick.asp) certainly gives the impression that he draws all those things himself. Jack Chick is supposed to be rather old, (he’s been drawing tracts for 40 years but he wasn’t an early convert) yet his production hasn’t slowed. The company he supposedly worked for AstroScience Corporation in El Monte, California produced no hits on Google. His wife’s 1998 death also produced no hits. Didn’t she get an obituary? Furthermore, his biography contains no birth date, place of birth or picture of Jack Chick. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/2 "2003-01-31T17:52:30Z")
Yes. Here’s [an eyewitness account](http://www.walkertown.com/jack.html). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/3 "2003-01-31T18:27:36Z")
Thanks for the link **psychonaut**. Of course, if no one knows what he looks like how would you know you met the real Jack Chick? Interesting to see he uses at least one artist. His bio makes no mention of that. Anyone else know anything about this? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/4 "2003-01-31T18:56:47Z")
**rogzilla,** My direct knowledge of Chick is pretty limited, but (like Walt Disney, Stan Lee and Bob Kane) Chick clearly uses/used other artists and likely never drew any of the comics himself. This is neither suspect nor unusual in comics. Even Garry Trudeau is pretty minimally involved with the actual drawing of his strip. If you eant to “get” Chick for his weird, extreme theology, there’s plenty of ammunition there for you to do it. His lack of drawing ability is not relevant, honest. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/5 "2003-01-31T20:28:14Z")
I think Jack Chick died a long time ago … but the corporation continues on with his work using other artists and writers. Same deal as with Cecil and The Chicago Reader … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/6 "2003-01-31T20:48:35Z")
**krokodil** , I’m not out to get Chick. His stuff is too cooky to be seriously debated. I just am curious as to who or what he really is. Does he exist at all? Is he a front for an organization he has little to do with or what? > [@](#): > > Chick clearly uses/used other artists and likely never drew any of the comics himself. Maybe, but you should have read his official bio I linked above. It clearly states he is the artist of several tracts and makes no mention of his having assistants. With a guy like Disney we know when and where he was born, we have interviews with him, we have lots of pictures of him and on and on. With Chick there is zip. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/7 "2003-01-31T21:33:28Z")
I understand he’s Cecil’s evil twin. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/8 "2003-01-31T22:05:05Z")
[This page](http://members.tripod.com/monsterwax/chickfaqs.html) from the [Jack Chick Museum of Fine Art](http://members.aol.com/monsterwax/chick.html) site (that seems to be about 4 cm closer to reality that Jack, himself), discusses his obscurity, his other artists\*, and some other information about him. And [Dwayne Walker](http://www.walkertown.com/jack.html) claims to have actually met him. It’s a pretty interesting read. \*(I don’t really see the “radical” changes in style from one strip to another. I would agree that there have been more than one artist, but the two or three listed on that site would seem to account for the differences I have seen.) ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/9 "2003-01-31T22:21:02Z")
Do turn your volume down upon entering the Jack Chick Museum of Fine Art. They saw fit to add a _MIDI_ file of the Halloween theme. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/10 "2003-01-31T22:45:49Z")
Until I follwed some of these links, I was certain “Jack Chick” was a B-grade male porno star. I have never been handed any of that crap in real life…just innofensive tracts calling for prayer and the like at bus stations. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/11 "2003-02-01T02:36:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krokodil \* > **Even Garry Trudeau is pretty minimally involved with the actual drawing of his strip.** Sorry for the hijack, but this is spread around all too often: from the Doonesbury [FAQ page](http://www.doonesbury.ucomics.com/strip/faqs/prevq_cs.cfm). > [@](#): > > Q. I’ve heard that GBT no longer draws Doonesbury. True? > > A. False. The strip is currently being produced the same way it has been for over 26 years. Trudeau writes the strip alone, and then does tight pencil drawings. The drawings are then either shipped or faxed to his assistant Don Carlton, who traces over Trudeau’s finished drawings in ink. The rumor that Trudeau no longer draws the strip was started by Entertainment Weekly. When the magazine subsequently learned that the writer of the piece had wildly exaggerated Carlton’s role, it printed a retraction and apology. By then, of course, the damage had been done, proving once again that a lie does indeed circumnavigate the globe before the truth can get its pants on. The irony of the episode was that after years of being blamed for the artwork in Doonesbury, Trudeau suddenly found himself unable to get credit for it. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/12 "2003-02-01T03:46:15Z")
Yes, **Virginia**. There is a **Jack Chick**. He exists as certainly as racism and intolerance and zealotry exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its lowest nadir of despair. Alas! how wonderful would be the world if there were no **Jack Chick**! It would be as joyous as if there were no Hitlers or Stalins or Osamas. There would be no misguided faith then, no censorship, no pogroms to sully this existence. We should have no depression, except in the Death Valleys or the Marianas Trenches. The eternal darkness with which despair fills the world would be banished evermore. No **Jack Chick**! Good God! he lives, and he’ll live forever. A thousand tracts, **Virginia** , nay, ten times ten thousand tracts, he will continue to crush the heart of childhood with his publications. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jack-chick-exist/151889/13 "2003-02-01T06:42:56Z")
**raisin** , darn you to the deepest, dimmest Heck! May Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light, forever cast a mild haze over the sunshine of your happiness! May a flea infest your hair for over a day! I was gonna post that, ya little purple person. 😃