This one actually makes a little sense to me. Jimmy walked around claiming to be friends with the judge, although really he only had a distant superficial relationship based on a chance encounter. He inflated this purported relationship for personal gain, and found out in the end that a superficial relationship wasn’t enough to save him.
This reminds me of certain people who walk around claiming a close relationship with God but are really using God’s name to advance their own cynical schemes. It follows according to Christian theology that they’ll pay one day. I doubt Chick intended to stick it to Jerry Falwell but that’s what it looks like to me.
Of course if you extend the analogy, it does break down at the end. If the judge represented Jesus, then Jimmy’s mistake was not in murdering, grass-walking, etc. His mistake was in calling in all these favors without having the decency to confess his sins to the judge, tell him he was his personal savior, praise his name, etc. He could indeed have gotten away with murder if he’d only flattered the judge and been closer friends with him. (Or at least that’s what Chick seems to be suggesting).
That is one boring tract! Chickie definitely phoned this one in. Nothing stood out to me at all. He could at least have put Fang in one of the panels. Looking for Fang in a Chick tract has become a “Where’s Waldo” thing for me. I get so disappointed if I don’t see him!
ETA: Well, dammit I’m not awake yet I guess. There’s Fang in panel three!
And the layout is just terrible! “6-Yr. Old?” You call that a headline? And why the hell would you cram a potentially captivating human interest story into the far right side of the page like that? Was there some other huge news going on that day?
That dude looked like James Woods portraying Prince Charles while wearing Mr. Roger’s sweater, all under the influence of some powerful cold medicine. Obviously, YMMV.
This is one of my major beefs with Christianity: The idea that Christ will forgive your sins no matter what you do wrong if you just believe in him, A get-out-of-Hell card. :mad:
I find this tract to be a legitimately interesting departure from the norm. It isn’t attacking atheists, or Jews, or Muslims, or Catholics, or the shiny-butt lizard people from Scabulex 12. No, it’s attacking Christians, or, rather, people who say they’re Christians but haven’t really internalized the message.
If all Chick tracts were like this, he might actually be a force for good in the world. The only down side is that were that the case he would no longer be a force for eye-watering hilarity. So I guess it’s a wash.
He’s probably wondering about the judge’s declaration that “I became your savior and I sent birthday cards to show my concern for you”. The two acts are so disproportionate. It’s like saying “I rescued you from the clutches of Satan and I also waxed your car.”
However, if the judge is a little opaque, Chick himself is a model of clarity in the next-to-last panel:
“If you want to go to Hell – don’t do anything.”
I mean, can you make it any simpler than that? I like it. I’m going to follow it.
I’m so amazed – I’ve never seen a Chick tract before! I just get the boring, all-text ones handed to me at work, with the random bolding and italicizing of words to make the text seem “powerful”. Are these texts drawn by actual ex-MAD magazine artists, or is that just my twisted childhood talking? Because I think that the Bible as done by MAD magazine is possibly the only thing that could cure me of my atheism.
I just had a tremendous “inspiration” from this! What would piss off the ultra-fundies more than anything, and yet at the same time be “educational” for teens and clueless adults that are sexually-active?
“6-Yr. Old?” You call that a headline? And why the hell would you cram a potentially captivating human interest story into the far right side of the page like that? Was there some other huge news going on that day?