Catholic comics to combat Chick Tracks?

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phil19034

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Today I was at a mens conference in Philly. While there, a youth minister told me about taking a boy to world youth day in Toronto back in the early 2000s. Two hours before mass with the pope starts, the kid needs something from the van. So the youth minister tells him to wait there while he runs to the van. Minister was gone not even 15 mins and the mid was livid, claiming that he was lied to and that the Catholic Church was evil.

In the 15 mins that the minister was gone, just two hours before mass with the pope, Protestants were giving people Chick Tracks as they entered the area for mass.

The kid read it and believed the trash that was being told about the Church. It took the youth minister the next 2 hours to assure the kid that the Church wasn’t what he read in the Chick Tracks in less than 15 mins.

I know lots of people say the Chick Tracks are “almost comical because they are so false,” but young teens are impressionable. They would never believe that adults would say things that are just so false, so “if someone took the time to write the Chick Track it must be true.”

The youth minister then mentioned that we need Catholic “Chick Track like” comics which are CHARITABLE yet convey the Truth of the Gospel and the Catholic Church.

Anyone have any ideas if there is anything out there? I know of “The Truth is Out There” by Catholic Answers, but that just one large comic book.

Any other orthodox, Catholic comics out there?

Thank you and God bless!
 
phil19034 said:
Today I was at a mens conference in Philly. While there, a youth minister told me about taking a boy to world youth day in Toronto back in the early 2000s. Two hours before mass with the pope starts, the kid needs something from the van. So the youth minister tells him to wait there while he runs to the van. Minister was gone not even 15 mins and the mid was livid, claiming that he was lied to and that the Catholic Church was evil.

In the 15 mins that the minister was gone, just two hours before mass with the pope, Protestants were giving people Chick Tracks as they entered the area for mass.

The kid read it and believed the trash that was being told about the Church. It took the youth minister the next 2 hours to assure the kid that the Church wasn’t what he read in the Chick Tracks in less than 15 mins.

I know lots of people say the Chick Tracks are “almost comical because they are so false,” but young teens are impressionable. They would never believe that adults would say things that are just so false, so “if someone took the time to write the Chick Track it must be true.”

The youth minister then mentioned that we need Catholic “Chick Track like” comics which are CHARITABLE yet convey the Truth of the Gospel and the Catholic Church.

Anyone have any ideas if there is anything out there? I know of “The Truth is Out There” by Catholic Answers, but that just one large comic book.

Any other orthodox, Catholic comics out there?

Thank you and God bless!
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I don’t know of any comics, but Deacon John Beckmann and Deacon Jim Russell have something called faith chats. It is an easy to read group of chats that talk about the faith in interesting ways.

Both of been guests on Catholic radio.

Their website is www.catholicchristians.com
 
phil19034 said:
The youth minister then mentioned that we need Catholic “Chick Track like” comics which are CHARITABLE yet convey the Truth of the Gospel and the Catholic Church.

Anyone have any ideas if there is anything out there? I know of “The Truth is Out There” by Catholic Answers, but that just one large comic book.

Any other orthodox, Catholic comics out there?

Thank you and God bless!
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I think this is a great idea, and yes, we who have educated ourselves in the faith may think the Chick tracts are laughable, but that is only because we have prepared our minds in a way in which we may take for granted. The average person has not spent 5 minutes thinking about spiritual matters, and so is easy pickings for any falsehoods presented to them.

Catholic Answers has some tracts you can buy here:
shop.catholic.com/pamphlets.html

They are all probably good, but I have seen this one and I think it is a good introductory all-purpose type Catholic tract to give people:
GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU
shop.catholic.com/pamphlets/god-s-love-for-you.html

I also found a facebook page that might give you some leads:
facebook.com/MoreCatholicComics

I bet if you searched around the internet you could find more too. I think this is a great idea and I agree it is necessary.
 
Tracts are not a bad idea.

I remember a guy from a few years back that was darn good at these tracts. So good that many of the protestants came to the conclusion that the guy really should be “taken care of”.

His name was Francis, I think.

Anyways, he was so good the Church decided to make him a saint and proclaim him a doctor of the Church.

“Although at first the missionaries had little reward for their labors, they did not lose heart. Francis continually sought new ways to reach the minds of the people. He began to write brief leaflets, setting forth the leading dogmas of the Church as opposed to the tenets of Calvinism…The little tracts or leaflets, scattered abroad, proved quietly effective, and in time there was a stream of lapsed Catholics asking for reconciliation with their Church.”

ewtn.com/library/MARY/DESALES.htm
 
Didn’t Jimmy Akin do one in the Jack Chick style? I know I saw it once, but I can’t find it anymore.
 
What kind of audience and age level does the Chick Tract get?

You may have to go the way the JW’s finally went. To making nearly Disney like videos to attract the young ones.
 
Faxero said:
Well lets let the tracts speak for themselves.

http://www.catholic.com/sites/default/files/resize/images/documents/Image17[1]-477x128.gif

http://media.chick.com/tractimages67491/0071/0071_04.gif

Audience: the sadly uninformed

Age level: physically and/or mentally children
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Ha ha - true, but the sad thing is many if not most people nowadays are sadly uninformed on the topic of religion. These tracts, dumb as they may seem to us, take advantage of those types of souls.
 
phil19034 said:
Today I was at a mens conference in Philly. While there, a youth minister told me about taking a boy to world youth day in Toronto back in the early 2000s. Two hours before mass with the pope starts, the kid needs something from the van. So the youth minister tells him to wait there while he runs to the van. Minister was gone not even 15 mins and the mid was livid, claiming that he was lied to and that the Catholic Church was evil.

In the 15 mins that the minister was gone, just two hours before mass with the pope, Protestants were giving people Chick Tracks as they entered the area for mass.

The kid read it and believed the trash that was being told about the Church. It took the youth minister the next 2 hours to assure the kid that the Church wasn’t what he read in the Chick Tracks in less than 15 mins.

I know lots of people say the Chick Tracks are “almost comical because they are so false,” but young teens are impressionable. They would never believe that adults would say things that are just so false, so “if someone took the time to write the Chick Track it must be true.”

The youth minister then mentioned that we need Catholic “Chick Track like” comics which are CHARITABLE yet convey the Truth of the Gospel and the Catholic Church.

Anyone have any ideas if there is anything out there? I know of “The Truth is Out There” by Catholic Answers, but that just one large comic book.

Any other orthodox, Catholic comics out there?

Thank you and God bless!
Click to expand...
I’m not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I think Treasure Chest Comics was recently released into the public domain. This was a regularly produced comic book for Catholic students in the mid 1900s, I think, and the comics have hundreds of stories from Catholic history that are appropriate for the youth. I don’t think they specifically counter Chick Tracts, but you could probably find some comics about apologetics topics in the bunch, and at least these comics put a positive spin on the Church. Have a look: aladin0.wrlc.org/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?c=treasure&a=d&cl=CL1

Please let me know if that helps. God bless!
 
dmar198 said:
I’m not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I think Treasure Chest Comics was recently released into the public domain. This was a regularly produced comic book for Catholic students in the mid 1900s, I think, and the comics have hundreds of stories from Catholic history that are appropriate for the youth. I don’t think they specifically counter Chick Tracts, but you could probably find some comics about apologetics topics in the bunch, and at least these comics put a positive spin on the Church. Have a look: aladin0.wrlc.org/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?c=treasure&a=d&cl=CL1

Please let me know if that helps. God bless!
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As examples from the above collection, here are two strips that I think could be made into very effective Chick-style tracts:

Passports to Paradise: The Eucharist
dspace.wrlc.org/view/ImgViewer?img=1&url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/manifest/2041/28592

Whose Sins You Shall Forgive: The Sacrament of Penance
dspace.wrlc.org/view/ImgViewer?url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/manifest/2041/27179

(Use the little numbers at the top or bottom of the page to flip pages.)
 
dmar198 said:
As examples from the above collection, here are two strips that I think could be made into very effective Chick-style tracts:

Passports to Paradise: The Eucharist
dspace.wrlc.org/view/ImgViewer?img=1&url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/manifest/2041/28592

Whose Sins You Shall Forgive: The Sacrament of Penance
dspace.wrlc.org/view/ImgViewer?url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/manifest/2041/27179

(Use the little numbers at the top or bottom of the page to flip pages.)
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I just made the first one of those into a tract inspired by the style of Jack Chick tracts. Please let me know what you think:

drive.google.com/file/d/0B8qPwAQJtKZSX2NvMzJzZ3JBVWM/preview

I liked making that, except it took all day. I may get better if I do more. And I might just make them order-able. 🙂
 
dMar, Excellent job. Very easy to read and a real page turner (or scroller:) I liked everything about it (even the updated websites). I could see these being successful in faith formation classes.

Thank you for investing your day in such a worthy project.

God Bless You.
 
dmar198 said:
I just made the first one of those into a tract inspired by the style of Jack Chick tracts. Please let me know what you think:

drive.google.com/file/d/0B8qPwAQJtKZSX2NvMzJzZ3JBVWM/preview

I liked making that, except it took all day. I may get better if I do more. And I might just make them order-able. 🙂
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dmar198, I THINK THIS IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC.

You should definitely find somebody who can help you publish it!!

I would think there are various ways this could be used. Maybe get with an organization, maybe they can help you adapt further topics. But I really think it is great.
 
Mummsie said:
dMar, Excellent job. Very easy to read and a real page turner (or scroller:) I liked everything about it (even the updated websites). I could see these being successful in faith formation classes.

Thank you for investing your day in such a worthy project.

God Bless You.
Click to expand...
WilliamOK said:
dmar198, I THINK THIS IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC.

You should definitely find somebody who can help you publish it!!

I would think there are various ways this could be used. Maybe get with an organization, maybe they can help you adapt further topics. But I really think it is great.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I made a second one today. It really goes very quickly now that I know how to do it and have some documents prepared.

I’ll be compiling my progress toward making an assortment of Catholic comic booklets at this link:

historyandapologetics.com/2015/03/remember-chick-tracts-youll-love.html

The comics are also very easy to edit, I can even modify the text in the text-bubbles. My text looks different from the original, but I don’t mind, and it only takes a few seconds to do it. Please let me know if you see any mistakes or anything that ought to be updated – some rules have changed since the 1950s, for example, and I had to change the amount of time for the Eucharistic fast in the Holy Communion comic.
 
dmar198 said:
Thank you! I made a second one today. It really goes very quickly now that I know how to do it and have some documents prepared.

I’ll be compiling my progress toward making an assortment of Catholic comic booklets at this link:

historyandapologetics.com/2015/03/remember-chick-tracts-youll-love.html

The comics are also very easy to edit, I can even modify the text in the text-bubbles. My text looks different from the original, but I don’t mind, and it only takes a few seconds to do it. Please let me know if you see any mistakes or anything that ought to be updated – some rules have changed since the 1950s, for example, and I had to change the amount of time for the Eucharistic fast in the Holy Communion comic.
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dmar - to use the vocab of the target audience, this is totally awesome!

Perhaps you can contact Catholic Answers about being your publisher for these:

catholic.com/about/book-submissions

If you can keep turning these around, I’m sure you can get a publisher.

Please keep us informed… this could turn into something incredible for the New Evangelization!

God Bless!
 
I think any one who takes a group to such an event should prep them for the proselytizers. As Chick is one of the most notorious of anti-catholics, his materials can easily be countered, if done before hand, by answering his claims, but also by pointing out his use of propaganda and manipulation. Kids like to think they are adult. If you show how such tracts manipulate the weak and the ignorant, I would bet that they would reject them out of hand.
 
pnewton said:
I think any one who takes a group to such an event should prep them for the proselytizers. As Chick is one of the most notorious of anti-catholics, his materials can easily be countered, if done before hand, by answering his claims, but also by pointing out his use of propaganda and manipulation. Kids like to think they are adult. If you show how such tracts manipulate the weak and the ignorant, I would bet that they would reject them out of hand.
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Yes exactly - it is all about being prepared.
 
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