Remember Chick Tracts? You'll Love Catholic Comic Booklets!

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dmar198

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Many of us remember Chick Tracts, which are commonly found in public restrooms, on windshields, and at county fairs throughout the country. These Protestant Fundamentalist outreach tools are a comic booklet with a simple presentation of the Fundamentalist message and an invitation to become a Protestant. Many of them, of course, are aimed at taking Catholics away from the Catholic Church.

Well, I thought, what if there was a Catholic competitor? Enter Catholic Comic Booklets, a Catholic alternative to Chick Tracts that uses comic themes to tell simple Catholic truths. With comics about the lives of the saints, the Sacraments, and an invitation to find a nearby Catholic parish in every tract, these may be just the tools you need to easily do the work of the New Evangelization!

You can pass them out at Church functions, leave them in public places, offer them to passers-by, anything! They are easy to read and non-confrontational, and of course very cheap to order, at only 25¢ per booklet.

Here are some sample booklets and a place where you can view more or order them for use in your community:

The Eucharist
Confession
Saint Stories: Francis of Assisi

View more »

Please, let me know what you think, and order some for your own personal outreach!
 
I had a look at the Eucharist comic. I thought it was bizarre. Not because it is set in Cold War Russia, or because the drawings seem to depict a pre-V2 Mass. I don’t think I would have tried to present transubstantiation right out of the gate. And I thought it was weird to go over the rules for reception (including dispensations!) - surely this level of detail is not needed for a target audience that are nowhere close to actually receiving.

Well, OK, the whole cold-war thing was really strange (and irrelevant).
 
DavidFilmer said:
I had a look at the Eucharist comic. I thought it was bizarre. Not because it is set in Cold War Russia, or because the drawings seem to depict a pre-V2 Mass. I don’t think I would have tried to present transubstantiation right out of the gate. And I thought it was weird to go over the rules for reception (including dispensations!) - surely this level of detail is not needed for a target audience that are nowhere close to actually receiving.

Well, OK, the whole cold-war thing was really strange (and irrelevant).
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Thank you for your valuable feedback, David.

I’m sorry you thought the comic was bizarre and I hope you’ll check out other ones. All of the ones about the Sacraments were made in the 50s-60s and show their age, but perhaps you would like the Saints Stories, which are kind of timeless, IMO.

I would like to know the opinion of others about some of the things that struck you as bizarre. For example, the Eucharist and Confession comics are set during the Cold War, and they shed a bad light on Communism and Russia. Is that a bad and irrelevant thing today? In my opinion, it isn’t, and two reasons why are, the Cold War was a significant part of Catholic history because of the anti-Catholic persecution that attended it, and I think it provides an engaging backdrop for reading about the Eucharist. How about you, other readers? What do you think?
 
dmar198 said:
For example, the Eucharist and Confession comics are set during the Cold War, and they shed a bad light on Communism and Russia. Is that a bad and irrelevant thing today?
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I think it would have been irrelevant in the 60’s - at least in this context. Why clutter up a message about the Eucharist with a cold-war political story arc? Does that do anything to help educate us about the Eucharist, either then or now?

There’s a time when it’s appropriate to talk about persecution of the Church, but that time is not in a tract on Eucharist, of all things.

Sacraments are supposed to be even more timeless than Saints. A well-written tract on Eucharist should make as much sense today as it would 500 years from now (or 500 years ago).
 
I’ve read 3 of them. I still believe you’re on the right track. The background of the Cold War is something most of us never think of. Perhaps we should. Keep going.

God Bless You.
 
Why not a booklet with a small description of the Church and a web site to go to if you want to learn more. Didn’t the Knights have booklets like that?

I told my sister she should have had some to pass out when she went to Reformation Sunday at a Protestant Church. She was going since her friend had turned 100 and the church was having a reception for her after the service. My sister had to sit through an anti-Catholic screed about why Luther broke away and how corrupt the Church is. I guess many Protestant Churches do that on Reformation Sunday.

My sister was uncomfortable and said we don’t talk against them, why do they have to talk against us?
 
There was this other group of comics that were better.

Had “superheroes” that were fighting this evil villain trying to “push the spirit of Vatican II”

Forgot the name, but they were far better than what the OP posted.
 
dmar198, I hope this does well. I’ve been saying for years the Church should use comic books for evangelization.

Are you familiar with the old Catholic comic book “Treasure Chest” that was loved by Catholic kids for decades? We used to get it every month in parochial school until the 1970s.

Here’s a thread I started on it. The first post has links to on-line archives of the comic book.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=624818
 
Mousey said:
I think both are good.
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Thank you for your feedback!
BobCatholic said:
There was this other group of comics that were better.

Had “superheroes” that were fighting this evil villain trying to “push the spirit of Vatican II”

Forgot the name, but they were far better than what the OP posted.
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BobCatholic said:
I found it. Here is the site that has them, from the Catholic Information League

angelfire.com/mi/CIL/
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Yes, those are very interesting comics. In my opinion, those comics contain more audience-appropriate information than the OP comics, but I think the artwork is not as good, and I think they are too short. I think people like a bit of a longer story, like in the OP comics and in Chick tracts. Perhaps there is room for both types of comics.
Mousey said:
The first one brought back memories of the Treasure Chest magazine.
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Arizona_Mike said:
dmar198, I hope this does well. I’ve been saying for years the Church should use comic books for evangelization.

Are you familiar with the old Catholic comic book “Treasure Chest” that was loved by Catholic kids for decades? We used to get it every month in parochial school until the 1970s.
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Yes, I am Super familiar with Treasure Chest Comics. In fact, if you compare my Saint Stories comics with the Treasure Chest series “With Christ On Earth,” I think you’ll find some Very close parallels. 😉 (Also compare my Sacraments comics with the Passports to Paradise series.)
 
DavidFilmer said:
I think it would have been irrelevant in the 60’s - at least in this context. Why clutter up a message about the Eucharist with a cold-war political story arc? Does that do anything to help educate us about the Eucharist, either then or now?
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In my opinion, yes. I think it can be quite good to talk about the Eucharist and the Cold War at the same time, or the Eucharist and persecution, or the Eucharist and Communism, or the Eucharist and any number of other things. That’s my opinion.
There’s a time when it’s appropriate to talk about persecution of the Church, but that time is not in a tract on Eucharist, of all things.
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Do you think it is appropriate to use the story of St. Tarcisius to teach about the Real Presence? I ask because I think that is an example of talking about persecution of the Church in a message about the Eucharist. What do you think?
Sacraments are supposed to be even more timeless than Saints. A well-written tract on Eucharist should make as much sense today as it would 500 years from now (or 500 years ago).
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I agree that a tract on the Eucharist should make sense, I guess I just don’t think talking about the Cold War and the Eucharist makes it make less sense. 🤷 But if you don’t like it, there are plenty of other resources available for teaching the faith. I wouldn’t want to suggest that my contribution is perfect, especially not for everyone. But I do think it can help some people.
 
dmar198 said:
Do you think it is appropriate to use the story of St. Tarcisius to teach about the Real Presence? I ask because I think that is an example of talking about persecution of the Church in a message about the Eucharist. What do you think?
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Saint WHO?

I have confessed here many times that I once thought of myself as a reasonably proficient “student of Eucharistic theolgy” until I read Sr. Scott Hahn’s book, “The Lamb’s Supper.” Dr. Hahn made me realize that I really knew diddly squat about the Eucharist. It was both humbling and enlightening.

But Dr. Hahn never talked about political persecution, and I’m pretty sure he never mentioned St. Tarcisius.

And I have no doubt that Dr. Hahn’s book will continue to humble and enlighten Catholics for thousands of years to come.
 
DavidFilmer said:
Saint WHO?

I have confessed here many times that I once thought of myself as a reasonably proficient “student of Eucharistic theolgy” until I read Sr. Scott Hahn’s book, “The Lamb’s Supper.” Dr. Hahn made me realize that I really knew diddly squat about the Eucharist. It was both humbling and enlightening.
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I’ve also read that work, and I thought it was great too. 👍
But Dr. Hahn never talked about political persecution, and I’m pretty sure he never mentioned St. Tarcisius.
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I don’t think his way of talking about the Eucharist is the only valid way to do it. It’s a good way, IMO, but I don’t think it’s the only way.
 
dmar198 said:
I don’t think his way of talking about the Eucharist is the only valid way to do it. It’s a good way, IMO, but I don’t think it’s the only way.
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A variety of ways are needed because what might move you will not another as some of the post in this thread illustrate.
Just because it is set in the cold war does not in the least makes it irrelevant. The explanation of what the Eucharist is not different than if you put it into todays world. You could make the cartoons of the Christians who are being martyred today. It would not change the excellent teaching that is presented. The teaching itself is timeless in any setting.
 
I want you to do one that covers God’s Love for You and then i will buy a bunch of 'em. It will be the literal “Catholic Answer” to Chick’s “This Was your Life”.
 
Church_Militant said:
I want you to do one that covers God’s Love for You and then i will buy a bunch of 'em. It will be the literal “Catholic Answer” to Chick’s “This Was your Life”.
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I would love to do one like that. The difficulty is, I can’t draw much more than a stick figure, and I have a hard time inventing stories. For me to make a comic booklet, I need to basically find a comic pre-made with the right number of pages, and all the ones I’ve made so far have come from the old Treasure Chest comic book that now has many issues in the public domain: aladin0.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/treasure/treasure.shtml

But so far I haven’t located a story in that collection that matches your description. If you’d like to help me look, that would be great. You can browse that collection by issue or by subject, or use its search function to find various stories. Just click on the link above and use the browse and search links on the left-hand side of the page. There are many years worth of comics in that collection that I can turn into booklets, I just need to know which ones would be of greatest value. Please let me know if you find any stories in that collection that you think would make great booklets for outreach.
 
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