Chick tracts, originally made by Jack T. Chick, are pocket-sized evangelical comic books. Over 800 million tracts have been printed during Chick Publications (Jack T. Chick's company) first 50 years of business, making them the most successful comics in history.
After Jack T. Chick died in 2016, Chick Publications has kept his tracts in print including tracts by new writers. On the Chick Publications website, they state "Our ministry is primarily publishing the gospel tracts of Jack T. Chick, but we do occasionally publish a manuscript in book form." They hope that their content "educates Christians in one of the areas for which we have a tract."
Upon first discovery of Chick tracts, it was difficult for me to believe that they weren't satirical in nature. The fact that Chick tracts utilize such a cool pen and ink drawing aesthetic to get their dead-serious messages across makes them all the more fascinating to me. I enjoyed watching this video with lots of interesting commentary on Chick Tracts that the Cartoonist Kayfabe Channel.
From Wikipedia:
The storyline commonly features at least one Christian person and one or more "non-Christians". Depending on the storyline the "non-Christian" may be a stereotypical "wicked person" a member of a "false religion" or a "moral person" depending on "good works" to gain eventual entrance to Heaven. In these storylines, the Christian attempts to convert the non-Christian to Christianity (and may also feature a contrast where another character, often the "moral person", does not), with the convert receiving entry into Heaven, while the person rejecting the message is condemned to Hell. The endings may feature a recycled scene in which Jesus Christ (portrayed as a giant, glowing, faceless figure sitting on a throne) condemns or welcomes a character, an angel taking the believer to Heaven, or the non-believer meeting demons upon his or her arrival to Hell. Chick Tracts end with a suggested prayer for the reader to pray to accept Jesus Christ. In most of these tracts it is a standard sinner's prayer for salvation.
