First of all I love what you guys are doing and I hope someone out there can help me.
In the early ‘80s, when I was heavily into Marvel and DC, there came a day when my Mom brought me home a fairly large stack of comic books. At first I was excited until I realized they were "religious" comics.
The artwork was actually really good so I started to read them. All the books revolved around two "hip" guys wearing regular, late ‘70s garb like bell-bottoms and unbuttoned shirts; one black guy and one white guy acting as missionaries and running into all sorts of sin, preaching, then moving on.
The only problem is one of these issues involved a group of teenagers going to a concert and trying to buy drugs off of some kid. The kid happened to be a Satanist and before long this group of kids are in the back of a pick-up truck with needles in their arms.
As if that wasn't disturbing enough at the end both of the missionaries start preaching and this ring of hooded Satanists start vomiting and speaking in tongues.
I have been scarred for life by a religious comic book, how f'd up is that?!?
Please somebody tell me the name of the series because I can't remember.
Thanks and rock on,
Cancer
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Extended blessings to Deggsy & Father Merrin for knowing that this mod squad stemmed from Jack Chick's "The Broken Cross."
At first glance I thought — Oh, that's gotta be something from the Spire publishing house. They did all these Christian-themed titles with the Archie characters, and movie adaptations like The Cross and the Switchblade. But I'm looking at their output, and nothing quite seems to match, esp. as a series. I'll keep hunting…
I think it's from Chick. Most people know Jack Chick from Jack T. Chick Tracts, the tiny rectangular comic books left at bus-stops and in laundrymats by well-meaning zealots. Less well-known, but perhaps more interesting, are Chick's full-size Crusader Comics. Originally published between 1974 and 1985, they relate the adventures of a beefy salt-and-pepper pair of ass-kicking Fundamentalist Christians in a world dominated by Satanic conspiracies, witch-blessed pop songs, and Jesuit assassins. In short, the world they inhabit is probably the world as Chick really sees it.
This has to be "The Broken Cross" from the Crusader series by Jack Chick. ( http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0102.asp ) Chick is better know for his pathetic anti-Catholic tracts.
Those Chick tracts scared the crap out of me as a little kid. If they wanted to drive people away from Christ, those are the way to do it!
I actually used to find those Chick tracts all over the place at my Little League ballpark here in the South, when I was a star first-baseman. 😉 I actually got a copy of his infamous DARK DUNGEONS tract when I was into D&D in jr. high, too–I wish now I'd held on to it for sheer kitsch value!
I'll never forget showing a friend of mine the Chick website once, and how he was absolutely convinced it had to be an elaborate joke along the lines of Landover Baptist Church. He was quite disconcerted to discover that Jack T. Chick was in fact quite serious about his lunacy.
Oh man, those things! Back in High School I was in a band and we used to actually hang them from the walls when we were playing. We also had fake jack-o-lanterns as a backdrop. Yeah, my hick town didn't know what to make of us…
I agree Merrick and Derek, I'm a Catholic, and seriously, this guy needs to realize that being a Christian doesn't mean you can judge others. There's only one being that judges, and that's the big guy upstairs. And I bet you he's gonna send Chick to the place down there.
Fear Not-Or Fear Alot-Chick Tracts are still being handed out every Halloween. I told my son not to touch the little comic book the guy had on his table, where he was handing out the candies. They had a rockin' Halloween setup, too. It was mildly disgusting to find out the deepest Halloween freakers were lying sacks of Christendom.
Wow thanks guys. The Crusaders: Broken Cross was it. I've been trying to remember for years with no luck. Thanks again. Trauma solved!
That's funny…I was scarred as a child by Jack's tract 'Holy Joe' about a Christian who died in Vietnam…those bullet-riddle bodies…yeesh.
I have been searching for a "Chick Comic" that has haunted me but I do not know the name, it was the old black and white rectangle style. There was a little boy who I think was orphaned AND homeless. He lived in a box, froze and begged all day, eventually died (froze to death in his box) and went to heaven. I am sure there are more details but I was pretty young when I found it. My brother and I use to read it and feel all weirded out. we hid it from my mom because somehow I felt it was a bad thing to have cause it was so disturbing!