Dear Aunt John and Lancifer,
John Crye from Fewdio here!
Not too long ago, the rest of the Fewdio guys and I dropped in and recounted some of the things that scared the bejinkies out of us as kids and, all too likely, influenced our films. It was a highly therapeutic exercise, I must say. We all learned so much about each other… and ourselves….
And I stirred up a doozy of a latent memory. What's more, in retrospect I can see a direct influence of this kindertrauma on my work with Fewdio, specifically on a film that I wrote and directed called THE TAP.
Okay…
I grew up attending a Southern Baptist church, which is a very conservative and certainly fundamentalist faith. At least the congregation my family was part of would fit that description. In the front lobby of the church there was a literature rack that was filled with proselytizing brochures, as well as brochures that teach one how to proselytize. Among them were a line of comic strip-style tracts featuring black and white line art depicting horrifying little morality plays. The work was by a man named Jack Chick.
My favorites include SOMEBODY GOOFED, SOMEBODY LOVES ME, IT'S YOUR LIFE, THE BEAST and TRUST ME. But believe me, each one is a masterwork of emotional terror tactics precisely crafted to inform you that you are a horrible shit-stain of a being, completely unworthy of the love that your God gives you. Failure to return said love is punishable by being thrown into a lake of fire. This last image recurs in most of the tracts and DAMN it's a wig-flipper when you're eight years old.
Once you've digested a few of those wonderful little hate pellets, take a look at THE TAP, a Fewdio film that was banned from You Tube (though it played Fantastic Fest without injuring anyone). I think you'll see the parallels:
Since recovering this lost memory, I have purchased the entire tract collection from www.chick.com so I can fully relive the fear.
Thank you, Kindertrauma, for bringing back a terror from my past and forcing me to re-analyze my present and future. Yeah. Thanks.
Much love,
Fewdio John
UNK SEZ: Thanks for the traumafession John. I remember those books and I think I still have a couple around the castle here somewhere. My favorites are the ones that warn you about the dangers of Halloween and are sometimes handed out to trick-or-treaters. I would much rather get a scary comic than a dreaded Mary Jane candy in my trick-or-treat bag. Thanks too for bringing our attention to your movie THE TAP. I'm not sure Mr.Chick would approve, but I think you Fewdio dudes get scarier all the time.
I remember hearing this so-called 'religious' man is also anti-Catholic. Heck, I don't know who's worse-him or Phillip Pullman, whose "His Dark Materials" trilogy is thinly veiled Catholic bashing and pushing of non-belief. (I don't think Dan Brown really counts…)
Also, people that think Halloween is evil just burn my toast. Lighten up, people! Paganism doesn't equal Satanism. And as Kyle from "South Park" says, it's all about costumes and candy for most of us.
This kind of Stimpy-stuff helped drive me away from Christianity.
AUGH I remember those damnable things! "Somebody Loves Me" in particular horrified me as a child. Maybe it's those nasty racist stereotypes, or the thought that despite all of Jesus's love, the only deliverance for the big-eyed Mexican child from a life of grinding poverty is to crawl away and die in a rain-soaked box after a savage beating. Perhaps more disturbing, he is then borne naked into Heaven by a big Caucasian angel. o_o Yyyyeah….
Having been a small, big-eyed Mexican child (albeit with little chance of dying in a cardboard box), perhaps it's not surprising that this tract didn't help convert me.
These Chick Tracts make me ashamed to say that I'm a Christian. They were such… liars, it gives us a really bad name. It's like the South Park episode where the parents are convinced that as long as the lie makes their kids not do drugs… it's ok.
Not all of us have these outrageous belief systems the tracts do, thankfully, but it's not helping our reputation at all. This is a grand of example of "the end does NOT justify the means".
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church (I am a Christian), but I don't think I have ever seen these "cartoons" before. I have heard of a judgement house instead of a haunted house. They are kind of like those cartoons acted out. I haven't been to one, but that's how they are described. I always thought it sounded lame.
I remember some fundamentalists in high school trying to save my soul. They would leave Chick toons on my car windshield in the parking lot. The art in them always reminded me of Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side" from Mad Magazine. Although, I found Jack Chick to be much funnier.
I remember seeing these things all over the place when I was younger. Â Mainly in payphone booths. Â Re-read some of the ones on the website, and the anti Dungeons & Dragons one was pretty funny. Â It's stereotype to page ratio is pretty high.
Discounting his poor theology, I'm calling shennanigans on "Jack Chick". Â He is either amazingly versatile in terms of style or there's an army of ghost artists who are too ashamed to admit how they've been making money on the side. Â I have half a mind to send his organization an email pretending to be an out of work freelancer and see if I get a bite…