Jack Chick, the cartoonist behind Chick Tracts, died Sunday evening at age 92.
Known as “God’s cartoonist,” Chick wrote and illustrated hundreds of gospel tracts disseminated around the country.
“Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Brother Jack Chick passed away Sunday evening, October 23, peacefully in his sleep. He was 92. He will be interred in a small private ceremony. Condolences can be sent to Chick Publications, and they will be taken to his widow. God bless you all,” reads a statement on the Chick Facebook page.
According to his website, Chick began drawing in early childhood. Once in high school, friends pegged Chick as the last person on Earth who would ever accept Jesus.
Upon graduation, Chick joined the army and eventually enrolled in Pasadena Playhouse, where he met and married his wife, Lynn.
God mightily used Lynn in Chick’s salvation. His mother-in-law demanded he listen to a Charles Fuller radio program.
“God was already working on my heart, but when Fuller said the words, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,’ I fell on my knees and my life was changed forever,” Chick recalled.
Once saved, Chick made a commitment to use his artistic ability to further the kingdom of God.
“I went to church and saw all the deadness and hypocrisy, and I thought, That’s why there’s no revival. So I started making these little sketches. My burden was so heavy to wake Christians up to pray for revival,” he said years ago.
The sketch birthed a movement with tracts that include, A Demon’s Nightmare, This Was Your Life, Greatest Story Ever Told, The Choice, A Love Story, The Empty Tomb, The Little Ghost, Charlie’s Ants and more.
Chick Tracts celebrated its semicentennial anniversary in 2011.
Chick addressed his call to revival in a special message on the website.
As a new Christian, I was shocked. It was 1948, and I had just been saved listening to Charles E. Fuller’s Old Fashioned Revival Hour. I ran into some high school buddies at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. I thought they had just gotten saved, too. But then came the surprise.
They told me they had known the Lord since they were 9 and 10 years old. I said, “Jim, when we were playing handball back in high school, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus? I could have been killed in New Guinea or Okinawa, and would have gone straight to hell.” He replied, “Jack, we talked it over, whether or not to tell you about Jesus, and decided you would be the last guy on Earth to receive Him.” I was speechless. I felt betrayed. If I had died, my blood would have been on their hands.
I wonder how many souls I’ve overlooked and neglected: neighbors, friends, etc. It’s an awesome thought. Ezekiel 3:18 says, “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” That is an awesome verse.
May God give us a greater burden to reach the dying world, and to remember we will give an account at the Judgment Seat of Christ for what we did down here.
Chick Publications’ David W. Daniels says after Chick’s death, the company promises nothing changes. The Method, the vision and the purpose will all remain the same.
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