Lunatic cartoonist turned end-times prophet Jack Chick has been writing crazy pamphlets about sin & the dangers of a non-born again lifestyle for longer than I’ve been alive. Far & away his most famous booklet, among the dozens he’s produced, is “This Was Your Life“. It documents the death & judgement of an American white male “everyman” character. Not a particular sinner, but not particularly pious, either. The book ends with the man stunned to find out that his lack of awareness/acceptance of Christ has led to his name not being found in the book of names of people who don’t go to hell, and as a consequence, he’s condemned to the firey pits.
This book was old by the time I first found it on a street corner in Westwood (back when the hyper-religious street preachers used to camp out in the heart of westwood every Friday & Saturday to try & reach the kids). Recently, however, I was amused to see that Chick is branching out in his work, much like Mattel releasing an African-American Barbie. Chick has an entire line of religious pamphlets featuring black humans, black angels, etc. Haven’t found one yet that actually shows a black Jesus, because I suspect even a racially pandering Chick wouldn’t violate what I imagine is a central tenant of his faith (“Jesus looks like a white hippy”). The highlight of the new market-segment pandering, however, was this direct, scene for scene remake of Chick’s Greatest Hit, This Was Your Life, but with an all-black cast. Also, he renamed it to “It’s Your Life”, for whatever reason. As Jack says, “Every one needs Jesus regardless of their ethnic background.”
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