One of the big problems with stories about an afterlife is that the retort "How do you know? You're still alive!" is a pretty valid response. As a result it's not surprising that Chick would latch on to a tale like this, one that happens to validate his beliefs. Of course, near-death experiences that clash with those beliefs are probably ignored, as are the more mundane physical explanations for these experiences.

The cover has a weird sort of 8-Bit quality to it. Like it's a deleted scene from Shadowgate or something. Though, considering the malarkey we're about to experience I wouldn't rule out it coming from a retro-80's console game.

I think Chick likes to do these "bait-and-switch" covers. The idea seems to be that you'll pick it up and think, "oh wow, zombies, cool", then open it up and get saved. It's like those little pamphlets that look like $20 bills, but when you pick them up they say, "disappointed? Find Jesus!" or something similarly smarmy.

They aren't referring to the guy in the back of the ambulance, but rather the guy on the street corner. "He isn't going to make it. In just a second they're going to be cleaning up what's left of him with a sponge! GTA M^!&@F^@$#!"

Why does the ambulance say "PARAMEDICS" instead of "AMBULANCE". Is this some kind of regional thing?

Also, it's usually printed in mirror image so you can read it in your rear-view mirror.

"CODE BLUE!" "Ungh!" Good God, ya'll! What is it good for?!?! Absolutely nothing.

I guess "Code Blue" means different things in different places in Chick-land. In Soul Story, it seems to mean, "There's a prison riot!"

Actually, if both this comic and Soul Story existed in the same universe, that... would be awesome.

I don't get a pulse? That sounds a bit stilted. "I don't have a pulse" or "I can't find a pulse" perhaps. But that seems weird.

Again with the "@!!!**" Though instead of "we're losing him, shit", which is what it's probably supposed to be, I like to imagine that the doctor is actually referring to the nurse. "We're losing him, bitch! And it's all your fault! Get the paddles!"

Also, I have the worst misreads. For a second I thought the doctor said "Okay, let's use the paddies." Like it's time to call in the Irish or something.

Shore enough laddie, with the luck of the Oirish, anytin's possible! Now gi' me 20 ccs inaprovaline, stat!

(Apologies to all Irish everywhere.)

It's like he slammed him as hard on his chest as he could in a desperate attempt to shatter his ribcage. Man, this hospital sucks.

We're going to beat this guy to death and then all the way back to life again!

What happened to this guy anyway? He doesn't appear to be injured in any visible manner. Did he have a stroke or a coronary or something?

"Terminated!" As in "That ought to do it. Now I can get back to my golf game."

What kind of doctor says "Terminated" like that? Makes it sound like he deliberately killed him.

This must be taking place in an operating theatre or something. Seems a bit unorthodox. Either that or the whole hospital just evaporated into the void.

"You didn't reach his relatives? Good, now we can do whatever we want with him."

He's lucky he wasn't an organ donor.

"New stiff, Cathy?" "Yes, Barney. You?" "Nope, same one I showed you yesterday. Just working with what God gave me."

Who the crap is Barney, anyway? Why does he get to order the nurse, in essence, "Hey, go do that work on my desk. I'm too busy standing here to be productive."

Once again, if a morgue gives you the creeps, maybe you're in the wrong line of work. Chick seems to think that all medical professionals are poorly suited to doing their jobs.

I like to think this guy just sits there with the sheet over him, waiting for just the right moment to pop out and give the nurse a heart attack.

... mother...

DO NOT WANT!!!!

Oh, exploitable.

Incidentally, while setting up the page for this tract, we had panels from this tract and The Visitors at the same time, which led to unintentional hilarity.

So, is there some particular reason this guy came back to life?

"This story is partially based on a true story, 'Three Men Who Went To Hell,' shown on "PM Magazine" and is, as everyone is aware, complete and utter bullshit."

Why is it so "weird" and "spooky" that someone in a hospital is suffering from a mental delusion?

I'm surprised that Chick brings in the preacher right away. In a lot of comics he would have pulled in a Catholic priest first, then "exposed him" as a phony hypocrite. I guess there weren't enough panels available.

The preacher's amazed he wants to get saved. He thought most people inherently understood that his whole gig was just a money making scam.

And, of course, there's no second chance! Unlike the one this guy just got. So, yeah.

'Cause nobody actually wants to be saved, you gotta bamboozle them into it!

"...and they were singing and moving candy. And then we got in this boat and went through this scary-ass tunnel. It was awful!!!"

Sounds like he accidentally wandered into a frat initiation.

"And then I heard the chief demon yell, 'Get the paddles!'"

What's the big eff'in deal? It looks like a Rammstein concert. Don't be such a pansy.

So was he in like hell's waiting room or something?

Also, in Chick's theology, when you die, you don't go to hell immediately. Instead you go to a "place of waiting" (not Purgatory), which is awful, but is not hell, and you stay there until judgment day, when you really go to hell. Did this guy somehow jump to the front of the line?

Yep. Hell will suck. By the way, God is Love. Don't forget that part.

Oh yes, all those preachers who never talk about hell. Yeah, maybe in the really liberal churches, but most preachers I've heard are perfectly willing to tell you you're going to hell.

What the crap does "punk rock" have to do with anything at all in this comic? I guess any stick will do to beat some dogs.

The preacher kind of looks like a fat version of the dad from ALF. Or a slightly younger version of the dad from Heathcliff.

Heaven is shut to the fearful? Cowards go to Hell!!!

"Too bad for all those people who lived and died before Jesus. And all the people who never heard of him. Oh well, they were probably brown anyway."

Can you make it by being a bad old boy?

Bow-chicka-bow-wow.

As always, in Chick's world, being good or bad is pretty much completely irrelevant. After all, Crazy Wolf, Leroy Brown, and a host of other miscreants got in the door.

Satan wants you to think God cares whether you do good things or bad things. And that's just absurd. Just believe on Jesus and you can kick puppies and all sorts of evil crap.

And why do these requirements exist? Because the Bible said so, which then equals God said so. It conjures up a narrative where God sets up heaven, then sets the bar so high nobody can get into it. After a few thousand years of listing to his angels tell him he's good, and smart, and pretty, and the best deity ever, he gets bored and says, "where are all the humans? I guess expecting them to be absolutely perfect was a little much, especially since I chose not to make them that way. But I already said all that stuff about blood... darn, I guess I'll have to incarnate and sacrifice myself, because changing the rules is too hard."

Does this make sense to anybody? Hello?

"Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission from sins."

What else could you expect from a bronze-age, Semitic war god?

"His first mission to this planet earth"? Makes him sound like an ancient astronaut or something.

It would suck if he screwed up his parenthetical references.

"He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (IN HEAVEN) but have everlasting left (IN THE LAKE OF FIRE)."

LOVE GIFT!!!

"But the man who died clinically never ever got a name. And so he went to his grave as 'anonymous'. And when they looked for his name in the book of life, they couldst not find it, and there was much wailing."

...and gnashing of teeth. Don't forget that one.

I don't get a pulse on this tract. Better get the paddles!

What's Jack Chick's favorite thing about Christianity? Is it the eternal love of God? Is it the pomp and circumstances of church service? The sense of belonging to a community? ...The communion wine? Nope. Judging by his tracts, none of these is nearly as interesting to Chick as hell is. Chick loves hell, and he's made a fetish out of angels throwing people into the pit for 30 odd years.

I'll share a personal bit here. Many years ago I discovered a book called "The History of Hell", which is a survey of beliefs regarding "the underworld" throughout history, and particularly focusing on Christian views. What became incredibly obvious, to me at least, was the extent to which the entire edifice we think of as hell was built on a slender branch of scripture. Perhaps more important than that was the extent to which each era imagined its own version of hell to match the living conditions and intellectual fashions of the time, and the extent of which our ideas of hell come from Dante Alighieri. When I finished the book I came to the conclusion that hell was an entirely man-made phenomenon.

It's hard to directly argue about the existence of god, due to the complicated "proving a negative" issue, but one thing I've never since had any questions about is the existence of hell. It's little more than a mean-spirited bludgeon for the Jack Chicks of the world to threaten other people with. Most of the things we "know" about it are extra-scriptural (i.e., not in the Bible, but from someplace else), something that bothers Chick to no end when talking about, say, Catholics, but that he accepts without question when it appears on "Three Men Who Went To Hell" on PM Magazine on Channel 11 in Los Angeles. Hypocrisy? I'll let you be the judge on that.