Back From The Dead?. Tract #052. Art by Jack Chick - © 1982 Chick Publications
Back From The Dead? - Tract #052 (BACK)
Art by Jack Chick - © 1982 Chick Publications
First Published: March 20th, 2011
"Back From The Dead?" tells the story of a man, near death after some kind of accident or illness, who endures a harrowing experience which he believes he sees hell, which of course looks like modern cultural depictions of hell. The nameless man then summons a preacher to help, and is saved. A Jack Chick take on "near death experiences", supposedly based off a true story.
Introduction ⇑ ⇓
Andrew | 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. |
Cover / Page 1 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | 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. |
Andrew | 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. |
Page 2 ⇑ ⇓
Page 3 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | "CODE BLUE!" "Ungh!" Good God, ya'll! What is it good for?!?! Absolutely nothing. |
Andrew | 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. |
Page 4 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | 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. |
Andrew | 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!" |
Jessica | 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. |
Andrew | Shore enough laddie, with the luck of the Oirish, anytin's possible! Now gi' me 20 ccs inaprovaline, stat! (Apologies to all Irish everywhere.) |
Page 5 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | 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. |
Andrew | We're going to beat this guy to death and then all the way back to life again! |
Jessica | 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? |
Page 6 ⇑ ⇓
Page 7 ⇑ ⇓
Page 8 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | "New stiff, Cathy?" "Yes, Barney. You?" "Nope, same one I showed you yesterday. Just working with what God gave me." |
Andrew | 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." |
Jessica | 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. |
Page 9 ⇑ ⇓
Page 10 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | DO NOT WANT!!!! |
Andrew | 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. |
Page 11 ⇑ ⇓
Andrew | So, is there some particular reason this guy came back to life? |
Jessica | "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." |
Page 12 ⇑ ⇓
Page 13 ⇑ ⇓
Page 14 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | "...and they were singing and moving candy. And then we got in this boat and went through this scary-ass tunnel. It was awful!!!" |
Andrew | Sounds like he accidentally wandered into a frat initiation. "And then I heard the chief demon yell, 'Get the paddles!'" |
Page 15 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | What's the big eff'in deal? It looks like a Rammstein concert. Don't be such a pansy. |
Andrew | 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? |
Page 16 ⇑ ⇓
Page 17 ⇑ ⇓
Andrew | 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. |
Jessica | The preacher kind of looks like a fat version of the dad from ALF. Or a slightly younger version of the dad from Heathcliff. |
Page 18 ⇑ ⇓
Page 19 ⇑ ⇓
Jessica | Can you make it by being a bad old boy? Bow-chicka-bow-wow. |
Andrew | 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. |
Jessica | 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. |
Page 20 ⇑ ⇓
Page 21 ⇑ ⇓
Andrew | "His first mission to this planet earth"? Makes him sound like an ancient astronaut or something. |
Jessica | 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)." |
Page 22 ⇑ ⇓
Conclusion ⇑ ⇓
Andrew | 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. |
Further Reading ⇑ ⇓
- Vintage page at Boolean Union
Parodies ⇑
- Chick Dissections tract "Boogie Time?" by Junior - Now onward, to mail! (Of funk, NASCAR, and Jesus.)
Jessica
Andrew