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» June 27, 2024

 
Uninvited (UIVT)
Uninvited. Tract #224. Art by Jack Chick - © 2011 Chick Publications

Uninvited - Tract #224 (UIVT)
Art by Jack Chick - © 2011 Chick Publications


First Published: January 5th, 2011


"Uninvited" is Jack Chick's idea of tough love for AIDS patients. In this tract, Clara explains to a bunch of AIDS patients at a hospice that they all turned gay after they were molested, which allowed demons to enter them. Because Chick doesn't know any better, being homosexual thus leads to having AIDS. As this is fiction, every one of the men confirms this is true, and two of them decide to accept Jesus and repent.


CommentatorsCommentators

Jessica

Jessica

Andrew

Andrew

 
Page Index
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

o Introduction collapse_button

AndrewAndrew Good to know Chick is still putting together tracts, even though he is approximately as old as the earth. I don't know why he decided to suddenly do an AIDS tract now, considering that AIDS has been a scourge for almost three decades- but, what do you expect, it's Chick.

The tract's conception of AIDS and homosexuality is also badly dated. Let's see what Jack Chick has to offer those suffering and dying of AIDS-related illnesses.

 

o Cover / Page 1 collapse_button

Cover / Page 1
 
JessicaJessica Finally, we have a tract that is going to familiarize and help us cope with the ever growing threat of the Heartless. Chick is finally doing a public service.

...wait. That isn't what this is about? Shit. I was getting my hopes up too.
   
AndrewAndrew It took me a while to figure out what the heck the title was referring to, actually. The patients? The nurse? The AIDS virus? It seems to refer to the demons.

I can't believe I just typed that.

 

o Page 2 collapse_button

Page 2
 
JessicaJessica This doesn't really look like a hospital. Is this like a convalescent or a hospice home or something?
   
AndrewAndrew In addition to his physical health problems, our friend here is obviously dealing with some mental issues, leading him to talk to himself.

 

o Page 3 collapse_button

Page 3
 
AndrewAndrew And what "weird creatures" would those be? KoboldsMogwaiNorfin Trolls?
   
JessicaJessica I have a fun game you can play here. Pretend for the next four or five panels that the book Nurse Clara has been reading is actually Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. It makes the first part of this comic just a little less tragic. If only for a moment.
   
AndrewAndrew Well, if you simply replace every iteration of "demons" with "sparkly vampires", it makes it even more apparent how ridiculous this comic is.

On the other hand, when you consider that Chick believes vampires are real, it sucks some of the fun out of it.

 

o Page 4 collapse_button

Page 4
 
JessicaJessica I really don't think human heads are supposed to look like that.
   
AndrewAndrew I don't know why Jack Chick still relies on his own drawing skills, which were never too solid in the first place, and have only gotten shakier over time, especially since the stroke. He's used other artists from time to time (Like Fred Carter), and the results are usually much better.
   
JessicaJessica Actually, yes, unnamed banana-nosed person. Someone who holds such virulent beliefs about disease should in fact NOT be in a job caring for people suffering from such diseases. This is just like those pharmacists who refuse to sell confused teenage girls the "morning after" pill because it interferes with their "religious convictions." Dealing with assholes interferes with my religious beliefs, but I highly doubt my boss would be very understanding about my needs in this area.

P.S. I want you to examine the appearances of these four characters and start taking bets on which one is going to get saved. Ten-to-one odds.

 

o Page 5 collapse_button

Page 5
 
JessicaJessica She has the pain pills! The ONLY PAIN PILLS!!! And if we have her fired for her inappropriate proselytizing then we won't be able to get our pain medication because she'll take it with her!!!

Does Chick even read his dialog?
   
AndrewAndrew "Oh no, we offended Clara! She'll take away her magical ice cream truck full of goodies!"
   
JessicaJessica "She's an enemy!" No, she's an irritating Bible-thumper who doesn't understand the boundaries she should respect at work. Let's not blow things out of proportion here.

 

o Page 6 collapse_button

Page 6
 
JessicaJessica "Good evening, gentlemen!" And may I ask, how are you gentlemen? Somehow that never gets old.
   
AndrewAndrew Oh that Clara's a tough old broad, isn't she. Dispensing earthy advice with a few quips to teach them white folk how to be funky and free. To be played by Whoopie Goldberg in the feature film adaptation of this tract.
   
JessicaJessica Yeah! I may think you're horribly confused sinners who indulged in a filthy and degenerate lifestyle and who deserve to die for having the ABSOLUTE GALL to not suppress who you really are, it doesn't mean I don't love you! I clean your bed-pans. Now shut your queer pie-holes!

Screw this lady.

 

o Page 7 collapse_button

Page 7
 
JessicaJessica These comics always operate from a position that non-Christians give half a rat's ass what Christians think of them and where they'll go when they die. What she's saying is insensitive and hostile, but it's more of the "Sin gave you AIDS" rather than the "You aren't children of God" that they should be getting in a knot over.
   
AndrewAndrew Each one of them knows what they did!

"I got AIDS from a dirty needle stick." "I got it from my wife, who used to have a drug problem."

In Chick-land it's still 1986, and the only way to get AIDS is to be gay, and all gay people WILL get AIDS.

 

o Page 8 collapse_button

Page 8
 
JessicaJessica Oh, no you don't! She's a health care provider dealing with terminally ill patients. If she's upsetting them by saying they're the ones to blame for being sick and they're going to Hell then she probably shouldn't be working there.
   
AndrewAndrew Well... her story is tragic and all, but what does it have to do with condemning the AIDS patients to hell?

 

o Page 9 collapse_button

Page 9
 
JessicaJessica OK, woah, woah, woah. Time out. Full stop. Hold the presses.

If I understand this correctly she's basically implying that one catches "Teh Ghey" from be being raped in the same manner one would catch food poisoning from eating some expired chicken. Like you get molested and BAM! You've got the queer. I hope I don't have to actually explain how ludicrous that idea is.
   
AndrewAndrew Apparently homosexuality is an STD. And the only cure is more cowbell Jesus!

Good thing that church was there, otherwise she might have involuntarily become a lesbian!

This makes it seem that all these gay characters were just a church visit away from becoming upstanding, moral, generously tithing heterosexuals. I wonder if Chick even realizes he's trying to replace "I was born this way and had no choice" with "I was made this way, and had no choice." After all, if it's the demons, then whatchagonnado?

 

o Page 10 collapse_button

Page 10
 
JessicaJessica Is that thing on the left supposed to be a lady? Egads. It looks a bit like Tom from Green Angels.
   
AndrewAndrew It's just that easy, huh?

 

o Page 11 collapse_button

Page 11
 
JessicaJessica Oh for fu- Yeah, Jack. Yeah. You've got everything all figured out. Molestation = Teh Ghey. Up your ass with broken glass.

BTW... here's that article he's referenced. What is says is that it is possible, though somewhat difficult for lesbians to get AIDS from other women. What that has to do with anything, I'm not entirely sure.
   
AndrewAndrew Yeah, lesbians can get AIDs, and so can straight people. I remember Dan Savage had a quip that went something like "It's not like gay people are two sticks rubbing together and AIDS is fire."
   
JessicaJessica So if I understand the time line correctly here, a person gets molested or raped. They immediately catch the homo even though they were straight before. They then make up lies to justify why they are gay. I... don't really understand.
   
AndrewAndrew It's the devil's fault! But it's also your fault too. Chick has a sort of uneasy regard for free will, doesn't he?

 

o Page 12 collapse_button

Page 12
 
JessicaJessica I like this subtle jab at the Catholics that Chick is wont to do from time to time. You know altar boys just have huge bulls-eye targets painted on the seats of their pants.
   
AndrewAndrew This is one of the problems with using a religious tract to prove a factual point. Jack Chick believes molestation makes you gay. Lo and behold, all the gay characters were molested. Q.E.D.? The problem is that the author has his thumb on the scale. Of course the gay characters were molested- they were written that way.
   
JessicaJessica I would wager a guess that they do not, in fact, remember how they changed after that seeing as how they just said they were born that way.

 

o Page 13 collapse_button

Page 13
 
AndrewAndrew I... there's just not much to say about this page.

 

o Page 14 collapse_button

Page 14
 
JessicaJessica The demon on the left looks extraordinarily bored. Or sad. Maybe the dead guy was a friend of his. I want to give him a flower or something.
   
AndrewAndrew "You know, it's tough being a demon. I worked like 20 years to get this guy, and now he's gone, just like that. I mean, I know that's my job, but it makes me a little sad. All that work."
   
JessicaJessica I know these people use the term "strange flesh" to mean same-sex attraction, but I prefer to think they really are talking about STRANGE flesh. Like the backs of your knees. Or that dimpled area right above your buttocks. Or the insides of your toes.

Yeah... now THAT'S HAWT!!!

 

o Page 15 collapse_button

Page 15
 
JessicaJessica The guy in the foreground seems slightly off-put or disgusted by the flames engulfing is left hand. It's like he's saying in his best Winnie The Pooh voice "Oh, bother. My hand seems to have caught fire. Whatever shall I do now?"
   
AndrewAndrew "People thought they could get away with it" but the demons made them do it. Punish 'em anyway!
   
JessicaJessica Jack seems to think that all people with HIV develop Kaposi's Sarcoma without exception. I don't think that's exactly the case but it seems Chick, and people like him, seem to enjoy using it as a visual short-hand for "This character has AIDS."

P.S. That Wikipedia article has finally given me a name for my new grunge metal band - "Malignant Neoplasm"

 

o Page 16 collapse_button

Page 16
 
JessicaJessica Yes. Satan and his minions control all nations, politics and religions. Also, Jews did 9/11.
   
AndrewAndrew Yes, according to this, "no unsaved man or woman stands a chance against his powers." So how, in Chickverse, is it your fault if the devil makes you do something? I just don't get it.

 

o Page 17 collapse_button

Page 17
 
JessicaJessica Here we go again. It's like evil spirits are real and you can catch them from toilet seat or something.

 

o Page 18 collapse_button

Page 18
 
JessicaJessica Jesus predicted wars and natural disasters, and I'll be damned! There are wars and natural disasters now! He must be coming back, like, yesterday! Look busy guys! Jesus is coming!!!
   
AndrewAndrew I know Chick and company think "the world" is just horribly wicked and getting worse all the time, but compared to, oh, say the entire 20th century, things actually aren't that bad right now.
   
JessicaJessica Is there a reason Jesus couldn't use all of Noah's name there? Does he have some sort of bone disease that causes him to drop certain syllables from certain words or something?
   
AndrewAndrew Oddly enough, when I use the ol' bible passage locator, it's got the full name. That's KJV, too, so I don't know what Chick is using. The Wycliffe Translation has "Noe", but I didn't think we were supposed to use anything other than KJV.

 

o Page 19 collapse_button

Page 19
 
JessicaJessica John 3:16... blah, blah, blah.
   
AndrewAndrew And once again, we know this happened because... it says so in a book. We trust the book because it was written by God. We know it was written by God because the book says so, and obviously you have to trust the book. Does this cause anybody else concern?

 

o Page 20 collapse_button

Page 20
 
JessicaJessica Believe on Jesus? That doesn't sound exactly right.
   
AndrewAndrew First "Noe" and now "believe on Jesus". Our terminology is just all screwed up today.
   
JessicaJessica This is completely arbitrary. Two yay's and two nay's.

I also like the completely non-sequitur anger "I hate your Jesus!" apropos of nothing at all. How about "I still don't believe your Jesus exists." Not everyone who isn't a Christian hates Jesus. Most just think the whole idea is laughable and stupid.

 

o Page 21 collapse_button

Page 21
 
JessicaJessica Horray! Jesus kicked out the spirit monster and cured Bobby of The Gay! Too bad he didn't cure him of AIDS while he was at it. Thanks, Jesus.

Whenever someone who is terminally ill gets saved in the Chickverse they suddenly can't wait to die.

"I just got saved! Awesome! Someone get me a gun, I'm going to see Jesus RIGHT NOW!!!"
   
AndrewAndrew "Oh, what, you expected me to save you from your disease? Like I used to cure lepers and stuff? Eh... I don't do that one anymore, actually. Union regulations- you understand."

Chick imagines this world where gay people chose to be gay, then go on around strong-arming other people into joining them, as though being gay was a religion or a social movement. He never seems to ask why anyone would chose to be gay, and deal with the difficulties- condemnation from moral leaders, difficulties with parents and family, the need to seek out companionship in dangerous places- that have tended to follow for most of human history. Being normal is far easier.

 

o Page 22 collapse_button

Page 22
 
JessicaJessica I don't know what that is supposed to be in the first panel. Is it like a comet, or a shitty pizza flavored ice cream cone?
   
AndrewAndrew I think we're being extremely literal about "one- third of our planet". It's like a pie-chart, with one-third being devoted to hail and fire. Unfortunately, Chick doesn't have the sharpest grasp of geometry, or realize that a sphere and a circle have different surface areas.
   
JessicaJessica As a place name, shouldn't "Hell" be capitalized?
   
AndrewAndrew We've just got weird typological stuff and terminology all over the place this time.
   
JessicaJessica Miss going to hell by doing this... performing the Salah. That's what you meant, right?

 

o Conclusion collapse_button

AndrewAndrew Like some other tracts, this is a grade-A example of bait and switch. This one's about AIDS! Read it and learn! But really, it's not about AIDS per se, it's about demons. Yup, invisible spirits, like its 1690's Salem. In this tract, AIDS is nothing more than the final coup de grace for gays, God's punishment for sin in viral form. And since in Chickverse, gay people just get AIDS as a matter of course, all our characters are gay AIDS patients, because there are no other kinds.

Gotta love the Chick logic. Molestation -> evil spirits -> gay -> AIDS. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I doubt Chick has ever talked to a real gay person, other than those poor "ex-gay" suckers.

 

o Further Reading collapse_button


 

o Other Reviews & Commentaries collapse_button