12 August 1996

Predictable Outcomes

I love Jack T. Chick's miniature Christian comics. Each one's a predictable little fire and brimstone melodrama. There are no surprises in the Chick Publications booklet Titanic, but it doesn't matter. You know that poor Chester shouldn't be screaming abuse at God from the stern of the sinking Titanic. You just know God is going to be well pissed off, and, sure enough, in the last panel of the comic God orders poor Chester to "... Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And you can bet God didn't do that to warm up Chester after drowning in the frigid North Atlantic.

Jack T. Chick knows the value of being predictable and giving the audience what it expects. He could have been a famous artist. Come to think of it, he is.