The Ralph Rusthoi Connection

Troy Davis writes:

Ralph Rusthoi (1913-1988) was a mailman who also ran a small Christian publishing house in southern California. He wrote some of the titles, such as Discovering Your Faith, but he mostly published other writers. Most of the books Rusthoi wrote and/or published were of the white-bread Christian variety--not the kind of work that would land on this website.

However, there were exceptions. Two Christian comic book tract writers who used Rusthoi Publications to print their works in the 1960s were Jack Chick and Vic Lockman (1927-2017). I'll elaborate on Vic Lockman and his comic book tracts in future posts but the amazingly prolific Lockman is an oft overlooked writer of weird and demented tracts. Like Chick, Lockman did mainstream comics--working for Disney and other publishers of children's fare.

Lockman's work on Christian tracts rivaled Chick for its unbridled nuttiness. Lockman did tracts that were pro-laetrile, pro-Apartheid, and anti-counterculture, e.g., the hilariously out-of-touch Hippie Come Home (the villain in this booklet is a dirtbag named Hanoi who has a third eye tattoo on his forehead).  Hippie Come Home is in the museum's collection and we'll feature it soon. (UPDATE: We finally featured it on the website; here is the article). 

NOTES ON VIC LOCKMAN:  In the 1970s, Lockman and Walter Lang take on ancient astronaut theorist Erich Von Däniken in the tract "Was God an Astronaut?" . . . Lockman goes into Bircher mode with the tract "Who's Calling The Shots?" . . . The museum featured Lockman's anti-counterculure tract Hippie Come Home. Read it here. . . Lockman and Walter Lang team up on an anti-evolution tract "Have You Been Brainwashed by Ape-Men?"

NOTES ON JACK CHICK: In my introductory post, I listed just a few of the many rare and valuable objects from The Museum's extensive Chick-related collection . . . I discuss the role of Bill Bright's prolific tract The Four Spiritual Laws in leading to a format change in Chick tracts that was a key reason why they have become much more popular since the late 1960s . . . My thoughts on Jack Chick's spreading of the peace symbol/broken cross mythology . . .  Jack Chick's retro-futuristic car in the scarce 48-page version of "The Beast" . . . Chick tract parody "Constitutional Rites" . . . Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist; Prepare for the Rapture!" . . .The 1972 Chick tract "The Last Generation." . . . The extremely rare 1970 Chick tract "Operation Somebody Cares" . . .The rare Chick Publications comic book "Jonah" by Chick and Fred Carter . . . The museum's prized cultural artifact, original art by Jack Chick. . . Jack Chick's cold war tract "Ivan The Terrible" . . . Article on Chick by fellow Catholic-baiting Bob Jones University magazine . . .Catholic-bashing tract by Chick's protege Alberto Rivera . . . Knock-off of a Chick tract by James Lloyd:"Left Behind" .  . . . Artifacts from the museum's collections:all of Jack Chick's high school yearbooks (which include the first published cartoon by Chick) . . . "Closet Witches" by Jack T. Chick (audio-cassette interview with Dr. Rebecca Brown and "Elaine").

The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts is a project of Les Zazous Postmodern Art Galley of Bellaire, Ohio. Read the Welcome Statement of The Museum here.

For more on the gallery, check out the web site here and the gallery's Twitter handle is @ZazousLes.  The Twitter handle for the museum is @WeirdTracts

The index of tracts for the museum's website is here. 

Contributions of weird tracts to the museum can be made by mail: send your weird tracts to Les Zazous Postmodern Art Gallery 3475 Guernsey Street, Bellaire, Ohio 43906.