Sunday, March 31, 2019

Weird Tract Number 53: "Questions For Your Temple Tour" by Saints Alive in Jesus

Troy Davis writes:

I previously wrote about how ex-Mormon Ed Decker's evangelical group Saints Alive In Jesus has contributed to the world of weird religious artifacts; it isn't just their written literature but their funky video presentations on Mormonism. The cover of this pamphlet has a cool drawing of a goat's head inside of  a pentagram and asks, "Do Mormons Believe Jesus and Satan are Brothers?" The tract itself gives the usual on LDS practices and beliefs as well as a discussion of the Mormon magic underwear. The last page gives instructions to readers who are either Mormon or Evangelical Christian.


Random Notes: I checked out Saint Alive's web page and the top story is "Mohammed and Joseph Smith Blood Brothers in Demonic Deception." Their Facebook page shows a video of a Texas woman who crashes a "Texas Muslim Capitol Day" celebration, grabs a microphone, and speaks up for Jeebus . . . I address Mormon Temple Garments in some of my Chick tract parodies including the tract "An Exorcist for President in 2020? Trump's Nightmare."   Full tract list here.

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.

jack t chick tract parody satire
 

Monday, March 25, 2019

The Museum's Our Lady of Guadalupe Restoration Project

Troy Davis writes:

The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious tracts also has other odd and kitschy religious artifacts (e.g., A Spire Christian Comics spinner rack was recently featured on this site). This statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the museum's most beloved objects. Around 2006, I saw it at one of the swap meets that line Alvarado Street in the Westlake/MacArthur Park area of  Los Angeles and had to have it. It has a rotating interior light that illuminates the red and yellow background. I friggin'

love it!

The problem was when I shipped it to Ohio, I didn't have the original packing Styrofoam that came with it and my packing job was substandard. The statue arrived in Ohio in several pieces. For the restoration project, I had to create some support armature (thank God/Goddess for Flex Glue).  The job is almost finished and all I have to do is a bit more sculpting and painting.


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.



alvarado street los angeles

Monday, March 18, 2019

Weird Tract Number 52: "World-Famed Economists Forecast DOOM!" by Moses David

Troy Davis writes:

I previously wrote about batshit-crazy predatory sex cult The Children of God when I discussed the tract "The Crazy Crusader" by David Berg (writing as "Moses David"). This five-page tract from 1974 by Berg reminds me of the Nigerian 419 emails that are blatantly obvious in their phoniness because they want to weed out smart people because smart people are a waste of their time because they won't be suckered by their scam. Berg engages in a long, barely coherent harangue about inflation and economics. I felt less intelligent after reading the tract.

Bonus: When I got the tract from eBay, inside of it was an invitation to a Sunday night "get together" in Oakland.
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.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Weird Tract Number 51: "Youth & Marijuana" by Peter C. Moore

Troy Davis writes: 

youth & marijuana booklet
Today's entry is part of the museum's spring break celebration. This 15-page booklet published in 1978 by Forward Movement, a ministry of the Episcopal Church. The author is The Reverend Peter C. Moore. The only interesting thing about it is that it cites studies by witnesses who were called to testify before the a notorious 1974 Senate subcommittee on marijuana chaired by notorious redneck Senator James Eastland who associated marijuana use with backtalking leftists and black power militants. Eastland invited only people to testify at the hearings who held views on weed that were as backward as his own such anti-pot crusader Gabriel Nahas whose work was called "psychopharmacological McCarthyism" and "meretricious trash" by two Harvard scientists.  The other notable thing about the booklet is the funky 70's cover font.

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.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Weird Tract Number 50: "RATS IN THE BEER VATS" by Osterhus Publishing House (SPRING BREAK SPECIAL)

Troy Davis writes:

rats in the beer vats tract osterhus
Osterhus Publishing House has been around since 1901 (history of the company is here). The oldie-but-goodie RATS IN THE BEER VATS is taken from a talk by H. Phelps Gates. Gates bemoans the lack of quality control and squalid sanitary conditions at American breweries in the early to mid-20th century. He has gross-out details of rats drowning in the beer vats and callous brewers not doing anything about it. Gates includes an excerpt from a letter from an alleged brewery worker:
     
 I was once a brewery worker in Iowa.  All of the water used in the manufacture of beer came from an overflow pool in a pasture, used alike by horses, cows, and hogs. To my amazement, on the first day, I discovered the malt to be full of maggots and I asked the brewer what to do. "Never mind,"  he replied, "Scoop it in. That won't hurt."

The tract ends by warning the reader that to avoid serving the devil because that will lead to an eternity of  "weeping and gnashing of teeth."

SPRING BREAK TWOFER SPECIAL: Another temperance tract from Osterhus
A Drunkard's Reward for Drinking Alcohol is a one-page, one-sided flyer. 
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.


Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Weird Tract Number 49: "Beer Has It All!" by Dr. Paul Heaton of Bible Baptist Church

Troy Davis writes:

Beer religious tract alcohol
It's spring break week at The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts and today's tract is "Beer Has It All!" by Pastor Paul Heaton of Bible Baptist Church of Lupton, Michigan. While the end of the pamphlet has Bible verses that warn against imbibing, Heaton mostly addresses the alleged dangers of some of the additives in beer and byproducts of the brewing process such as pupulin, geraniol, gum arabic, sodium dithionite, cobalt, tannic acid, ammonium phosphate, potassium metabisulfite, tartaric acid, papain, magnesium sulfate, and dextrin. To paraphrase Mark Twain, this tract is chloroform in print.

Tomorrow, the museum will feature a very old tract: "Rats In The Beer Vats."

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.


Monday, March 11, 2019

Weird Tract Number 48: "The Dark Side of Halloween" by Anonymous

Troy Davis writes:

dark side of halloween satan
I bought this tract on Ebay and it might be a spoof. There is no author or contact info listed on the tract. It repeats a lot of the Chick Publications worldview of Halloween (misinformation about the Druids and rock music).  At least the cover has some cool outsider art.

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.

Friday, March 8, 2019

Weird Tract Number 47: "The Lonely Cabin on the 40-Mile" by Life Messengers

Troy Davis writes:

life messengers tract 40 mile
I previously wrote about Life Messengers of Seattle which published comic book tracts the same size as Chick tracts (though one difference is they usually had more than the 24 pages found in Chick tract; Life Messengers comic book tracts usually have 32 pages).  This tract contains the story of Joe Conlee, a man who entered a seminary around the turn of the 20th century but who became disenchanted when his liberal theology professor encouraged him to read Charles Darwin.  Joe left the ministry and became a hard-drinking newspaper reporter who hit rock bottom and started panhandling for booze money.  Joe moved to the Yukon and ended up sweeping tavern floors for liquor.  When Joe's tavern-keeper boss struck gold, he made arrangements for Joe to keep a cabin for him for the winter that was stocked with all the whiskey Joe can drink.  While drinking himself half to death, two other ne'er-do-wells joined Joe but eventually they all hit rock bottom; they begin reading the Bible Joe's daughter slipped into his luggage, and then devote their lives to Christ. The three symbolically destroy the whisky barrel with an axe.  

The art and adapted script are by veteran comic book artist Deryl Skelton. This is a particularly rare version of the tract that was printed by A New Thing Ministries (more about them here).

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.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Weird Tract Number 46: "Are You Descended From A Monkey?" by Eric Jansen

Troy Davis writes:

This seven-page 2000 pamphlet published by Foursquare Missions Press isn't anywhere near as entertaining as Jack Chick's "Big Daddy?" though of the part this tract where Piltdown Man and other controversial discoveries are discussed appears to be cribbed from Chick. Jansen also argues for a young Earth and claims supposed sightings of the Loch Ness Monster are evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. The tract is full of okay art and godawful pseudoscience.

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.



Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Weird Tract Number 45: "Eternity" by Tract Evangelistic Crusade

Troy Davis writes:

The now-defunct Tract Evangelistic Crusade of Apache Junction, Arizona was a prolific publisher of religious tracts in the mid-20th century. This short, to-the-point tract consists of a small piece of paper with printing on both sides. Morbid stuff. Click on the images to enlarge (scroll down for the other side).


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.






Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Weird Tract Number 44: "Rise of Satanism" by Terry Watkins

Troy Davis writes:

terry watkins
When it comes to lunacy in tract form, Terry Watkins is the gift that keeps on giving. The Museum recently featured his tract "Warning: 666 Is Coming!"  Apparently Watkins didn't receive the memo that the 1980's satanic ritual abuse scare was a combination of mass hysteria and lucrative grifting (e.g., faux reformed satanic priest Mike Warnke who was mentioned in my discussion of Logos International). Watkins is so behind the times that he even quoted Geraldo Rivera, who produced several sensationalistic television shows in the '80s on Satanism but has since acknowledged that his '80s take on Satanism was wildly inaccurate (one of the people on Rivera's specials was con artist, defrocked physician, and former Chick Publications author Rebecca Brown). 

Watkins has a list of supposed satanic symbols. Included is the peace symbol (the peace symbol as "broken cross" trope was addressed in my review of the tract "Peace"). Also included are the anarchy symbol and, shades of Stephen King, the semordnilap "redrum."  I parodied lists of satanic symbols used by fundies like Watkins in my Chick tract parodies.
faux satanic symbols





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.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Weird Tract Number 43: "Run Baby Run: The True Story of Nicky Cruz" by Logos International (adaptation by Tony Tallarico)

Troy Davis writes:

RUN BABY RUN NICKY CRUZ LOGOS
Logos International was a hugely influential but relatively unknown contributor to fringe religious literature in the later half of the 20th century. Part of the reason for its obscurity is that the publishing house existed for a little over a decade before flaming out and going bankrupt in 1981.  Logos published books by people who would become stars in religious publishing: Dave Hunt, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, and Merlin Carothers. Most notably, Logos was the publisher behind one of the biggest literary hoaxes of the 20th century: Mike Warnke's fake memoir The Satan Seller in which he claimed to be "Satanist high priest" before being redeemed by Jeebus; the book sold over two million copies and helped spur the satanic panic of the 1980's before being exposed as fraudulent in 1991. Amazingly, despite selling tens of millions of books in the 1970s, Logos went bust; these people must have been completely incompetent at business and management.

LOGOS INTERNATIONAL COMIC BOOKS
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
One of the bad business decisions by the Logos' team was the ill-fated attempt to adapt their bestselling books into comic books. Inspired by the success of Spire Christian Comics, Logos adapted four of their books into comic books: 1) Merlin Carothers' Prison To Praise; 2) Nicky Cruz's Run Baby Run; 3) Amazing Saints: The Story of Phil Saint; and 4) Ben Israel: A Modern Jew's Search for The Messiah. It turned out that sales for Prison To Praise and Run Baby Run were so poor that the other two comics were released only in extremely limited print runs (oddly, although they are extremely scarce, they aren't considered valuable according to ComicsPriceGuide.com). Part of the problem was the sub-par art by Tony Tallarico, the Mario Mendoza of comic book artists (Tallarico did art for Dell's disastrous mid-60s efforts to transform Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Werewolf into superheroes; see the covers below).

Run Baby Run is about Nicky Cruz, a Puerto Rican who moved to New York City and became the leader of the notorious street gang, the Mau Maus before turning to Christ. It's actually an interesting story. Tallarico's art, though mediocre, is adequate.

Notes on Logos International: Some of the goofier titles by Logos: 1) Daughter of Destiny: Kathryn Kuhlman tells the story of of the evangelist and faith healer. It was written by Jamie Buckingham whose Power For Living was featured by the Museum here). Jack Chick's anti-Catholic muse, Alberto Rivera, accused Kuhlman of being a Jesuit agent; 2) A Walk with the Cross is the story of Arthur Blessitt, an evangelist who has walked through every country in the world with a cross (Blessitt also had a quixotic run for president in 1976); 3) Child of Satan, Child of God is the story of the conversion to Christianity of Manson family murderer Susan Atkins; 4) Eldridge Cleaver: Reborn is the memoir of the Black Panther Party founder who became a Christian.
Tony TallaricoTony TallaricoTony Tallarico

mike warnke ad satan seller logos
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.


Weird Tract Number 142: "Mark of the Beast" by Anonymous

Troy Davis writes: "Mark of the Beast is an anonymous, undated four-page pamphlet promoting the Catholic-baiting book by Seventh Day Ad...