Artifacts from the Museum's Collection: Jack Chick's High School Yearbooks

 Troy Davis  writes:

The museum has high school yearbooks for all four years (1939, 1940, 1941, 1942) that Jack Chick attended Alhambra High School (just east of Los Angeles). Chick's freshman and sophomore yearbooks contain only his class photo. Chick's junior and senior years were more eventful; Chick participated in various student organizations and plays (Chick was an actor who attended the Pasadena Playhouse actor's studio after the war; he gave up acting after being thoroughly disgusted by the misogynistic casting-couch atmosphere in Hollywood; when I had lunch with Chick in 2004, he discussed the matter (Chick's disdain for Tinseltown's amorality is covered extensively in the book You Don't Know Jack: The Authorized Biography of Christian Cartoonist Jack T. Chick by David Daniels). 

A couple of Chick's classmates also became famous: Hall of Fame baseball player Ralph Kiner (Class of '40) was two years ahead of Chick.. Comedian and voice actor Stan Freberg (Class of '45) was a freshman when Chick was a senior. When Chick was in grade school, Hillary Clinton's mother Dorothy Howell Rodham and future Dallas Cowboys executive Tex Schramm attended Alhambra High.

One notable thing about Alhambra High School is the number of published works by its alumni. Chick is the top published author of all time with over a billion books sold. Alhambra grad, novelist Clive Cussler (Class of '49)  was no slouch; over 100 million of his works have been published. It's remarkable that two publishing giants attended the same high school within a few years of each other. 

Chick's senior yearbook contains his first published artwork, a cartoon of a hapless visitor to a dude ranch containing an anecdote with words whose first letters spell out the word "Alhambra." 

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 . . . The role of Ralph Rushtoi in the publishing careers of both Jack Chick and another comics-based tract writer Vic Lockman. . . 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" . . .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" . . . Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist; Prepare for the Rapture!" . . . 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 . . .

"Closet Witches" by Jack T. Chick (audio-cassette interview with Dr. Rebecca Brown and "Elaine") . . .

The museum has a rare copy of the oversized 1964 Version of "This Was Your Life" by Jack Chick (Distributed by Rushtoi Publications) 

appreciation of the deranged nature of the original 1972 version of the Chick tract "The Last Generation" . . .The museum has a rare copy of the oversized 1964 Version of "This Was Your Life" by Jack Chick (Distributed by Rushtoi Publications) 

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.