Jack T. Chick

Jack T. Chick was born in Boyle Heights, California, on April 13th, 1924. He was fortunate not to come from a broken family. His dad and mom, Thomas and Pauline, stayed married till death and his dad was a hard worker who provided for his family. But Jack didn't come from a loving family, either —at least, not to him. His sister, Doris, seemed to receive the affection. He told me his mom hardly ever spoke to him. His dad only spoke to him about work and things that interested him. From early childhood, it was obvious that Jack had an ability to draw. He even failed the first grade because he was so busy drawing airplanes in battle. As he grew, Jack was constantly drawing, and honing skills that God would later use in a great way. Another talent Jack had was acting and public speaking. From his junior year at Alhambra High School, he was involved in several school plays and was quite good at it. The yearbook review said, "Jack Chick was outstanding in his portrayal of Karl Gunther." He spent the next three years in the Army, which took him overseas to countries like New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines and Japan. Almost everyone he knew who went into battle was eventually killed. But in his whole enlistment, Jack never saw battle, not even once. Jack was never fired at and never so much as saw a gun being fired at an enemy. Jack's assignment was cryptography (the art of writing or solving codes). So just like his army buddies, Jack sat around and worked and talked and smoked —a habit he later gave up. Jack and Lola Lynn "Tie-the-Knot" (Married on March 22nd, 1948 until Lola's death on February 10th, 1998.) After being discharged from the service, Jack returned to the Playhouse, where he met and married his wife, Lola Lynn Priddle. She was instrumental in his salvation. While visiting Lola's parents in Canada on their honeymoon, Jack's mother-in-law insisted that he sit and listen to Charles E. Fuller's Old Fashioned Revival Hour radio program. So that night on his honeymoon, Sunday night at 8:30 PM, right after the radio broadcast, Jack went into the kitchen and cried out to God to save him. So in 1953, Jack got a job doing advertising art and other graphic work for Aerojet-General Corporation, an aerospace company in Azusa, about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Aerojet created rocket engines and greatly assisted in WWII with the invention of the JATO (Jet-Assisted-Take-Off) engine. Jack drew advertising mockups for the JATO rocket to help sell the idea to various government buyers. But Jack didn't think only of his day job and his family. He still wanted to draw comic art. He couldn't find a publisher who was willing to print his first book, so Jack borrowed $800 from the credit union and paid for the first printing of "Why No Revival?". It was more of a critique of the church than a gospel tract. Right after the book was printed, he was driving down the road, when his eyes were drawn to a group of teens on the sidewalk. Jack remembers, "At the time, I didn't like teenagers or their rebellion. But, all of a sudden, the power of God hit me and my heart broke and I was overcome with the realization that these teens were probably on their way to hell. Within 15 minutes, "A Demon's Nightmare" was written. After going home and drawing the art, Jack Chick's very first soul-winning gospel tract was completed. Jack went to his boss, George Otis, a Christian man, who had just recently bought the company. Jack didn't even have to ask! God already had it all arranged. Jack also would meet people at Christian Businessmen's meetings where he visited and spoke. One day, Bob Hammond, missionary broadcaster of The Voice of China and Asia, told Jack that multitudes of Chinese people had been won to Communism through mass distribution of cartoon booklets. Jack felt that God was leading him to use the same technique to win multitudes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jack became convinced that God had given him a method of re