Jack Chick hated Catholics, Jews, Freemasons, Dungeons & Dragons, Mormons, Harry Potter, and the Devil. He also published a series of comic book bible tract zines for just over a decade during the 1970′s and 1980′s that helped to kickstart the Satanic Panic. The comics also won Chick an ironic status among comic fans and artists who admired Chick’s prolific publishing even if they thought his ideas were ridiculous, hilarious or just plain crazy. Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing pulled this bit from the Wiki…

Chick Publications has released over twenty-three full-color “Chick comics” since its founding. They are full-size comic books and most were first published between 1974 and 1985. The first eleven form the Crusader comics series, which follows the stories of two fundamentalist Christians and addresses topics such as the occult, Bible prophecy, and the theory of evolution.[21] Six comics present the testimony of anti-Catholic activist Alberto Rivera, who said that, as a Jesuit priest, he had become privy to many secrets about the Roman Catholic Church. Among Rivera’s statements: He says the Catholic Church created Islam,[22] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[23] as well as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.[24] He also says the Catholic Church was responsible for the Holocaust,[25][26][27] the founding of Communism, Nazism, and the Ku Klux Klan; starting the World Wars;[25] masterminding the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Great Depression and the assassinations of U.S. Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy.[25] There are also three independent comics, one telling stories from the King James Version of the Bible (Chick is pro-King James Onlyism), one relaying the statements of Charles Chiniquy regarding Catholicism, and one detailing Chick’s opinions on Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Everybody is talking about Chick today as news of his death started popping up all over the internet on Monday afternoon. Here’s a kickass YouTube playlist featuring a bunch of Chick’s comics. Laugh at the clumsy Christian propaganda, be shocked at the barely concealed hate and conspiracy theories, and bid farewell to a comics pioneer of a kind whose best accomplishment in life was probably making some nerds laugh. Vaya con Dios, Chick.

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This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons — the original role-playing game, D&D has influenced every RPG boardgame that’s come since its first publication in 1974, and D&D‘s impact on modern video games is nearly as profound.

I haven’t played D&D since I passed on my secret knowledge of armor and poison and dragon’s breath and that flat sound of one gold coin piling on top of another to my godson back in the early 00′s. That said, this nerd-tastic doc reminded me of how much fun I had drawing dungeons as a 9-year-old.

Here is The Dungeon Masters…

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Between the ages of about 9 and 12, I was a little more than obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. I loved creating dungeons and DM’ing the campaigns that my brother’s character would adventure through. Learning how to manage the complex action while also marrying the player’s choices to a fantastic narrative was challenging and fun, and it was always rewarding to create a world full of tricks, traps and treasures.

I also loved the look of game: the graph paper dungeon drawings, the painstakingly painted miniatures and — of course — the books! I’d spend hours poring over the Monster Manual and the Player’s Handbook learning about creatures and spells and classes and characters, but always taking time to linger over the rad illustrations.

That’s why last week’s news about the death of David A. Trampier was so sad. The TOR site has the details…

Trampier was doggedly reserved throughout his life, to such an extent that most D&D fans know his work more than they know his name. He disappeared in 1988, leaving his ongoing comic D&D Wormy abruptly unfinished, and retired from illustration to drive a Yellow Taxi in Carbdondale, Illinois…

Take a look at Trampier’s iconic illustrations below:

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