September 2004

Never mind Jack Chick’s hopelessly 20th-century tracts; Tim Todd Ministries’ cartoons are slicker and their manga-influenced style better reflects the aesthetic sensibilities of the 21st century’s comic book readers.

For you traditionalists, don’t let the modern look vex you: the basic message is still safely rooted somewhere in the 13th century: Gays: bad! Secular rock music: bad! Evolution: lies!

But wow, is the artwork and storytelling so much better. Jack Chick’s grasp of pop culture is far too weak to have come up with “Madonna Dahmer”, the parody of Marilyn Manson that appears in the Tim Todd Ministries comic. And neither he nor the artist who does his more “realistic-looking” comics can hold a candle to whoever’s penciling and inking the Tim Todd stuff. Even if you don’t agree with the message, you’ve got to admit that he’s trumped Chick in the slickness department.

My favourite panel is shown below: a paramedic explains to a boy who think he might be gay that saying “hey, we’re born that way” is a lame-o excuse. Todd’s homophobe-fu is so much slicker than Chick’s homophobe-fu.

“When I was a homosexual 30 years ago?” That moustache and ten bucks says you were homosexual 30 seconds ago!

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