Bad Ba-a-a-a-a-d Bob!
Jack takes the term "Total Arsehole" to new levels in this comic.

SYNOPSIS: Bad Bob was born bad. For most of his younger years his entire vocabulary seemed to consist of "Grrrr!" He wore his mother to a frazzle, throwing his food everywhere, then turning into a total pain in the arse. However his wussy child guidance councellor is horrified when his mother asks whether she should spank him: "Oh no!!! That would ruin his personality, or crush his creativity etc etc"

Bob manages to reach adulthood and becomes the local drug dealer. He's both admired - as a reliable source of just about any sort of drug you could name - but feared, for his habit of trashing the local drinking establishments when something upsets him.

A drug deal orchestrated by his cousin turns out to be a police sting and Bob and his cousin wind up in the slammer. A well-meaning but naive young Christian lad comes in on his first prison visit and Bob gives him what for:

The warden (who happens to be a Christian) takes the kid away, and then proceeds to give Bob and his low-life cousin a good telling-off, which I guess is easy enough on the other side of the bars!

That night a fire breaks out and the warden only just manages to get Bob's cell door opened in time, and Bob and the Christian warden wind up in the ER with serious burns, while his cousin doesn't make it out. Bob is still in a state of shock, says he can still hear cuz's screams and so on. The warden really shakes Bob up when he informs him that that was just a mild dose of what will be waiting for him in Hell!

After that it's the usual salvation scene, Bob asks Jesus for forgiveness etc. We close with his former customers lamenting that "now they'll have to find a new dealer".

ARTWORK: No question that this is one of his better works as the above picture illustrates. And the drawing quality is consistent all the way though, with none of the sometimes embarrassingly bad "scriptural inserts" that ruin many of his tracts. The attention to detail in some of the panels is quite amazing.

MEMORABLE POINTS: One of Bob's customers commenting: "Bad Bob is rude, crude and socially unacceptable but we love him." When was the last time you heard anybody talk like that! This is starting to sound dangerously like it was written by the same person who wrote the dialogue for: "This Was Your Life"!

The young Bob is always walking around with his fists clenched and his whole body tensed like he has tetanus or something!

WEAK POINTS: How come Bob hasn't made any attempt to reform his former customers? He would be the perfect example of the reformed sinner. Also, since he was caught trying to sell drugs to an undercover cop, we would presume he's still in the cooler, since although Jesus is always ready to forgive, the law ain't always so understanding! How come that fact wasn't mentioned?