(1973)
Don’t say you weren’t warned!
Coincidentally this was also the very first of his comics that I ever encountered. When and where this happened are lost in the mists of time, but it would have been in the mid-to-late 1970s. I don’t think anybody actually handed it to me; I think I just found it on the train or similar. My friends and I were immediately taken with the refreshing simplicity of its message, although there was some argument about exactly what this was…
SYNOPSIS: Fairly standard Chick model: Mr Smartarse Playboy thinks he has it all – big house, big TV, big car (which looks suspiciously like the Batmobile – maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye:-). All these accoutrements are splendidly portrayed in the one opening panel in Mr Chick’s inimitable cement-render-gun fashion. Mr Smartarse poses smug and turtleneck-wearing proud smoking a pipe and holding (I presume) a highball in his hand with a general air of: I’ve got mine so up yours! (Note: anybody of dubious moral credentials, from the Devil down, is easily identified in a Chick Comic by the fact that he wears a turtleneck sweater:-)
Suddenly he falls over dead, and then there’s the usual funeral with everybody commiserating what a swell person he was, Of course we all know what’s going to happen, don’t we kiddies? One of Chick’s standard-issue permed-blonde-hair angels whisks the poor man’s soul out of his grave and away to meet his maker, and of course all his past sins are revealed, in this instance via a movie called: "This Was Your Life".
And like the majority of Chick’s sinners, Mr Smartarse obviously suffers severe schizophrenia or something, because upon seeing examples of his sinful ways put on display for everyone to see, he immediately collapses in a screaming guilt-heap, suddenly realizing the error of his ways and how he’s lost without Jesus etc. How could I have been so blind! etc etc.
Well, yer too bloody late mate! It’s the eternity of darkness in the lake of fire for you!! (Chick obviously enjoys using that particular turn of phrase, since it turns up in so many of his comics, although I can’t really see how it could be all that dark in a lake of fire. But I digress…)
It’s kinda nice to hear that Almighty God, creator of mankind and the entire known universe of billions of galaxies made of billions of stars, can still take the time to individually cast sinners into the furnace like that, but one can’t help wondering what the point of the lecture is, since God makes it abundantly clear that there’s no way out. Sounds a trifle petty to me…
Then everything changes to: THIS COULD BE YOUR LIFE (or perhaps: THIS COULD BE YOUR LIFE). But I’ve never quite worked out whether he’s talking to us generally, or whether Mr Smartarse has been given a second chance. He suddenly turns into Ned Flanders (Homer’s goody-goody neighbour in The Simpsons), becomes a "fine Christian" etc. He still karks it, but it’s OK now because he knows where he’s going. (Or does he? Not according to a lot of other Chick Comics!)
ARTWORK: High standard, and this appears to be a genuine Chick effort, not something "ghost illustrated". The characters have the large round eyes common to a lot of the better-drawn comics. However, this illustration doesn’t really fit in with the rest, like somebody else drew it!
MEMORABLE POINTS: There’s a lot to choose from. The "typical" teenage boy saying to his mates: "This is the dirtiest story I’ve ever heard" strongly suggests that Mr Chick has had a rather sheltered upbringing…
I liked this panel with all the renditions of different expressions on the man’s face, supposedly (but rather unconvincingly) representing all the sins that the labels suggest.
And there’s the usual desperate expostulation that "nobody ever told me about all this," the response of course being that somebody did: remember that spotty-faced geek who handed you that Chick comic back in 1987? Oh thanks a lot God!
WEAK POINTS: This very much depends on your viewpoint. I mean the whole thing is pathetic, which from my point of view is what makes it a classic. As with Plan 9, it’s the heady mixture of competence and incompetence that makes it so rewarding!
FOREIGN PLAYBOYS!
As pointed out on the introduction, there are dozens of versions of this comic in all sorts of different languages. There are at least six versions of the artwork, to represent the major racial groups, each of which then has several versions in languages most appropriate to the races depicted. Thus in addition to the Caucasian version, there is one with Black African characters, one with Asians, one with Arabs, one with Indians and one with Polynesians! As far as I know, this is the only Chick Tract to get this treatment! Although there are foreign versions of lots of others, they all seem to use the same artwork as the English versions.
Panel from Inuit (Eskimo) version! Bit disappointing; I was expecting him to have some sort of Alpine Mansion in the first panel, but it's just the same as the US version!
Here are the opening panels of some of the other versions of This Was Your Life! The story (and most of the dialogue) is identical in all of them (as far as I can tell at any rate).
For some reason, there are two different opening panels for the "African" version; everything else is the same.
Perhaps this one with the woman's head uncovered was a tad too racy for the Muslim countries!
I think this was the original "Asian" version, obviously designed for the Japanese market! Either this is a very old comic, or our playboy (note the turtleneck) is a collector of "classic" Japanese cars!
They use a slightly different set of artwork for the "Chinese" version; note the changes to
the house???? (God's angels are also Asian!)
The Indian playboy looks decidedly down-market, but I guess that's the economics of a developing country!
The "Polynesian" one is even more down-market!
The Arabic version is a real hoot – it looks like somebody was doodling on the original comic while they were talking on the phone, adding moustaches and swarthy complexions!
Interestingly, in the "Arab" versions the Caucasian playboy’s highball seems to be replaced by something with a spoon in it – perhaps some Arab-savvy person can tell me what that’s about:-) His funeral scene is almost identical, except that the crosses have been removed from the graves. Also, in the US version he’s seen secretly ogling a buxom young blonde lassie – in the Arab version she has dark hair! (Obviously Jack is blissfully unaware that blonde women of Arabic descent are far from uncommon:-)
