New "Cthulhu Tract" Surfaces

Steve Ellis and Fred Van Lente have teamed up to present H.P. Lovecraft fans with a new "Cthulhu Tract" comic here. "Cthulhu Tracts" are insightful little comics meant to spread the bad news of the Necronomicon in a format any idiot can understand. An earlier example of one is posted above. These pieces take their inspiration from the proselytizing nastiness of comic tracts spread across the internet by the evangelical Christian Jack Chick. Jack Chick's illustrated world is a dark one to begin with: hell lurks around every corner, non-Christians are devil worshipers, and the religious wars of the Protestant Reformation never ended (Catholics are a favorite target for Chick). So, naturally, it doesn't take much added Cthulhuvian flair to darken the holiness of Jack Chick even more.

These tracts give readers an opportunity to be "saved" in an entirely different way. Moreover, they harness an ability of Cutethulhu-type phenomena and Lovecraftian humor seldom touched on--the ability to turn slime to gold. With Lovecraft's pantheon of gods and a hefty dose of cosmic horror, Chick's tools of religious bigotry become bits of genre humor with some redeeming value. This is doubly ironic considering H.P. Lovecraft's own unfortunate bigotry. Although even Lovecraft the materialist would have scoffed at Chick's works, and perhaps endorsed the idea of parodying them with his own monstrosities.

-Grim Blogger