Trick Tracts: The Truth Behind Those Little Comics

Trick Tracts Review: "The Tycoon"

Synopsis: Buddhists are not only going to hell, they're violent.

Here we have the Chicksters declaring that Buddha and Buddhists are going to hell. Actually, according to the Chicksters idea on things – more than half of the living world is going to hell. But I digress.

In this one, our poor "lost" protagonist is Yut Survamin (had to make sure they had the ideal ethnic name, ay?). Yut is a rich man who gives royally to temples and Buddhist charities. On the way home from the "Golden Buddha" awards – he is killed in an accident (surprise – you know there's no plot twists in these stories – someone almost always dies). Per usual, he goes to heaven and judgment, blah blah blah – geez, you know the spiel. He is sent to an eternal lake of fire – big surprise ending, too.

Yet, a few interesting things were brought up in Yut's judgment meeting with sweet, old God. The story shows a young Yut being "witnessed" to by a Pamphlet-Peddler. (You knew that, though, right? Aren't they always the ones in these stories that "could've" saved you??) I'm not sure who this young Yut is or why he's so important, but apparently he is surrounded by the equivalent of monk-CIA agents. These guys, dressed in traditional orange robes, also have donned the "bodyguard" dark shades. It's an amusing combination – and one I'm sure you're not likely to see in real life. Ever. These monk hustlers take the poor Pamphlet Peddler and apparently rough him up. God tells Yut the p.p. was "brutallly beaten" for trying to tell him the "truth". I didn't know Buddhists were so violent. Did you? Later in Yut's life a friend tells him he has gone to Jesus and his family disowned him. Yut tells him he is "stupid". The next shot is this scary paste-on of Jesus' face with some Jesus message.

It brings to mind the frightening Jesus with the horrifying eyes in Stephen King's "Carrie". It amazes me how these people can shun all and everything that is "not" in or of the Bible – but cling faithfully to pictures of Jesus that are in no way, shape, or form what the actual man looked like. Unless some Bibles come with that particular picture of Jesus somewhere in them – I missed out on this fact of history. Jesus was a Jew - he wasn't a white man with soft brown hair and hippie-beard. Yet, again, I digress.

Yut is sent to eternal damnation for worshipping an "idol" before God. I was fairly disappointed in the misrepresentation of Buddhists and the religion – but not surprised. Per usual, these Chicksters twist and contort the truth around to prove the "evil" of whatever it is they're targeting to prove to their herds the validity of their claims. So what if they do it with falsehoods and deception – that's the way the Church has done it for years. Oh wait, Chicksters don't like the Church. Amazing, then, how much they act like them. I'd like to hear what some actual Buddhists think of this comic. Please – send in your responses.

Read the actual Chick Tract: The Tycoon