...Which, now that I think about it, that name makes no sense whatsoever. It'd be like if Chick Tracts were called Satan Tracts. Which now that I think about that sounds hardcore. BUT ANYWAY
PS. The pictures in here are mostly entirely irrelevant. They's purely to break things up because walls of text. SUPER EXCITING.
There's more full junk about the setting HERE, and you'll be able to pick up some by reading the previous Trick Tracts HERE (7 in total, so keep clicking "next") but here's a brief, simple overview.
DHS has a mostly fantasy setting. DHSland is actually called LaRaGa, but I'll probably continue calling it DHSland for convenience.
There's nine gods what give magic to mortals.
The Elemental Gods Phoenix (fire), Ceraph (wind & lightning etc.) and Leviathan (water & ice).
The Movement Gods Altair (death & travel), Clyde (change) and Emelia (time)
The Perception Gods Marie (truth), Jude (knowledge) and Jake (lies, dreams)
Jake's an exiled god and is also called the Trickster God. He managed to piss off all the elemental gods and then created a monster called The Living Shadow that killed a bunch of people all the time, so that's why. He probably had a good reason for that. Or a reason, anyway. He hasn't done anything particularly evil for ages, though.
Followers of Jake call themselves Tricksters (mostly), and spend way too much time annoying people, stealing stuff, and generally getting in the way. They're known best for their illusion magic, which they use leaves to perform. Other magic doesn't use leaves, so carrying them around is usually a dead tell. Followers of the elemental gods try to hunt them down because their worship of Jake makes him stronger, and he's historically shown to be not a nice fella. It's usually highly legal to murder proven Tricksters, if you can catch 'em.
Elementalists are hell of common because using Elemental Gods' magic is extremely convenient and much easier than the other magic gods. Ceraph, God of Wind, is my main focus generally because he is most vocal in his hatred of Jake, and so his followers are too. Plus, he's fun to draw. Leviathan really hates tricksters but has a less angry personality. And Phoenix has to stand with his bros on the whole trickster = bad thing, but he's not as big into it.
"Fools' Week" is what they got instead of April Fools'. It's a whole week devoted to messing with people. I tend to run with that as a Halloween analogue for Trick Tracts, because Trick or Treat shortens so nicely to Trick.
As for the people what live in DHSland, HERE is where they all at. Actually there's more than that. I should really add a page for dryads, at least. ...And weres. Do I not have anything on weres? What is wrong with me... ANYWAY! That being said, there's magic what can transform people and movement from other dimensions is possible (yeah we got aliens?? I am terrible at straight fantasy) so whatever works. Most common is humans, then feathries and scalers and furries. Pretty much, I ain't fussed what characters get drawn in there. Last time I drew a ton of cameos of a race that wasn't actually in DHS (at the time. then I decided go dryads!). So I'm relaxed about that!
I could probably ramble for ages about this junk but I'll leave it at that with the links in the first paragraph and say if you got any questions message me and I'll answer 'em.
So without further ado-
If you got inspiration strike you you don't have to go with one of these. And if you want you can grab one of these and go in a weird direction with it. At the moment they're just very simple ideas, but if you like the thought of one but don't want to flesh it out yourself let me know and I should be able to eventually scrap together a script.
They don't need to be as long as real Chick Tracts god damn these things are way longer than they need to be. AND GOD, EFFORT. TOO MUCH I know I'm way too lazy. But y'know, do what you want.
Strikethrough means it's been claimed. If you want your name and a link to your FA/site to appear under whatever you've claimed let me know, because I can make that happen.
...also of course you will be credited and linked when these are all on-site. Eg. this comic and a few following were from nice people last time I called for submissions when going overseas
None of these have set titles, by the way.
1- Followers of the God of Knowledge
No direct Chick Tract correlation. My idea for this was just a cautionary tale of how people who say they're followers of Jude, God of Knowledge are probably secretly evil followers of the God of Lies.
Like, there's legit followers of the God of Knowledge because he's the God of Knowledge, he's a pretty cool guy! For example, Shauni from Random Encounter. But the thing about those guys is they're generally OK with tricksters, for example Shauni from Random Encounter. Since Jude doesn't want them to kill all tricksters, they... don't. Which is a terrible affront to the Elemental Gods, I'm sure.
The other thing is that religion is a Big Deal in DHSland, so if you're a full trickster and only worship the God of Lies, you want to be able to say you follow somebody else. If you say you follow some of the other magic gods there's the pesky problem of it being a pain to prove. But if you say you follow the God of Knowledge it's a pretty good fit - only actual Jude-followers can call you out, and for the most part they won't (unless they're real jerks, or arrogant folks who like to point out how right they are all the time).
For example, Jinx and his uncle Leo from Random Encounter are hell of tricksters who go on about how they are actually such pious followers of Jude.
That was a lot of words just describing the setting, but I think you catch the drift... Always side-eye anybody who says they follow Jude because omygosh what if not??? To bring it back to Jack Chick, I'd say like how all pagans are actually satanists who obviously sacrifice children to their dark god. CONSTANT VIGILANCE against things that don't exist. Because they exist in our shared delusions, dangit!
2- Traipses - Script available! "A Rotten Apple"
Uh, pretty much the same thing as above, actually. To give some context, "traipses" are something like DHSland's roma. HERE (and the next page) has a very brief overview. They're mostly 'taurs, but there's a fair mix of other races too. They worship the god of travel (and death, Altair), though a fair stack of them follow elemental gods as well so they can use that magic.
Back in the day (like, more than 1,000 years ago and really not since then) a few trickster mobs set themselves up as fake traipse wagons and ran amok, stealing things and causing trouble. When they was found out it cast a black spot over all traipses, making people think traipses are all tricksters. Which they ain't, but 'yknow. As things currently stand traipses don't actually allow tricksters in their troops. They usually won't kill them, but will formally cast out any they find.
Tapewolf helped out with a script for this one, it's extra-hilarious and involves a crazed zealot casting down a 'taur traipse after seeing a rotten apple. Features the amazing line "This apple... is in league... with the EVIL ONE!" among others. If you're interested, contact me specifically for this one and I'll pass you the script.
3- Dryads
I recently decided dryads really need to be a part of DHS canon. Then I realised being covered with leaves in this setting would leave you hell of open to being declared a trickster. Or, hell of convenient if you really were one...
That being said I had an idea for a tract that is just a horribly racist ramble about how evil dryads are on account of most of them growing leaves. But that you can't single them out about it for spurious reasons. Possibly because their patron Goddess is... somebody I haven't decided on yet, but is probably quite close to the Creation Goddess Gaea. I keep thinking of those awful Jack Chick tracts that are simultaneously antisemitic and then go on about how the bible says you can't pick on jews.
Jack Chick and co really are terrible, terrible people.
...and I guess this is still similar to #1 and #2. WELL *shrug*
4- Dark Dungeons parody - original
- Script available! "Advanced Gardens and Snails"
This Chick Tract is a work of art, honestly. I mean look at it!
So being that DHS has a fantasy world, I was thinking of reversing it. A bunch of dudes sitting around rolling dice to roleplay working an office job in a futuristic world with computers and cars and electric lights, whoah man.
I'm still not sure how the heck the original linked to satanism/witchcraft, but I figure this can link to Tricksters what with imagining things being precariously close to lying (oh no). I still can't stop laughing about "if you die in the game you die in real life!! true perils of d&d!!" but that sounds legit, too
Tapewolf helped out with a script for this one, it's so amazing I think I may have to tackle it myself. But I'm always, always open for help, so if you're interested, contact me specifically for this one and I'll pass you the script.
Claimed by me! I need to draw this or I may die.
5- Dream Priests
OK bear with me here, because AFAIK this doesn't have a direct Chick analogy. But back in the day in DHSland before Jake was exiled he was a reasonably respectable god. He had trickster followers being jerks, but he also had an organised temple where he was worshipped in his role as the God of Dreams.
When he was exiled all the Dream priests and priestesses and followers and all that refused to denounce him. Which is silly, because he straight-up said it was OK to denounce him, particularly if you're lying, what with him being the God of Lies. But anyway that's what happened! They stood up for what they believed in, so they all got murdered. The end.
Alls I've got as an idea for this one is to say that dream priests? Totally still a thing (it's not, but still). BEWARE, they might lurk in the shadows! And do undefined and probably unrelated completely horrific things! Just like how satanists are sacrificing your children and catmurdering in dark ceremonies in the suburbs. 100% factual.
Tentatively claimed by a cool dude (not me)!
6-Allah Had No Son parody - original (possibly too late to give a warning for literal hate speech, BUT HERE WE ARE)
- Script available!
One of the Chick Tracts you often see revolves around a youngfella seeing a bunch of muslims at prayer and very respectfully saying "Don't they know you worship a moon god? pshsphsphsph" and then one of the devout getting mad at him for some reason. And then the young dude yells him about what's reaaaaaally for real in the bible and then the man converts to Jack Chicktrianity.
What a believable and non-hateful narrative! Oh gosh.
Anyway... what was my point? Oh yeah I was thinking of having something with one of Marie's followers. Having them be praying and an elementalist going past and be like "oh my gosh praying to the truth goddess dontcha know she's a perception god her brother is god of lies therefore you're an idiot by association" or something following a similar moronic track to the original tract.
Tapewolf helped out with a script for this one, too! It's way less distressing than the original which is a total plus. It devolves into end-times prophecy which is a hilarious angle I hadn't considered and now feel a need to create crazy people to push. If you're interested, contact me specifically for this one and I'll pass you the script.
7- Sissy parody - original
Did you know there's a Chick Tract where a trucker calls Jesus a sissy and another trucker hears him and tells him how great Jesus is and he totally converts? Man how do they come up with these marvels of modern literature??
I wish I could write something that wonderful. And that's why I am intrigued by the idea of parodying it. I've only got a half-formed idea at the moment. The main problem is that the whole regressive "sissy" image kind of conjures images of girly men. And Jake, Ceraph and Leviathan all wear dresses. I could probably go somewhere with that. I dunno. Even if that doesn't go anywhere, the whole general idea of that story is hilarious. Your dad's a sissy! No your dad's a sissy! My dad could beat up your dad!
8-Halloweeny??
I wouldn't mind a Halloweeny one, or a bunch. I find the Chick Tracts going on about how Halloween is The Devil to be glorious. I ran a few previously that used Fools' Week instead of Halloween. But I haven't looked much into that since then...
But seriously who can be opposed to Halloween? It's like being against fun. And that's coming from somebody who lives in and comes from a country that don't celebrate Halloween and generally rejects Trick or Treating and that sort of thing as rampant Americanism.
9-Daisy
I've got one about Princess Daisy, but I think I might have to claim that for myself as a backup, just in case.... of the inevitability that I'm stuck doing this on my own :C
Plus putting enough info up here for someone else to pick it up would probably qualify as major spoilers for something other than April Fools'. Mwahaha
Obvi there's the Jack Chick website itself, if that's not banned in your country for being hate-speech. But I have some other junk!
I got a photoshop template from last time!
a set of two panels with text
Hmm. Coulda sworn I had more, but I think I've backed it up somewhere. Anyway, it's just arial IIRC. No need to use my template if you don't wanna. Whatevs.
You know what my other favourite hilarious Chick Tract is? This one. I can't even deal with how much it makes me laugh. The dark future of OUTLAWED CHRISTIANITY and STATE-SPONSORED WITCHCRAFT/PUPPYMURDERING
...I have a terrible memory and haven't actually read any Chick Tracts in a long time, so forgive me if I have misrepresented a bunch of the details of those comics above. If I'm unclear about anything, just send me a message and I'll fix it right up!