BOOLEAN UNION - Key Persons
Alberto Rivera is possibly the single person who was most influential on the output of Jack Chick. His anti-Catholic conspiracy theories were responsible for eight comic books[A], and at least twelve tracts[B].
Alberto Rivera was a religious activist with notable hostility towards the Catholic Church and its' members. Before his conversion to fundamentalist Christianity, he claimed to have been a member of the Society of Jesus (commonly known as Jesuits), an order of clerics engaged in evangelisation and ministry across several nations[C].
Alberto Rivera is the man who was primarily responsible for convincing Jack Chick that it was the Catholic Church that was behind much of the world's evils. For example, Alberto claims that the Catholic church maintains a computer system with the name and religious affiliation of every Christian worldwide, which will be employed by a new Inquisition (the central topic of the Chick Tract My Name… In the Vatican?[M]).
Despite the evidence of Alberto's deception, Jack Chick has steadfastly defended Alberto. Chick's opinion on Alberto is that he is a very godly and devout man, and that following prayer, he knows Alberto's story is accurate. Chick also expects his life to be taken by Jesuit assassins, likely as a result of Alberto's claims and being convinced of their accuracy[K].
Andrew Bean has been writing since he was a child, winning honorable mention in a fiction contest in fourth grade. Bean has pursued a wide variety of interests, including history, music production, and psychology, but has always returned to his first loves of writing, literature, and language. He graduated Shenandoah University with a BA in English in 2009. His skills include video editing, television production, and sound recording.
At Boolean Union, Bean serves as Creative Director, responsible for the development of new scripts as well as the editing and polishing of scripts generated by others. Responsibilities include character design, animation, sound design, and music.
Jack Thomas Chick was no stranger to controversy, and by his own account, one of his first controversial acts was being born. As he puts it, in one of his many open letters:
"When I was 40 years old… my mother admitted she had tried to kill me through an abortion. I was stunned! That was ME in there. Where were my rights? In those days the unborn were called babies, not fetuses. I forgave her and let it go."
Jack Chick enjoyed doodling at an early age and reportedly failed first grade due to drawing airplane dog fights rather than paying attention to the class [D]. By the time he was in Alhambra High School, Chick was by his own account, a notoriously foul-mouthed schoolboy, having picked up some of his family's habits, which resulted in the Christians at the school shunning him[C] (chpt. 9), figuring "he'd be the last guy on earth to ever accept Jesus" [E].
Chick's interests in school were drama and public speaking. In 1941, he became a member of the Light and Shadow drama club, serving in the wardrobe department. In his senior year, the drama club changed their name to The Masquers, and in the play performed in his senior year (The American Way), Chick played the character of Karl Gunther, with his school's yearbook praising his portrayal as "outstanding" [C] (chpt. 8).
With respect to public speaking, he was a finalist in the Forensic Tournament of the San Gabriel League in March 1942. Competing in the Humorous Declamation Division, Chick was required to deliver a humorous speech. By his own account, his nerves briefly got the better of him and he froze on stage before remembering his line. The judges read it as a dramatic pause that enhanced his performance, and gave him first place, which earned him a two-year scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theater - an achievement which Chick in hindsight attributes to divine intervention [E]. His studies were cut short on February 1, 1943, when he was drafted into military service [F], forcing him to exchange the School of Theater for the Pacific Theater.
Jack Chick may have never seen combat in the Pacific, but it's clear that he considered himself as a man at constant war, both in a spiritual sense in the battle for souls, and in a literal sense, against demon-possessed witches, militant homosexuals, and the shadowy forces of the Vatican. Both Chick's published works, as well as his personal messages and correspondence, are rife with military and war-time imagery. He called his own office at Chick Publications "The War Room"[G] (pg. 25). "The war" was something that drove him all the way to his death.
Beyond that though, the question of "Who is Jack Chick" is made difficult to answer by how much of who Jack Chick is was defined by other people. His openness to collaborating with conspiracy theorists led to him absorbing their stories fully into his own theology. Even his faith in Christianity itself is very much defined by his sudden immersion in conservative Christian culture through his marriage to Lola Lynn.
What is indisputable, however, is the legacy he has left behind. A few years after Chick's passing, Chick Publications announced the publication of their billionth tract. Amongst those billion tracts (some of which are messages about "The Gospel") are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, presenting Evolution and Climate Change as hoaxes to brainwash the world. In addition, he presents LGBTQ+ people as militant pedophiles, the Catholic church as the Whore of Babylon, and the Israeli state as God-ordained, but the Jewish people themselves as hell-bound if they don't convert to Christianity. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Chick Publications as an active hate group and it's not difficult to see why. It's a dark and frightening world Jack Chick presents, and from their sales figures, plenty of people are willing to buy into that world.
All this stemmed from a single radio broadcast bringing on his "salvation", and ultimately his radicalization. With the hundreds of millions of his self-published tracts in circulation, we may never truly know the extent of how many people he has influenced and radicalized in turn.
Job Titles:
- Technical Director
- Studios' Technical Director
Jessica Blum has been dabbling with computer graphics, web design, and 3D art ever since the tools to do so became commercially available. Blum's signature gothic style is noticeable across a range of art media. Blum is also an actor, having appeared in theatre productions of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. A 2003 graduate from McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland) with a BA in Art and Communications, Blum's skills include 3D graphics, movie editing, and digital special effects.
As Boolean Union Studios' Technical Director, Blum acts as director and producer to all films thus completed. Responsibilities include character and set design, animation, particle effects, video editing.