Religion In The Comics - 015

[Cartoonist]

Here is the kind of book Dawkins warned us about.
“Children do need to be protected so that they can have a proper education and not be indoctrinated in whatever religion their parents happen to have been brought up in.”
He was talking about school, but the same protection is needed in the home, though I don't know how we can do that.

A couple of installments ago, I introduced you to Spire Comics. They're the ones who invaded Riverdale and turned all the Archie characters into religious zombies. Emboldened by that exercise, they decided to corrupt the minds of defenseless children.



What a harmless looking cover. One can easily imagine a parent thinking that this is a wholesome comic for their child. They couldn't be more wrong. The messages displayed inside reveal a religion intent on mind control and conformism.




That duck character immediately comes across as creepy. They're clearly hiding something from Barney instead of being honest with him.





I'll bet you didn't see that coming. Throughout the rest of the story, they never refer to it as the Bible. It's always called the instruction book.






And there's your message, boys and girls. Don't try to be an individual. Follow the instruction book and forget about being a free person without strings.




That's right, you can't be happy unless you read about the incest, murder, slavery,, genocide, and God's wrathful vengeance written in the Instruction Book.



Doubt is Bad. Obedience is good.



And there's the final message for today. Go ahead and sin all you want, Jesus will forgive you if you are truly sorry.

I hope the size of this installment wasn't a problem for anyone. I would have loved to run each page with a paragraph or two of commentary, but that would have been excessive. For anyone who thinks I just cherry picked my images, feel free to view the whole sordid mess here: http://web.archive.org/web/20130422032037/http://www.carpsplace.com/spire/049.%20Barney%20Bear%20in%20Toyland.pdf

[mr blur]

1. That's fucking appalling!

All the characters look really creepy to me. The whole style of it is creepy.
What's with the creepy jester? The whole thing looks like a storyboard for a particularly nasty animated slasher film.
It's like... Jack Chick on acid.

I see this was 1988 but the drawings have a very old style, like the story books I had when I was a little kid (late '50s) but quite disturbing. Would have given me bad dreams.

Truly dreadful.

[Ron Obvious]

2. Beebub, eh?

Boy what does sound like? Maybe inserting an lze helps.

Exceptionally vile swill. Thanks for sharing.

[Lordquinton]

3. Why don't they fire Beebub?

Did the maker put him there? What if Beebub is sorry for his actions, then is he really doing bad?

Oh, I'm asking questions, I should read the instruction book for answers...

[edhopper]

4. That is some fucked up shit right there

the indoctrination of the Bear is like something Goebbels would do.
The scariest part is how they describe the "wrong" toys. Sounds like Gay and Freethinking.
How do they tell kids the "instruction book" is the Bible, and then tell them what parts to ignore?

I see it's by Al Hartley, that makes sense why Archie would allow him to use the Riverdale gang, since he was a steady Archie artist.

[bvf]

5. I desperately wanted to find

something resembling an inadvertently hidden pentagram in one or more of the panels so that I could screech to the publishers.

Ghastly stuff, this.

[AlbertCat]

6. Our Maker gave us all gingivitis so we wouldn't eat the telephone poles!

Well, at lest it clearly all make-believe.