< comics/x >
BEE SEE!
by Ben T. Steckler
(24pp Chick-style mini, $1.50 + a stamp from Ben T. Steckler / PO Box 7273 / York, PA / 17404 USA. Website:
www.geocities.com/bent4toons)
Review by Alan Rankin
A spoof of Johnny Hart’s "B.C.", done in a Chick-style format, satirizing militarism, lesbianism, and creationism, among other things. The focus is on a religious figure who calls his meetings “orgies” because “if I call it ‘church,’ then nobody will come.” This is my first look at the comics work of Ben Steckler, and it’s pretty unique. I’d say it’s worth the price of admission for two jokes alone: the fish catching the bus, and the character who speaks of a distant utopia he calls “Apartment 3-G.”
A side-note about the “Chick tract” format: I’ve seen so many variations on this by now, I’m starting to wonder if Jack Chick has created a form that will outlive him; if, 20 years from now, there will be “Chick tracts” from many different publishers, on a variety of topics, from the religious to the pornographic. (
Bee See! is neither.) Can it be that time has not yet revealed to us the richness of Chick’s legacy to comics? Just a thought…
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