Crazy Christian Comic: There's A New World Coming
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What better way to spread your god-bothering apocalyptic lunacy, then through a comic book? That's exactly what Hal Lindsey, a Rapture ranting Christian Zionist, and comic book artist Al Hartley did with the hysterically funny There's A New World Coming in 1974. Hartley, better known as one of the artists of the Archie comic books, helped launch Spire Comics in 1972, along with publisher Fleming H. Revell. From 1972, through to 1982 Spire published a series of Christian propaganda comics, not only turning Archie and his friends into god-fearing goody-goodies, but also producing a whole series of comics based on The Bible, and other Christian tomes. Among them the infamous Hansi: The Girl who Loved the Swastika, in 1973, based on the real-life story of Maria Anne Hirschmann. Telling the story of her love for the Nazis and conversion to Christianity. But one of the most infamous from the Spire Comics publications is the Revelations inspired There's A New World Coming. Filled with wonderfully cheesy panels, of a group of three friends experiencing the coming of The Great Snatch!
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Hartley's artwork, illustrated the interpretation of Revelations by raving evangelical right-wing reactionary Lindsey. Lindsey is one of those kind of weirdos that prays for the end of days, and revels in the prospect of The Rapture just being around the corner. Amongst all the nonsense there are twenty signs that we are in the last days, and that Jesus is going to return to the Earth in our lifetimes. Hmmm...! Well over 40 years on from the publication of the comic book, and poor old Lindsey is still fervently foaming at the mouth. The stuff that Lindsey predicted back in the mid-70s looks very dated now. Especially with the flared fashions of the wholesome teens, drawn by Hartley.
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Written at a time when Cold War paranoia and propaganda was still rife, the comic is littered with references to the dangers the Russian empire, and the impending nuclear war, otherwise known as the Red Scare. A topic covered often in comic books, and we covered in the Weird Retro article Reds Under The Bed: Early Cold War Comic Books. Some of Lindsey's interpretations of scripture are laughably tenuous. Like when he interprets Rev 9:9.10, "They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle", to mean the invention of helicopters. But fails to mention the rest of passage, which talks about how these creatures will, "... have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months." Guess that didn't fit into his helicopter theory.
The comic is full of random ravings, like when one lad mentions that, "Even if I was chewed up by a man-eating shark... Christ puts it all together again!!!" And how at the end, with wide crazy eyes, the kids who have been through the journey of Revelations declare, "We we've read the book of Revelation... And here are today's headlines... It all fits together perfectly!!" This and other Spire comic books, are now laughably quaint pieces of vintage cultural ephemera. Unfortunately fundamentalist lunacy isn't. |
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Reds Under The Bed: Early Cold War Comic Books - The crazy days of McCarthyism and the propaganda comic books that were spawned by all the "Red Scare" madness.
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Users Are Losers: A History Of Drugs In Comic Books - From the Weird Retro archive, a list of some of the best and worst of comic books about the dangers of drugs on the youth of America.
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There's A New World Coming (1974): Published by Spire Christian Comics. Written by Hal Lindsey and illustrated by Al Hartley.