Advertisement for the Church of the SubGenius.
Ivan Stang is a U.S. stop-motion animator, writer and publisher, known as the co-founder of the religious parody, the Church of the SubGenius. A witty spoof of religious cults and organized religion, the project gained a considerable following, with several notable celebrities joining it for fun. Stang actively promoted his SubGenius Church and its founder J.R. "Bob" Dobbs through a variety of media, including books, posters, ads, "documentaries", short films, musical records and a 1990 comic book, 'Bob's Favorite Comics', for which he scripted and drew a story himself.
Early life and career
Born in 1953 as Douglas St. Clair Smith, Stang grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. Originally, he wanted to be a paleontologist, but at age eight, he realized that it would be more fun to make movies about dinosaurs, like special effects maker Ray Harryhausen, than digging up fossils. With a simple 8mm camera, the teenager started making stop-motion movies with rudimentary dinosaur animation. Some even won prizes. Apart from Harryhausen, he also admires Georges Méliès and James Whale.
Caught up in the free-spirited atmosphere of the revolutionary 1960s, Smith discovered the thrilling music of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Jimi Hendrix, the taboo-breaking stand-up of Lenny Bruce, while being mesmerized by science fiction novels by H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft, the zany comedy ensemble Firesign Theatre and the surreal films of Federico Fellini and underground moviemakers. Among his main graphic influences were the Looney Tunes directors, Salvador Dalí, Winsor McCay and underground comix artists Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Robert Williams and S. Clay Wilson. Later in life he also expressed admiration for John Kricfalusi's 'Ren & Stimpy'.
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Smith made several humorous short films, some in stop-motion ('The Wad and the Worm', 1969), others in live-action, such as 'Let's Visit the World of the Future' (1973) and 'Reproduction Cycle Among Unicellular Life Forms Under the Rocks of Mars' ([1978). His interest in geeky stuff and creative endeavors were born from general unhappiness with his life in Dallas, where his parents often had arguments, most people were pushy baptists and he didn't feel like he belonged anywhere. At the time, he sought escapism in alcohol and drugs. The only thing that prevented him from killing himself was the hope that he could make a living with his creative projects. His main source of income was filming documentaries at the Rosebud Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Ivan Stang hosting the "999 Club" (20 November 1981).
Church of the Sub-Genius
Like many young people who grew up during the hippie era, Smith was wary of religious indoctrination, particularly the huge amount of Christian activists who wanted to impose their faith on many gullible believers and belittle, annoy and even threaten more moderate religious people or those of different faiths or viewpoints. Since the U.S. constitution states that organized religion is tax free, many cunning con men have taken this opportunity to establish their own church or cult, manipulate their followers into paying them huge sums of money and run it basically as a business. Smith cited Mormonism and Scientology as phenomena that started out as scams, before they became a dominant religion. Many Christian fundamentalists organized themselves into conservative action groups in favor of censorship and imposition of their brand of faith on the U.S. education system. By 1979, they established themselves as the "Moral Majority" and were a key factor in funding the election of Ronald Reagan as U.S. President in 1980. During the 1960s, several youngsters rejected traditional religions, but some still ended up joining far more dubious and corrupt cults. Sometimes with dark consequences, as the 1969 Charles Manson murders and 1978 mass suicide of Jim Jones' cult proved.
Interviewed by Scott Douglas Jacobsen (In-Sight Journal, 1 October 2014), Smith observed: "A religion really needs only one thing: to make believers feel like they're better than everyone else. A perceived oppressor and a perceived savior are helpful, but the main thing is telling people what they most want to hear. I have observed seemingly educated people falling for the most blatantly ludicrous notions simply because it was what they most wanted to believe. As my Pappy said recently, "I believe what I need to believe." To me that sadly sums up the human condition."
On the other hand, Smith also felt there was something charmingly silly about some of these religious organisations and their origin myths and rituals. He was equally entertained by the daft theories he came across in books about conspiracy theories, cryptozoology, UFOs and other stuff that was hard to take seriously. Smith particularly cited Jack Chick's bizarre Christian propaganda comics as a direct influence on establishing his own project: a zany parody religion. He found a kindred spirit in Steve Wilcox, who shared his love for comics, kooky literature and the music of Captain Beefheart.
Poster by Paul Mavrides and Ivan Stang.
On 2 January 1980, Smith took the name "Ivan Stang" and declared himself a reverend. Together with Steve Wilcox (who took the name "Reverend Philo Drummond") and comics artist Paul Mavrides (who worked on 'The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers' comics), they established the "Church of the SubGenius". Their worshipped figurehead is J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. Dobbs, who looks like a cheery, pipe-smoking father from a 1950s sitcom. He was designed by Stang, based on an image from a 1950s book intended for salespeople. The SubGenius Church has its own ludicrous creation myth, salvation promise, mock ceremonies and sermons (the so-called "devials"), lots of symbolism with attached philosophical meaning, scary threats and anecdotes from people who were "saved". Stang and Mavrides made a poster to promote J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, while Mavrides also created other "propaganda" artwork for posters, pamphlets, newsletters ('Stark Fist'), books, videos, radio shows and records. In 1990, Mavrides held an art show devoted to their cult at the Psychedelic Solution Gallery in New York City. Mavrides was also co-author of the book 'Revelation X: The "Bob" Apocryphon: Hidden Teachings and Deuterocanonical Texts of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' (Fireside Books, 1994).
However, the SubGenius Church is also deliberately campy. For those who are in on the joke, all their "propaganda" is a witty satire of the insanity and trappings of these religious cults. For instance, the Church offers a "triple-your-money-back guarantee": if a church member dies and finds themselves at the gates of Hell, they'll receive a 90 dollar check, plus the offer of the book 'How to Enjoy Hell for Five Cents, an Eternity', which "only" costs 89 dollars and 95 cents. According to the Subgenii, all weirdos and outsiders are threatened by the "Conspiracy", which consists of "normal" people who want to keep everything straight, in order and within the lines, in short: mediocre.
The SubGenius Church also has its own calendar. Some of their "official" holidays celebrate 'Cashier Anal Sex Day' (10 April), 'Victory over the U.S. Day' (24 May) and 'Drugs' Side Effects Day' (1 August). Two are celebrated twice in a row, namely 'Clone Day' (21 and 22 October). To throw people off, certain people who are celebrated are infamous dictators and criminals, like Caligula, Joseph Stalin, Gilles de Rais and Blackbeard. Others are more "cool" pop culture personalities who are declared saints. Among them painters (Hieronymus Bosch, Salvador Dalí, Hugo Ball), writers (Isaac Asimov, Hunter S. Thompson, Albert Camus), poets (William McGonagall, Sappho), publishers (Hugh Hefner), film directors (Russ Meyer, Stanley Kubrick, Roger Corman, John Waters), film stars (Pam Grier, Mae West, Humphrey Bogart), TV stars (Monty Python, Leonard Nimoy, Dana Plato), porn stars (John Holmes, Annie Sprinkle, La Cicciolina), comedians (Peter Sellers, Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, Benny Hill, Bill Hicks), scientists (Carl Sagan), composers (Erik Satie), bandleaders (Spike Jones), jazz singers (Frank Sinatra), pop musicians (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Bootsy Collins), punk stars (Sid Vicious, Wendy O. Williams), alternative rock stars (Iggy Pop, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart) and... comic artists (Charles Addams, Vaughn Bodé, Chester Brown, Robert Crumb, Neil Gaiman, Bobby London, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Gahan Wilson and Basil Wolverton) and animators (John Kricfalusi).
Some holidays are devoted to fictional personalities, like Dracula, Klaatu from 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', Mr. Snuffleupagus, Emma Peel, Xena and Godzilla, and mythological deities, like Hercules, Kali and Lucifer. The calendar also includes comic characters, like Norman Mingo's Mad mascot Alfred E. Neuman (7 February), William Moulton Marston's Wonder Woman (2 March), Gilbert Shelton's Wonder Wart-Hog (15 May), Peyo's Smurfs (3 June) and Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella (19 October). Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny from Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 'South Park' have their own holiday on 1 December, with 'The Martyrdom of St. Kenny' celebrated on 9 December.
Collage from a 1980s zine, depicting Yasser Arafat and Andrey Gromyko.
Interviewed in Far Corner (1993), Stang did feel joy and pride that the SubGenius Church actually gave people some positive vibes: "I've heard from dozens of folks who say that the Church actually changed their lives for the better, saved 'em from slow suicide, etc. This, of course, gratifies me; I was at the end of my tether once (or twice or three or four times) and sure could've used even the theory that there might be a non-peer group of my non-peers. On the other hand, I think for the bulk of the True SubGenii, it's more like a good periodic pep talk, a bolstering of their hatred for the Conspiracy and their confidence in their own abnormality in general."
Over the decades, many people either joined or promoted the Church of the SubGenius for fun. Especially the arrival of the Internet in 1992 and the launch of their own website allowed Stang to reach more people , all over the world, while also receiving a steady income from selling their merchandise. Among the more famous SubGenius members and promoters have been illusionist Penn Jillette, drug guru Timothy Leary, novelists Ken Kesey (of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' fame), Robert Anton Wilson (of the 'Illuminatus Trilogy' fame), Rudy Rucker, hippie clown Wavy Gravy, actors Rudy Ray Moore (of 'Dolemite' fame), Paul Reubens (of 'Pee-Wee Herman' fame), film directors Alex Cox (of 'Repo Man' fame), Jonathan Demme (of 'Silence of the Lambs' fame), Richard Linklater (of 'Dazed & Confused' fame), musicians David Byrne (Talking Heads), Mojo Nixon and the bands Devo and Negativland and comic artists Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, Gary Panter, Gerhard Seyfried, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Williams. Crumb referenced the Church of the SubGenius in the first and third issue of his magazine Weirdo. Likewise, Reubens also included imagery of the Church in his children's TV show 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' (1986-1990). The pop band Devo gave additional promotion. Frank Zappa wrote in his autobiography 'The Real Frank Zappa Book' (1989) that, despite being an atheist and not a member of the SubGenius Church, its viewpoints partially paralleled his own, making it the only "religious" organisation he might've considered joining.
Collage comic from The Stark Fist of Removal #39, 1982.
Right from the start, Ivan Stang and his fellow jokesters were open that the SubGenius church was genuine, but effectively a scam. They deliberately didn't rely on tax breaks from the government and made sure that everybody was in on the joke. In the 1980s, some journalists predictably thought the SubGenius Church was a real cult and took many of their claims seriously. For a while, Stang felt this was funny. But gradually he noticed that some gullible people actually joined in, effectively wanting to believe the hoax and were willing to empty their wallets for it. Some were obviously mentally ill, others merely desperate. As a result, Stang decided to break character more often, even during his mock ceremonies. In 2019, he and his wife Sandy K. Boone, also made a documentary, funded by Kickstarter, 'Slacking Towards Bethlehem' (2019), since so many people of their generation had already passed away, making him more determined to document their back story and make it clear, once and for all, that it had always been a joke.
'The Essence of All Humor/Horror/Bulldada', comic strip by Ivan Stang and his wife Xandy Smith, from Bob's Favorite Comics (Rip Off Press, 1990).
Bob's Favorite Comics
In 1990, a comic book promoting the Subgenius Church was published by Rip Off Press: 'Bob's Favorite Comics'. The cover was designed by Paul Mavrides who, under the pseudonym "Palmer Vreedeez", also illustrated the story 'Care Dog Meets Pee Bear', scripted by Ivan Stang. In this haunting mockery of a funny animal comic and "scare 'em straight" Christian propaganda stories, a mean grizzly bear tells a cute dog that the forest is a toxic waste and their entire existence has been futile. He then rapes him and leaves him for dead in the rain. While the poor canine wishes for a quick death, he is taken to a medical lab, where he is tormented with all kinds of cruel experiments until finally only his brain is kept alive. But even this is no happy end, as the narrator concludes: "It was hailed as a tremendous medical breakthrough, but the Care Dog didn't know he was famous. For he could neither hear nor see, nor smell, nor feel, but could only hurt." The "moral" of the story is that we should all pray that "Bob" Dobbs will rise "to punish the evildoers" and plug the machine that keeps Care Dog's brain alive.
The other stories in 'Bob's Favorite Comics', drawn by Harry Robins (as H. Robins), Jay Kinney (as Senator Kidney), Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams, John Hagen-Brenner (as Satellite Weavers), Carol Lay (as Dona Sangre) and Byron Werner, are similar cynical or downright bizarre spoofs of religious propaganda. Stang and his wife Sandy (under the pseudonym Xandy Smith) collaborated on the one-page comic 'The Essence of All Humor/Horror/Bulldada'. Drawn rudimentarily with stick figures, it's deliberately strange and silly, while the title suggests there might be some kind of deeper insight to it.
Graphic contributions and video appearances
In 1999, Ivan Stang contributed to the documentary 'Grass', about the history of marijuana. In 2008, he was interviewed about Jack Chick for the documentary, 'God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick' (2008).
Ivan Stang.