Gone Astray - Print.
Published: 2006
Language: English
Soft cover, 96pp, b/w
Dimensions:149mm x 210mm
Words: 2280
ISBN: 9780473118860
Was $19.99, now $10.00.
Two copies only available at this special price 15 November 2025
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Church folk often take ourselves too seriously. Jim’s warm-hearted, but edgy, cartoons help us to see the funny side of church life. No one is spared – clergy, organists, parishioners – all get a gentle prod. Good, thought-filled fun, well balanced between the trite and the bite of cartooning humour.
Crazy Christians – fuming fundamentalists – loopy liberals – batty believers – oddball organists – vivacious vicars – peckish preachers – antsy angels – Elvis, Jesus and the occasional sheep. This book proves why religion and cartoons are a dangerous mix. You might just die laughing. Jim has been drawing (sac)religious cartoons for more than 10 years. This is his first collection.
“If you’ve ever been a member of, or simply attended a church for any length of time, you might find some characters to be quite familiar. You’ll meet conservatives, liberals, fundamentalists, progressives, grumpy Lutherans, crazy Anglicans, Buddhists, rebels, organists, terrorists, organists who are terrorists, angels who are pigs, agnostics, antagonists, atheists, and Jesus himself … who I don’t think minds being drawn.
First up though, you’ll meet a guy called Jeff. If you can follow the thread of his spiritual journey over this decade of cartoons, you’ll have some small sense of my own path during that time.
By the end, I hope you’ll feel that maybe cartoons and religion aren’t such a bad mix. After all, they do have a lot in common.
Both are paths to uncovering truth and revealing the meaning of life. But while religion is about finding order and solace in the face of the apparent random swirling chaos of the universe, cartoons are about laughing in the face of that terrifying reality.
I hope you’ll find something in these cartoons which will provoke some deeper thought about those realities, as well as a few laughs." Jim, from the Introduction
Praise for Gone Astray “For those who haven’t come across Jim’s collection of vicars, elders and the places they lurk in, think of the cartoons by Melbourne’s Leunig and divide by pew. Gone Astray is a collection of some 80-odd gags with a strictly religious bent, in a similar format and tradition to the Muldoon joke book. Jim manages to pack an effective punch with a fairly limited stock of characters, poses and a very basic drawing style. Jim utilises a number of comic devices ranging from word and picture puns, commentary on current events and surreal juxtapositions to provide a much-needed counterpoint to the serious business of worship and evangelism. Funny faces are a rarely employed device reserved for the Anglicans. Jim’s cartoons are generally warm-hearted and his best work captures some of the attitudes that must make non-Christians wonder what planet Christians inhabit. If laughter is the best medicine, then this collection of partially polished gemstones from a Lutheran tumbler may be anointed with gifts of healing." Paul Marcroft, Stimulus Magazine
“Jim’s cartoons are a good mix. This collection covers the whole range, from twists on biblical subjects, borax on our religiosity, to a commentary on historic events. He pokes his humour in all directions, at that which would absorb us unnecessarily, at the foibles of the church, at me, (possibly you!) and, I suspect, at himself. This is good, thought-filled fun. It is well balanced between what I would call the trite and the bite of cartooning humour. Jim’s side kick Jeff appears from time to time through the book, a searching fellow in more ways than one. No matter what one’s theological prejudice, there is plenty of joyful fodder here, made in New Zealand and it fits great." Rev Don Biggs, Touchstone magazine
“Most of Jim’s cartoons poke gentle fun at religious culture, in the way that only someone with intimate familiarity can. His cartoons trace a journey that has involved an unflinching examination of forms and traditions. The easily offended may perceive insult within its pages. But it’s hard to imagine anyone who has sat through a church service failing to raise a wry smile. Like Adrian Plass, Boughen practices a brand of humour that magnifies the foibles of the Church without negating its heart. His subtle attacks are aimed at ‘churchianity’ that forgets its foundation rather than Christianity itself. I love these cartoons. They’re i