Clarence Swensen

Ivan Jelical is a fictional Christian Fundamentalist who appears in the cult comic, Viz. As his name punningly suggests, he is an evangelical Christian who is committed to spreading the Gospel. Unfortunately for him, his pleas fall on deaf ears. People respond saying that they are busy, don't like being dictated to, or even resorting to hiding behind the sofa.

One strip has Ivan going out to spread the "good news", when he comes across a recently widowed woman. In one frame she is ringing The Samaritans, saying that she's going mad out of loneliness. The doorbell rings, only to reveal it is Ivan. She hides behind the sofa when she sees he is a "God botherer" after looking out of the window. The irony suggests that the strip is a satire about religious hypocrisy and prejudice on both sides, because in refusing to speak with Ivan, she refuses all social contact that she desires. On the other hand, Ivan (in another strip) is proselytising in a hospital when he comes across another widow, whose husband has died on the operating table. He asks if he can offer any comfort to her, only to tell her that her husband's in Hell after she asks if he's gone to a "A better place". He then callously extends this into boasting about how pure he is and how much her husband was a sinner, with almost theatrical hyperbole.

Aside from pious hypocrisy, a common theme that the strip explores is stereotyping. Ivan is portrayed as a somewhat unattractive nerd with a pudding basin haircut, trousers that are too short, shirt, tie, an anorak and glasses that seem to magnify a spiral pattern in his eyes. This spiral pattern traditionally suggests someone who is deluded, delirious, or even brainwashed, as it is commonly used in hypnosis. He has a personality that can be somewhat dull or annoying at best, which can sometimes also be aggressively overbearing and intimidating (even monomaniacal) at worst. Aside from his religion, he has no other interests. This is very much in keeping with a traditional media stereotype of the obsessive loner and can, by extension, have echoes of Aspergers Syndrome. However, Ivan is stereotyped (in many respects) in a manner very similar to the trainspotter and other "nerdish" characters.

Invariably, the strip often ends in violence, an accident or anything that causes Ivan's death. It occasionally has him being ignored in heaven as on earth (for being annoying) or condemned to Hellfire for some minor technicality. For instance, he receives a fatal rollocking after insulting someone's daughter, who offers him a 'christian kiss' - which is basically a kick in the crotch, or the equivalent! This causes a heart attack and his demise. He meets Saint Peter, who tells him, consulting Deuteronomy 23:1:

He that is wounded in the stones [...] shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Thus rebutted, Ivan ends up in Hell on Christmas Day. Another time he dies, Ivan is ignored by God and Saint Peter, who (in a joke on The Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".) hide behind the sofa.