I'm an atheist and a student of ancient history. I think it's safe to say that there was a historical Jesus Christ. The Roman historian Tacitus writes that followers of a certain Chrestos, who had been crucified in Palestine, had caused disturbances at Rome in Nero's time. Christ was one of numerous "messiahs" who arose in the first century. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus describes several of them. Funny cartoon, though.