from the Catechetical guild education society (Catholic publishing company)
Submitted by - dave
Heres some interesting info
warning spoilers
Is This Tomorrow?
Is This Tomorrow was published in 1947 by the Catechetical Guild, boasting the provocative subtitle “America Under Communism!” On the cover, communists are physically attacking three Americans: one white, one black, and one a priest! Behind this violent tableau, the American flag is nearly hidden by flames. For the first time an educational comic book succeeded in being as visually vivid as its super-hero rivals. Inside, the story was as compelling as its politics were suspect.
All 48 pages of Is This Tomorrow (no question mark was included) is devoted to a single story. The reader learns a terrible drought is threatening the nation with starvation. American communists promptly decide this is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for to take over. The chief communist is named Jones, a grey-haired intellectual sporting glasses and a goatee. Jones asks his head of propaganda for an update.“By far the most successful approach has been the “front” set-up,” his associate reports. “As you know a few of our boys start a ‘front’ to oppose fascism or intolerance or something else that is unpopular … (Then) we get prominent left-wing speakers and give ourselves plenty of publicity.”
Manipulating strings across a map of the United States, Brown explains how “we’ve been training writers and editors for years to follow the party line.”
The communists start their plan to cripple America by calling for massive strikes. While Jones allows that the communists must “never make the mistake of thinking that American labor is communist,” he nonetheless boasts how “we are able to trick labor into letting communists control some unions.”
By the ninth page, the author of Is This Tomorrow has managed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of anti-fascist organizations, labor unions, popular media, and left-wing speakers in general.
Kicking their plan into action, the Communists turn workers against farmers, whites against blacks and Christians against Jews. Armed union members shoot and kill police officers. With the Speaker of the House already in their pocket, the Communists assassinate both the President and Vice-President. The new President initiates rationing. Fearing the crisis is still insufficient to motivate their power grab, the Communists destroy remaining food stores and blame the fascists for it. (Oh, those poor misunderstood fascists…)
Jones takes over for the ineffectual new President. He assassinates top military leaders who advocate acting against the unions that are still engaging in massive, nationwide strikes. The communists kill ministers who speak out against them. Schools begin teaching children that they are to obey the state and not their parents.
When a brave Catholic fellow tries to kill Jones, the wily leader declares the whole thing a Vatican plot. And then the Communists turn against the unions. Workers now are forced to work under slave labor conditions and are whipped when they put up a fuss. If only they had kept their mouths shut in the first place.The story reaches its climax when a young Catholic boy turns in his parents for still practicing their religion. The Communists smash a statue of the Virgin Mary, hidden in the family’s basement, with an axe.
Pushed to the breaking point, the boy’s father hands him over to the Communists. “You’ve got his soul,” the father declares, as the boy looks on, more than a little shaken. “Now take his body, too.”
“Incredible?” a back cover blurb asks in bright red ink. “It is unbelievable — that such a small group could ever dream of enforcing its will upon the majority. But remember that a group far smaller than the number of Communists living and working in America today seized control of Russia in 1917…
“If you want to keep on living in freedom, you must know who the Communists are — and their methods of working … You owe it to yourself to know all about the invader. He knows more about you than you suspect.”
Is This Tomorrow initially sold for a dime a copy. It was so successful that multiple editions were ordered. At some point, some group or organization bankrolled its free distribution among parochial schools. That this colorful story was intended for children is clear. My tattered copy, “distributed as a public service by the Cathechetical Guild,” has the name Robert Wynne, Grade 5-A written across the bottom of the cover in a childish drawl.
When all the dust had settled, it’s estimated that over four million copies of this anti-Communist polemic were either sold or distributed across the country. However much one might disagree with its tone, the comic book still made for compelling reading. It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that Is This Tomorrow contributed, in its own small way, to the anti-Communist paranoia that would come to a boil in the early fifties. To be Catholic, it seemed to say, was not only to be anti-Communist, but anti-union, anti-Hollywood and anti-left as well.
I got this from a great site that has tons more info on 'religous' comics of yesteryear check it out HEREEnjoy!