In 1947, as the Cold War began to take shape, a 48-page comic book landed in schools and youth organizations across America. Its title said everything: “Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism!” Published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society, a Catholic organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota, it was one of the most direct pieces of anti-communist propaganda ever printed for a mass audience.
The comic depicted a hypothetical future in which communists had successfully seized control of the United States. The story moved quickly and with purpose. Communists in the narrative didn’t storm the country with tanks — they infiltrated it quietly. They worked their way into the government, the schools, labor unions, and even churches, weakening institutions from the inside before making their final move.
Once in power, the communist regime in the story crushed American freedoms. Citizens lost the right to speak freely, worship openly, and live without fear of the state. The narrative made clear that this wasn’t a distant foreign threat — the danger was already inside America’s borders, waiting for the right moment.
The artwork was built to provoke a reaction. Artists used heavy contrasts between light and shadow, exaggerated facial expressions, and scenes packed with tension and violence. Every page was designed to make readers feel the threat, not just understand it intellectually. The visual style was urgent and alarming — deliberately so.
The comic reached an enormous audience. Estimates put its print run at around four million copies, making it one of the most widely distributed comic books of the decade. Churches, schools, and civic groups all helped spread it. For many young Americans in 1947, this was their first direct encounter with Cold War ideology framed as a story.
The Red Scare that gripped America at this time was not limited to comic books. Investigations into suspected communist sympathizers reached Hollywood, the press, and federal government offices. The House Un-American Activities Committee was active, and suspicion ran high. “Is This Tomorrow” fit neatly into this atmosphere, giving ordinary people a vivid, easy-to-follow version of what officials and commentators had been warning about.
The Catechetical Guild had a specific reason for publishing the comic. As a Catholic organization, it viewed atheistic communism as a direct threat to religious life. The Soviet Union had suppressed the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe, and the Guild wanted American Catholics — and all Americans — to understand what was at stake. Faith and freedom were treated as inseparable in the comic’s message.
The scenes inside the comic ranged from political betrayal to street-level violence. Characters were arrested, beaten, and silenced. Mobs turned on neighbors. Public figures who resisted the new regime were made examples of. None of this was softened. The artists showed consequences in graphic terms, consistent with the comic’s goal of producing genuine alarm in its readers.
Every element of the comic was chosen to reinforce its central warning: communism was not a foreign abstraction but an immediate domestic threat. The characters who enabled the communist takeover were American-born, holding trusted positions in society. This made the story feel more personal and more frightening than a straightforward foreign-invasion narrative would have.
The dialogue throughout the comic was sharp and direct. Characters spoke in plain, conversational language, which matched the reading level the Guild was targeting. The format — sequential panels, speech bubbles, dramatic cliffhangers — kept readers moving through the story quickly, absorbing the message before they had time to question it.
Color played a critical role in the comic’s visual strategy. Red was used deliberately to signal danger, communism, and chaos. Against muted backgrounds, red drew the eye to threats and violence. The cover itself — bold, alarming, and dominated by red — was designed to stop a person in their tracks before they even opened the book.
“Is This Tomorrow” was not subtle about its targets. Labor organizers, intellectuals, and government insiders were all portrayed as potential communist agents in the story. This reflected real anxieties of the era, when loyalty investigations were dismantling careers and neighbors were sometimes reporting on neighbors to federal authorities.
The comic’s 48 pages moved through its fictional takeover with a structured, escalating pace. Early pages established normalcy and then introduced the first signs of communist infiltration. Middle sections showed the takeover accelerating. Final pages depicted an America fully under communist control — churches shuttered, flags replaced, and resistance crushed.
As a historical document, “Is This Tomorrow” captures the intensity of American anxiety in the earliest years of the Cold War. It shows how institutions used accessible media — in this case, the comic book format — to shape public opinion on a massive scale. The fears it expressed were widely shared, and the Guild’s decision to put them into pictures ensured those fears reached people who would never read a political pamphlet.
