Comic Books And The Cold War

I’m old enough to remember the paranoia surrounding The Cold War Era.

I recall vividly as a young child taking part in the ‘Duck and Cover’ exercises at schools. As if ducking under a desk could save you from an atomic explosion.

It seemed like everyone had a bomb shelter in their backyard. Air Raid Shelter signs, anti-communist propaganda warning of the Red Menace and periodicals, signs and TV and radio broadcasts touted The American Way Of Life.

Kids’ cartoons and even comic books warned of the danger of Communism and nuclear annihilation.

In Comic Books and The Cold War 1946 to 1952, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers offers essays on the graphic treatment of Communism, the Code and social concerns such as sex, the family and the American way of life.

It seemed like every comic book publisher either had books about the threat of Communism or consistently warned of atomic annihilation, the danger of radiation, alien invasions as allegories of Communist takeover and so forth.

DC, Marvel (Timely), EC Comics were the main propagators of such martial. Other smaller publishers contributed their own hyped up horror stories of the fall of civilization.

If I hadn’t lived through it I wouldn’t have believed it. Yeah, it was that crazy.

Edited by Chris and Rafiel York, the book presents a series of essays examining (in great detail) just how prevalent comic book publishers took the threat of the Cold War.

More than a book just about comic books. It offers an in-depth analysis of society at that time and how if affected everyone and everything around it.

Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”