A long time ago, when I was back in my university art school days, I had the opportunity and pleasure of meeting with a group of Canadian Vietnam veterans.
Now, Canada wasn’t formally involved in that particularly famous/infamous war, but a number of concerned Canadian citizens took it upon themselves to be a part of that historic experience. Growing up under the auspices of the Red Scare’s moral panic of the 1950s, these individuals believed it their duty to push back against the rising tide of Soviet-era communism, wherever it reared its threatening head. Disappointed that their federal government was staying out of the Vietnam conflict, these particular individuals, and tens of thousands more like them, volunteered their lives in the service of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Back then, the veterans I spoke to reminded me that they would have been my age or very close to it at the time – teenagers, still uncertain about the future and their station in life. So, why the emotional resonance, fear and hatred toward communism? One story, shared broadly amongst the group I spoke to, seemed to provide a foundational framework of sorts:
Growing up as children in the 1950s, many had their parents, who themselves were products of the Second World War, teach their kids how to survive a possible preemptive atomic strike by the Soviet Union.
Whether it was at school or at the home, duck and cover was the survivalist rule of the day. Hide under your desk, duck under your kitchen table or cover under your bed and survive the expected blast.
Hearing these tales was like no paranoia I had ever known or could have conceived. No bomb was ever dropped on the U.S.A. during the years of the Red Scare. But in the twenty-first century’s era of school lockdowns, could it be interpreted as such a misplaced practice?
What if a bomb was dropped?
Today, we get the fictionalized, semi historical and completely horrific account of just that kind of insanity occurring with the publication of the first issue of the three-issue miniseries, Duck And Cover!
Written and illustrated by the award-winning team of Scott Snyder (Batman, American Vampire, Swamp Thing, Wytches, Night of the Ghoul) and Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire, Prodigy, Blue Beetle, Animal Man), Duck And Cover, published by Dark Horse Comics is the first print edition of the ComiXology story, originally released online over a year ago.
The story takes place in 1955 small town America, where racism is as rampant as the fear of the U.S.S.R. It’s here that a group of teenagers come face-to-face with their worst fears: taking shelter from a nuclear blast and mysteriously waking up to a post-apocalyptic America full of concentration camps and seemingly soviet-made technology meant to hunt down any survivors, keeping them subservient or having them killed!
A sort of manga-influenced, sci-fi cross between American Graffiti, Red Dawn and War of the Worlds, Duck And Cover is a harrowing take on lost innocence, the superhero genre and a retro-future world painted by the brush of Armageddon. Snyder and Albuquerque had re-teamed to showcase their twist-and-turn storytelling strengths, making Duck And Cover a thrilling tale that reminisces readers of their own youthful exploits while exploring new and utterly horrific domains.
It’s absolutely perfect reading for the back-to-school season!
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up the harrowing Duck And Cover #1!
You can catch a sneak preview of the first issue of Duck And Cover right here. You can also watch the original trailer to the series directly below!
