SPY vs SPY

Its a mad, mad world. The Communists vs. Capitalist mind games created the cold war- and two of its main protagonists, the USA and USSR though did not actually wage war against each other, spawned off many pitched battles in a mad environment (Koreas and Vietnam, for instance). It brought about isolation of the two countries from each other. And mind games were fought. Among the various "inspirations" the cold war created was a wordless cartoon strip in the MAD magazine.

The magazine MAD, never impressed me- however, I acquired a liking for the cartoon strip, SPY versus SPY. The cold war made a Cuban, Antonio Prohias, to create the white and black "spies" to fight against each other. It was made to represent the communist and capitalist ideas respectively (which is which?). The white spy and the black spy fight against each other, usually by setting booby traps. Sometimes the white one is victorious, and sometimes the black one gets the white spy killed. They are always at loggerheads with each spy ever designing more sophisticated means to get his rival killed. Usually the plan succeeds, but many times the other spy thwarts his rival's ideas by his own ingenious plan and sees him off.

Sometimes, the black and white spies are replaced by black and white high ranking officers, and a few times a grey lady spy (whom both the spies are in love with) is also seen. MAD magazine first brought their battles in 1961, and even today MAD regularly witnesses their conflicts.

Much time has passed on since its creator died and the concept was carried on by latter artists, which is indeed an achievement for MAD. The original creator Antonio Prohias also "coded" his name in Morse, much in tune with the communist-capitalist tensions. I saw a book full of SPY vs SPY recently, and hence this blog.

(pics taken from http://bloglubbock.com/?m=200512, and http://www.peterkuper.com/artforsale/salehtml/spyvsspys.html, and copyright rests with the original author).

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