Mad Magazine Poster # 7 Spy vs Spy Maze Bob Clarke Art

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Mad Magazine Poster # 7 Spy vs Spy Maze Bob Clarke Art

Spy vs. Spy is a wordless comic strip published in Mad magazine. It features two agents involved in stereotypical and comical espionage activities. One is dressed in white, and the other in black, but they are otherwise identical, and are particularly known for their long, beaklike heads and their white pupils and black sclera. The pair are always at war with each other, using a variety of booby-traps to inflict harm on the other. The spies usually alternate between victory and defeat (sometimes both win and both lose) with each new strip. A parody of the political ideologies of the Cold War, the strip was created by Cuban expatriate cartoonist Antonio Prohías, and debuted in Mad #60, dated January 1961. Spy vs. Spy is currently written and drawn by Peter Kuper.

Prohías was a prolific cartoonist in Cuba known for political satire. He fled to the United States on May 1, 1960, three days before Fidel Castro’s government nationalized the last of the Cuban free press. Prohías sought work in his profession and travelled to the offices of Mad magazine in New York City on July 12, 1960. After a successful showing of his work and a prototype cartoon for Spy vs. Spy, Prohías was hired.

Prohías cryptically signed each strip on its first panel with a sequence of Morse code characters that spell “BY PROHIAS”. In a 1983 interview with the Miami Herald, Prohías reflected on the success of Spy vs. Spy, stating, “The sweetest revenge has been to turn Fidel’s accusation of me as a spy into a moneymaking venture.” Prohías, however, was censored by Mad magazine publisher William Gaines on at least one occasion: the strip that eventually appeared in Mad magazine #84 (Jan. 1964) was altered to remove scenes where the spies drink and smoke (Gaines had a strong anti-smoking stance). Prohías evolved his drawing style over the years, making the Spies’ heads proportionately larger by 1964. In 1965 he began to experiment with not drawing frames on the Spies’ shades, and this became a consistent trait from late 1966 on. In the 1980s overhanging lips were common. Prohías completed a total of 241 Spy vs. Spy strips for Mad magazine, the last one appearing in #269 (March 1987). After that he drew gag strips for the titles (such as one involving radioactive waste in #287) and wrote several stories for Clarke or Manak to draw, with his last such contribution in #337 (July 1995).

The strips continued, with writer Duck Edwing and artist Bob Clarke creating the majority. Their strips are identifiable by Clarke’s drawing style, but signed ” ‘C/e”, or ” ‘C/p” in the Prohías-written cases.

The Spy vs. Spy characters have been featured in such media as video games and an animated television series, and in such merchandise as action figures and trading cards.

Video games based on the strip have been released for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and Apple II. In 1997 GT Interactive announced that it would publish a “Spy vs. Spy” game for the PC in early 1998, but it was cancelled.

A “Spy vs. Spy” board game was released by Milton Bradley in 1986.

Animated segments of Spy vs. Spy appeared in the unaired 1974 Mad Magazine Television Special, and in the first five seasons of Mad TV (1995 until 2000) with animation by Klasky Csupo.

Spy Vs. Spy Movie Is Back on with Red Notice Director Rawson Marshall Thurber
PUBLISHED APR 30, 2020

The long-awaited Spy vs. Spy movie is finally starting to move forward after being in development for over a decade.

The Spy Vs. Spy movie is finally moving forward with Rawson Marshall Thurber attached to direct. Warner Bros. hired the Central Intelligence director to take over the project. This will be a live-action adaptation of MAD Magazine’s Spy vs. Spy cartoon strip, which has been in development for well over a decade now.

Ron Howard was previously attached to direct back in 2011 from a screenplay by John Kamps. Brian Grazer and David Koepp were set to produce, but the project stalled.

With Rawson Marshall Thurber on board as director, Spy vs. Spy will be produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. One has to wonder if Dwayne Johnson will sign on next. The pair have made three hit movies together, including Central Intelligence, Skyscraper and Netflix’s upcoming Red Notice. So, will The Rock play one of the Spies?

In addition to directing, it is believed that Thurber will be writing the screenplay too. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn recently revealed that he wrote a script for the movie back in the late 1990s, which had Austin Powers director Jay Roach on board to helm. That iteration of the movie obviously did not make it past the development stage either.

Spy vs. Spy was created by Cuban expatriate cartoonist Antonio Prohías, who was looking to make a comic strip parodying the political ideologies of the Cold War. It debuted in MAD Magazine #60 in 1961. Prohías wrote the comic strip until the #269 issue (March 1987) and was only censored by the magazine one time for having the characters drinking and smoking. From there, Duck Edwing and artist Bob Clarke took over until 1997 when Peter Kuper started writing and drawing out the iconic strip.

Spy vs. Spy features two agents who are involved in stereotypical and humorous espionage activities. One of the agents is dressed in white, and the other is in black. Other than that, they are pretty much identical, each known for their long, beaklike heads and hats. They are always at war with each other, using a variety of booby-traps to inflict harm on the other one. The two agents were well ahead of Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons, who were more influenced by the early violence of the Looney Tunes cartoons. With that being said, the outcomes are usually similar, though not has violent and over the top for Spy vs. Spy.

In addition to appearing in MAD Magazine over the years, Spy vs. Spy popped up in a Sunday morning comic strip and have appeared in numerous video games over the years. Cartoon Network’s animated series Mad, which ran from September 6th, 2010 to December 2nd, 2013, featured a Spy vs. Spy skit in every episode. There are 103 of them in total with both spies claiming victory 51 times and one instance resulting in a draw. As for who will play these two iconic characters on the big screen, that is a mystery at the moment. Hopefully will find out some more information in the coming months. Collider was the first to announce the Spy vs. Spy movie news.

I believe I wrote that screenplay. Jay Roach was attached to direct. I wrote it more thinking Nic Cage/Eddie Murphy – never heard this pairing. Script was outrageous never made, but it’s what got me most of the studio work that followed & why Warners asked me to do Scooby-Doo. – James Gunn.

Near mint condition. Ships folded.