Spy vs. Spy
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Spy vs. Spy is a wordless black and white comic strip that has been published in Mad magazine since 1961. It was created by Cuban Antonio Prohías, who fled to the United States in 1960 (just days before Fidel Castro took over the Cuban free press).
The "Spy vs. Spy" cartoon was symbolic of the Cold War, and was Prohías's comment on the futility of armed escalation and détente. Under the Spy vs. Spy title panel, the words "BY PROHIAS" are spelled out in Morse code, which would be: -••• -•-- •--• •-• --- •••• •• •- •••.
Prohías's strip represents an achievement for MAD as an institution to take on a life of its own and continue after the death of its original artist.
The comic features two spies, Black and White (X and Y in some countries), who are constantly warring against each other, and coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways of doing away with the other.
A typical plot would be one spy setting up a booby-trap for the other to fall into and be killed. Sometimes the trap would work, but sometimes the other spy would come up with a brilliant counter plan of his own and be the final winner.
Some of the early cartoons, published in 1961, had both spies coming up with the same plan to trap the other, the result being a draw. But these were the exception rather than the rule and most of the time one protagonist would beat the other.
In the early years the title panel of the comic would feature a one-panel gag presenting one spy besting the other; the main comic then used the rest of the panels to tell a different short story with the other spy winning.
During 1962-65, the comic was sometimes called Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy ("X & Y & Z" in some countries) and featured a female spy, Lady in Grey, with whom both White and Black Spy were in love. She took advantage of this to set traps for which both male spies would fall for and perish. The Lady in Grey ended up always winning.
Some people may argue that the spies represented the United States and Russia, (and the Gray spy being the United Kingdom), this could be due to the fact that these countries represent military superiority.
After Prohías's retirement, several artists worked on the strip. George Woodbridge drew one Spy vs. Spy, and after that, Bob Clarke and writer Don "Duck" Edwing took over in 1988 through the early 90's. After Bob Clarke, Dave Manak took over the strip with Edwing. In April 1997, Peter Kuper became the new Spy vs. Spy artist and still is doing it today.
[edit] Characters
- The Black and White Spies: Employed by the embassies of two nations and identical except for the color of their uniforms, the Spies do battle against each other with a variety of complicated (sometimes ridiculously so) weapons, machines and Rube Goldberg-style props. The victor alternates roughly every other comic, and neither spy is portrayed as good or evil since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other.
- The Grey Spy: Also known as the Lady in Grey (a variant on the stereotypical lady in black), a female spy who appeared in MAD 21 times from 1962-65. When she appeared, the strips were retitled Spy vs Spy vs Spy, and instead of either of the Black or White Spy winning, Grey won and they both lost. The Spies were completely enamored with her, often attempting to rescue her as she pretended to be in distress. Because she always won, Prohías decided to stop using her. Later writers and artists, including Peter Kuper, brought her back for occasional appearances.
- The Black and White Leaders: The Black and White Leaders are the highest ranking officers of the embassies that the Spies belong to. Much like the Grey Spy, they often appear in the early strips, especially in the paperbacks. They are huge, barrel-chested decorated officers and give the Spies their missions to carry out. On more than one occasion they get fed up with their employees, and in one particular episode, "Defection" (which was later turned into an animated cartoon for Mad TV), the Black Leader and the Diplomat fire the Black Spy from his job at the embassy. They have made no appearances in any strips drawn by subsequent artists.
- Other Spies: The 'Spy vs Spy' game for Xbox introduced two different colored spies, blue and red. These spies only appeared in multiplayer mode, and apparently work for separate nations. There was also a robotic spy.
[edit] Other media
Spy vs. Spy animated short cartoons on MADtv and computer games have also been made.
Six original Spy vs. Spy strips by Prohías are collected in the Archives of American Art.
"Spy vs. Spy" has now entered the public lexicon to mean anything where two opponents are constantly trying to one-up each other.
Milton Bradley released a "Spy vs. Spy" board game involving digging tunnels and retrieving bombs [1]. A German game, "Spion & Spion", was also released with different game mechanics [2].
A Sunday strip was released in 2002 but it was very short-lived. It was written by Don Edwing and drawn by Dave Manak [3]. Comics also appeared in Mad and still appear in Mad Classics done by Dave and Don called the "The Lost Sunday Comic Strips" which was an obvious reference to the "short-lived" sunday comics.
Many video games have been released using the characters. The first was released in 1984 by First Star Software on several consoles and home computers. Featuring the "trapulator", an array of booby traps with which players could carry around and trap, blow up, maim, or otherwise injure each other, the game spawned two sequels, Spy vs.Spy: The Island Caper and Spy vs.Spy: Arctic Antics. A new "Spy vs. Spy" game was released for the Xbox in 2005. It was going to be released for the PS2, but was then cancelled for the US, only to come out on the PS2 in the UK.
Toyota produced several short films inspired by Spy vs. Spy for their Yaris line, called Yaris vs. Yaris, and used to sponsor some of the web broadcasts of ABC primetime television shows Alias, Commander in Chief, Desperate Housewives, and Lost.
In 2004 Pepsi used the characters in a series of 4 Mountain Dew television commercials, taking the basic format of the strip, but with all of the action centered around Mountain Dew soft drinks.
Spy vs. Spy continues to run in MAD, now drawn by Peter Kuper. Prohías's name still appears in Morse Code at the top of the feature.
Spy vs Spy is also a CD by Billy Bragg... the full title is Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy.
In his DVD audio commentary for the Hong Kong movie The Killer, critic and writer Bey Logan claims that the Mexican stand-off, a typical feature of a John Woo film, was inspired by Spy vs Spy.
On The Daily Show, talk show host Jon Stewart compared Jack Abramoff to the Black Spy, citing a picture of Abramoff leaving the Capitol building after Congress was adjourned during the hearings regarding his lobbying, dressed in a black fedora, jacket, pants, and trench coat. Said Stewart, "Shortly after this picture was taken, the White Spy dropped a piano on Abramoff's head."
