Characters
The cover copy of the The All New Mad Secret File on Spy vs. Spy provides early insight to the characters and Prohías' views on the Castro regime and the CIA (who were constantly attempting to oust Castro):
| “ | You are about to meet the black Spy and the white Spy — the two MADest spies in the whole world. Their antics are almost as funny as the CIA's...When it comes to intrigue, these guys make it way outtrigue. They are the only two spies we know who haven't the sense to come in out of the cold. But they have a ball – mainly trying to outwit each other. | ” |
The comic strip always features two spies, who are completely identical save for the fact that one is dressed in white and the other black. The pair are constantly warring with each other, using a variety of booby-traps to inflict harm on the other. The spies usually alternate between victory and defeat with each new strip.
In Mad magazine #73 (Sept. 1962), the strip was renamed Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy, as it was the debut of a third spy, the Grey Spy (or the "Woman in Grey") . The Grey Spy only appeared sporadically, but always triumphed, using the infatuation of the Black and White spies to her advantage. Prohías stated "The lady Spy represented neutrality. She would decide for the white or black Spy, and she also added some balance and variety to the basic 'Spy vs. Spy' formula." The Grey Spy's last appearance in the magazine comics under Prohías was Mad magazine #99 (Dec. 1965); she did not appear again until Kuper took over the strip.
Read more about this topic: Spy Vs. Spy
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The naturalistic literature of this country has reached such a state that no family of characters is considered true to life which does not include at least two hypochondriacs, one sadist, and one old man who spills food down the front of his vest.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Unresolved dissonances between the characters and dispositions of the parents continue to reverberate in the nature of the child and make up the history of its inner sufferings.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)