Spy vs. Spy Omnibus

Since the 1960s, “Spy vs. Spy” has been one of the most popular features in MAD Magazine. The diabolical duo of double-crosses and deceit (one dressed in black, the other in white) have continued to one-up each other — til death do they part. Now, their original exploits are collected in hardcover. Don’t miss a moment of the action!

"Inhabiting the innards of Mad magazine for some 50 years, 'Spy vs. Spy' is the quintessential comic strip: a deceptively simple idea repeated ad infinitum. In the case of Cuban dissident Prohias, who manufactured his two aberrant operatives at the height of the cold war and infected them with his signature brand of demented nihilism, the exercise was pure political metaphor. Two clones, one white, one black, concoct impossibly complicated methods of killing each other, for no other purpose than, well, killing each other. Exercising an imagination that is truly boundless in its Machiavellian articulations, the opposing spies, like a pair of good soldiers from competing blocks, are forever at war, yet forever the same — ideologically antithetical, perhaps, but in the end perfectly interchangeable. This omnibus edition, which features all 241 strips Prohias did for Mad as well as some unpublished art and illuminating commentary, does full justice to his diabolical creations. Prohias's graphic style (which only grew more dense and lush over the years) and nervy lines are perfectly rendered, and the compilation also showcases other artists who worked on the strip after Prohias's death in 1998. (Nov.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.