TMS Brings MAD Magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" to Newspapers
"Spy vs. Spy," one of MAD Magazine's longest-running and best-loved features, is now available to newspapers through Tribune Media Services (TMS) as part of MAD's year-long 50th anniversary celebration. TMS is syndicating weekly original full-color installments of "Spy vs. Spy," created by the late, legendary cartoonist Antonio Prohias, for use in the Sunday comics, as well as in other sections of the paper. Charter subscribers include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Denver Post and Atlanta Journal Constitution.
For over four decades, the black Spy and white Spy have been building their bizarre, elaborate contraptions-like the board game Mousetrap-in an endless parry of "Joke and Dagger." Political climates have changed, presidents have come and gone, yet the never-ending scheming of the Spies is as relevant as ever.
"Millions of readers have grown up smiling at the Spies' antics, and we're confident they'll enjoy seeing their old friends in their newspapers," said Paul Levitz, MAD Magazine's publisher. "Prohias won his reputation as a newspaper cartoonist, and he'd be smiling to see his greatest creation reaching readers in an exciting new way."
"We see the feature as a thinly veiled commentary on the current scene," say MAD co-editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra. "The mischievous Spies can be anyone, from Dave Letterman and CBS to Dick Cheney and Congress!"
TMS Director of Creative Services Fred Schecker commented, "We're excited to represent a comic that so many newspaper readers already know and love. It is still as fresh and appealing as ever. In fact, it's aged a whole lot better than I have."
The Spies have appeared on television in animated segments of MADtv, and have had their own NHRA stock car as part of the MAD Racing program. The KOSS company chose the Spies to adorn the billboard at their corporate headquarters, Altoids Mints have featured them as part of their "Curiously Strong" advertising campaign since last summer, and they appear in the latest issue of the Lands' End clothing catalog. To mark the Spies' 40th anniversary, last fall Watson-Guptill released Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook, a coffee table book honoring Antonio Prohias and his beloved feature.
MAD Magazine launched in 1952 and has now warped more Americans than any other humor publication (with the possible exception of the Enron Annual Report). On the eve of its Golden Anniversary, MAD is America's #1 humor magazine, reaching millions of readers every month with more than a dozen international editions.
Award-winning cartoonist Antonio Prohias fled Cuba one step ahead of Castro's authorities at the height of the Cold War. He ended up in New York, where he began working for MAD. Since 1961, his Spies have been silently turning tables on one another in crazier and ever-more bizarre schemes. The syndicated newspaper feature will offer original strips, done in the classic Prohias style, written by veteran MAD writer Duck Edwing and illustrated by Dave Manak, both of whom have worked on the strip for MAD Magazine for many years.
