Spy Vs. Spy 2: The Cloak and Dagger Files

Black Spy vs White Spy. Are they birds? I've always wondered if they were birds because of the beak-like noses. 

I couldn't tell you where I got this 2007 collection of later Spy vs Spy strips. My guess would be Ollie's. But I'm not sure. The strip of two similar looking secret agents trying to steal the secret plans of the other while attacking them with booby traps was originally created by Cuban political cartoonist, Antonio Prohias. An earlier volume paid tribute to Phobias time at MAD Magazine. This book would feature the numerous artists and writers who were tasked with filling the Spy vs Spy creator's shoes.

I knew that this book was a volume 2. I didn't know that it was not going to have any of the original Prohias works in it. But I'm not too upset as he had retired from MAD before I started reading the magazine as a kid. There were several articles in the book including a section by current Spy vs Spy artist, Peter Kuper, whose use of stencil and spray paint have given the series an industrial artistic look. His section explains his creative process. How Mountain Dew came to do a series of live action Spy vs Spy commercials and how Spy vs Spy became a video game are other interesting features. But I think it's a forgotten piece of Spy vs Spy history that was most interesting: a newspaper comic strip.

For only 39 weeks in 2002, newspapers across the country ran a Sunday funnies strip involving White Spy and Black Spy trying to outdo each other. The pantomime strip was novel in that it looked just like you'd see in the pages of MAD, except in a paneled format like a strip. However, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occurring at the same time, it was felt that such a strip like Spy vs Spy seeing one or both of the characters blowing up and maiming the other, that it was the wrong time for such antics in cartoon form and the strip was quickly cancelled.

One area of Spy vs Spy history that I didn't see in the book was the animated shorts seen on Fox's MAD TV. Maybe they were included in the first volume. But with this being a chronological account of life after Prohias, it's absence seems strange.

Also, can someone explain to me why the occasionally appearing Grey Spy, a voluptuous blonde in a grey dress never gets her comeuppance? If she appears, she always gets the best of the two spies. They never manage to get her. Just like how Wile E. Coyote can never capture the Road Runner!

This was an okay book. The articles were needed as there's almost no words in the strips. Plus, this is not a book for folks who need reading glasses. To include as many strips as possible, a bunch are shrunken by at least half and with needing to pay attention to detail, the smaller size can give you blurry eyes at best or as with me occasionally, a migraine.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

MAD Stocking Stuffer

This special from the Usual Gang of Idiots has been released and re-released for the past couple of years. It's 96 pages of jokes, gags and parodies from the likes of Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragones, David Berg and Tom Richmond. 

For parodies, there's send-ups of A Christmas Story and Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. Oh, and don't forget the roast of the Hallmark Wish Book! Spy Vs. Spy won't let the holidays get in the way of their cold war. 

But my favorite feature was a classic from all the way back in 1963. Called 'If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys,' MAD Magazine had several kids draw their ideal toy. Then Al Jaffee took those designs, took them literal and made 3-D models. It was very funny and extremely brilliant.

Not every feature was a winner. But that's MAD Magazine for ya. If you push the envelope in so many directions, it's not going to reach all audiences. Overall, this was an enjoyable read as their were more hits than misses. 

And remember. It's 2021. People have gotten too overly sensitive over things. Lighten up. It's all supposed to be in festive fun!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Sergio Aragones Funnies #8

 I found this comic in a bargain bin recently. Featuring the art and slightly skewed brain of MAD Magazine legend Sergio Aragones, each issue has a theme. The issue I found theme is in treasure. What, you couldn't figure that out from the cover? Actually- the cover reveals more about the theme than the stories do as really the treasures discovered in this issue lies in the heart of each character and doesn't necessarily represent a monetary value.

  Anyways, along with some great short stories and some one page gags, Aragones included some seek and find games where you have to find the list of missing objects. But those activities are harder than they appear! Magnifying glasses are a must!

   I think the best part of this issue is of a true story in which Aragones was tasked one year with arranging the annual MAD Magazine editors retreat to his childhood home of Mexico. It was a neat look at some of the behind the scenes antics of the late William Gaines and his bunch of beloved “idiots.” they seemed like a really fun bunch and I wish that there were more of such adventures in this book.

  Hey, Sergio Aragones should make a graphic novel of his exploits at MAD! I call dibs on a free autographed copy for my genius idea!

   If the trip to Mexico wasn't included in this issue, I would say that this publication from Bongo Comics was for readers of all ages. But that South of the Border adventure gets a little salty at times. so maybe some parental discretion is advised for those under the age of 11.

    Worth Consuming.

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The MAD Student Survival Guide for Those Bored of Education

   There was a time when MAD Magazine was considered edgy, controversial, adult. This 2002 collection of school-themed cartoons, published by Scholastic, is proof of how far the mighty have fallen. When I was under the age of 13, I wasn't even allowed to say the word MAD. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but due to it's (im)mature content, my mother wouldn't let me buy it. That wasn't so much of a problem as my dad regularly bought the publication and he let me read his copies when my mom was at work. (Plus I was more of a Cracked Magazine fan and delighted in the works of John  Severin, Jack Davis, and Sol Brodsky.)

   But I remember that the MAD's of the 70s and 80s tackled issues like Nixon and Watergate, The Sexual Revolution, Women's Lib, Gorbachev and his silly birthmark, the Gary Sex scandal, and Iran-Contra. This was biting stuff that stuck it to the man or whoever else was in charge. It was the print version of the attitude of founder William Gaines (creator of EC classics like Weird Science and The Vault of Horror.) Gaines saw first hand what happened when government got involved in your business from the aftermath of the 1950s comics scare and created MAD as a way to skewer the traditonal (and often flawed) American Way of life. 

   
   The MAD Student Survival Guide is a strange mixture of classic Gaines and the modern DC versions of the title. Dave Berg's 'The Lighter Side Of...' is featured throghout the book as are Drawn Out Dramas, those great tiny cartoons by Sergio Aragones. Classic MAD artists like Al Jaffee and Don Martin are featured too. But the majority of the features in the book is the modern day drivel that MAD is now known for. Though a feature about the types of lunches packed by mom, that featured an up-and-coming Amanda Conner, was a delight.

    The new MAD is like those classic kids magazines from the 70s and 80s: Dynamite and Hot Dog. But those titles, the brain child of future DC EIC Jeanette Kahn, were from day one geared at kids. MAD wasn't! EC Comics were more known for having an adult auidence. But thanks to the coming of the Comics Code, William Gaines had to switch the format from a 4-colored comic to a black and white tabloid style in order to be free from the CCA's censoring body. 

    For almost 40-years, MAD was the authority in satire and biting wit and gave birth to such institutions as National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, and even a live-action series on FOX called MADTV. But when Gaines died in 1992 the title's spirit of piss and vinegar died with it. The effects of Gaines death was both immediate and lingering. The company was bought out by Time Warner and the publication was looked at as just another title in the conglomerate's vast catalogue. 

    Sales were deemed more important than Gaines' attitude that MAD was a labor of love. Eventually, the title was consumed by another Time Warner property DC Comics and slowly became more of kids publication. MAD is now like like a Doberman pincher with all of it's teeth removed- and kinda sad. Sometimes, things are best left alone... this book being one of them.
   

   Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

"Panic #9"

This EC Comics reprint is a reflection of things to come. After the Comics Code nearly forced the company into bankruptcy, editor William Gaines decided to publish a comic in magazine form to avoid censors. That book would become MAD.

Panic is like MAD-lite. There’s plenty of parodies, puns, and other scathing attacks on modern society. You even see Gaines working out MAD in this comic with things like putting stories in categories listed as coming “from the -—- Dept.”or having the characters of a parody story give a lengthy monologue about their shortcomings. The humor is quite topical and is from the 1950s. So, some readers might not know who Ben Casey, MD was or why Marlin Perkins taught us about animal behavior.

Though not quite of the quality of MAD, this is a gem and worthy of the comic book hall of fame if only for being the grandfather of MAD Magazine.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.