Spy vs. spy The complete casebook

James Bond isn't the only cold war-era secret agent whose career continued to flourish after the fall of Communism. For 40 years and counting, the white spy and the black spy have waged never-ending battle on the pages of Mad. Their creator, the late Antonio Prohias, a political cartoonist who fled Castro's Cuba in 1960, was a font of variations on the theme of having one spy meet violent death at the hands of the other. In the next issue, of course, the deceased had been resurrected to resume hostilities. This collection reprints all 247 of Prohias' strips and selections of those by his successors, who include noted illustrator Peter Kuper. The strips were to be read at monthly intervals, however; consumed in bulk, they can become tedious. For baby boomers who grew up with Mad, this dossier may evoke nostalgia as well as chuckles, and younger readers may greet the spies' "joke-and-dagger" shenanigans with out-and-out guffaws. --Gordon Flagg

An artist and his legendary comic strip are honored by MAD magazine in Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook. Antonio Prohias's wordless, Cold War-inspired spoof of the agents of international intrigue portrays the twin enemies outdoing each other in elaborately stupid plots to achieve the other's demise. Assembled after Prohias's death, the volume commemorates the cartoon's 40th birthday as well as Prohias's compelling personal story (in 1960 he fled Castro's new regime in Cuba after being unofficially blacklisted for his political cartoons). Comic book fans, especially of the MAD variety, will love this intelligent tribute to an artist. 70 color and 300 b&w illus. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved