The Black Spy and White Spy have been a fixture in MAD ever since, appearing in the magazine’s Joke and Dagger Department. The strip’s appeal, which was one of the artist’s signature strengths, was partly its silence, writes Grundhausen. His reason for going to MAD with his idea, writes scholar Teodora Carabas: he liked the magazine’s name. “The editors were skeptical of the artist, but his silly spy gags won them over, and he had sold three of the strips to the magazine before leaving that day.” “In 1960, just months after moving to the city, Prohías, along with his daughter Marta who acted as an intepreter, walked unannounced into the offices of MAD Magazine,” Grundhauser writes.

He changed the appearance of one of his characters from the strip he published in Cuba, El Hombre Siniestro, and gave him a counterpart: Spy vs. “In New York, Prohías took work in a factory during the day, while working up his illustration portfolio at night,” Grundhauser writes. At the time, he didn’t speak a word of English. It took a Cuban illustrator to really capture the essence of Cold War intelligence and counter-intelligence for the MAD-reading public.Īfter penning one too many cartoons that were critical of Fidel Castro, Prohías - who was a prominent cartoonist and illustrator in his home country - headed for New York, writes Eric Grundhauser for Atlas Obscura. The White Spy and Black Spy have inspired video games, action figures, and an animated TV series.Ĭharacters: Mad magazine cartoon screengrab: Cartoon Network

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