The Cold War is in full swing in 1952 and new ideas are emerging from everyone. The United States released its newly created nuclear submarine, DC Comics released Firefly and Rex the Wonder Dog, and Harvey Kurtzman on a lesser note released Mad. During this time period, middle aged Antonio Prohias was working for El Mundo and was an awarded cartoonist in Cuba. He will end up being one of the most important figures for Kurtzman’s the newly created Mad Magazine in the decade to come because of his ties with Cuba and familiarity with communism.
Prohias will then use his position in Mad Magazine and in popular culture to address the problematic and ironic conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union through a comic he creates known as Spy Vs. Spy. Popular culture from the 1950’s through to the late 1970’s was influenced heavily by the Cold War. It was common thought that nuclear holocaust or World War III were only moments away. This caused radioactivity, science fiction, and spies to be everyday themes seen in literature, comics, movies, and thought.
Examples of these themes are such things as James Bond being created in 1953, Star Trek in 1963, and the Fantastic Four in 1961. The Cold War was a period of political hostility between the democratic United States and communist Russia. This hostility changed everyday life for people; one such instance is schools practicing duck and cover drills in case of nuclear attack. There was a constant unease in society and popular culture picked up on this. Antonio Prohias felt this unease and hostility first hand. Prohias was a satirist cartoonist and often nudged on Fidel Castro and his political party through his cartoons in the 1950’s.
Fidel Castro led a campaign in 1958 against Cuba’s dictator and became Cuba’s leader. Castro sympathized with Soviet Russia and brought communist policies and ideas to Cuba. Antonio Prohias thus became a target in the free press of Cuba and decided to go to the United States. A 1961 Mad Magazine introduced Antonio Prohias and summarized how he came to the United States and Mad: Antonio Prohias is a famous Cuban artist whose anti-Castro cartoons have appeared in such publications as Bohemia [sic] (largest circulation of any Spanish language magazine), the daily Prensa Libre (Free Press), EI Mundo, and the Sunday Oveja Negra (Black Sheep).
He has won the “Juan Alberto Gomez” award (the equivalent of our Cartoon Society’s “Ruben”) six times. On May 1st, three days before Castro henchmen took over what remained of Cuba’s free press, Prohias fled to N. Y. stone broke. Once here, he came directly to MAD. Among the things he showed us was this captivating cartoon-sequence of friendly rivalry called SPY vs SPY. (MAD, Issue 60, January 1961) Antonio Prohias did not go directly to Mad Magazine, but it was close to that. He dropped off a cartoon he created called Spy Vs.
Spy at the Mad’s offices on Madison Avenue in late 1960 and a month or so latter it was published. This cartoon he created was simple, silent, and sophisticated. It depicted two spies one white and one black, who neither of them were good or evil, and they were interchangeable. This is the first comic Antonio Prohias dropped off to Mad Magazine that as published and it depicts the two unusual looking spies meeting each other for the first time. (First Spy Vs. Spy, source in Works Cited) This unusual pair was perfect for Mad Magazine because of the comic violence and their odd appearance.
Mad was created in 1952 by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines first intended to be a comic book published by EC Comics. The comic book was filled with “Tales calculated to drive you mad. ” The comic book was converted into a magazine in 1955 to remove it from the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority and to keep Kurtzman as an editor. Mad Magazine was crafted to allow satirical ideas, parodies, and freedoms to question authority prevail. The magazine thus adopted Antonio Prohias’ Spy Vs. Spy with open arms.
Antonio Prohias an awarded cartoonist was fully familiar and aware of the Cold War and the issues it brought with it. He used his comic in popular culture to address these problems and make a satirical opposition to them. Just as Mark Twain used Huckleberry Finn to address the problems of slavery and racial issue, Prohias uses Spy Vs. Spy to address the problems of two politically hostile nations. The principal aspect Antonio Prohias wanted to show was how equally absurd both the United States and the Soviet Union were with their actions.
In “Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD”: The Debunking of Spies, Superheroes, Band Cold War Rhetoric in Mad Magazine’s ‘SPY vs SPY”” by Teodora Carabas, she states, “At the peak of the Cold War conflict, “SPY vs SPY” presented its audience with a comic narrative in which the main heroes, instead of being either good or bad, are simply and, most importantly, equally irrational. ” (13) The author is stating that the comic did not say or show which country or spy was the good one. Both countries represented by the spies were equal with their actions and both were acting absurdly.
The author goes on to say, “By waging a nonsensical, endless war against one another, the MAD spies mimic the two sides involved in the cold war and emphasize their own incongruity with the cultural milieu in which they exist. ” (15) Meaning that the spies represent two countries who by partaking in a Cold War highlight their own absurdity of actions when the civilization they come from states otherwise. Prohias was a type of popular culture genius by using his artist ability and satiric skill to highlight how absurd the Cold War was.
He used his comic to offer a type of comic relief to the unease society felt and at the same time showed how equally irrational both countries were acting. The comic itself never gives context to what causes or why the spies are partaking in this endless battle. The best way to understand the situations the spies are in is to be apart and familiar with popular culture. The audience had to understand that the spies represented two countries partaking in a continuous and never ending rivalry without any benefit.
The countries are actually causing more selfharm by partaking in irrational actions. An article released from the Program of Culture & Conflict Studies titled, “Radiation as a Cultural Talisman: Nuclear Weapon Testing and American Popular Culture in the Early Cold War” summarizes the influence Antonio Prohias’ comic. It states, “The early 1960s gave children a hint at the equivalence of the United States and the Soviet Union in the comic strip “Spy Vs. Spy,” drawn by Antonio Prohias, that ran in Mad magazine.
The black spy and the white spy, an obvious reference to the dualism of the Cold War, were neither good nor bad. They were interchangeable. They were equivalent. ” This article states how obvious the equally absurd actions of both countries were during the Cold War and how society was aware through popular culture. Antonio Prohias contributed to the understanding society had about the Cold War. In conclusion, Antonio Prohias was perfect for Mad Magazine and addressing the problematic Cold War.
Through popular culture by way of his comic, Prohias was fully familiar with the unease and issues the Cold War brought through him time as a award winning cartoonist in Cuba. Through his familiarity he was able to pick up the ideas and images of popular culture of the period and use it to his advantage. Images such as spies showed society used by Prohias were able to address the problems of the Cold War. He showed that both countries were equally absurd in their actions throughout the war by making the spies equal in everything they did.
Mad Magazine was the perfect platform for Antonio Prohias’ spies. The satire and philosophy of the magazine helped his ideas pass person to person and have a laugh along the way. Antonio Prohias wanted to show the lies society was getting fed from the media that one country was good and another was evil. He wanted to show they were equal. Art Spiegelman summed up Prohias intention and Mad Magazines philosophy pretty easily by saying, “The message Mad had in general is, ‘The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media. “
