As a reader of Mad for over 36 years, I am so glad to see an anthology of "Spy vs Spy". Antonio Prohias' dialogue-less, joyfully savage satire of the Cold War (and war in general), was always a favorite of mine. One spy gruesomely doing in the other, only to have him resurrected the next month (or a few pages later) to gleefully subject his counterpart to a savage Rube Goldbergesque death of his own (the precursor to Kenny in "South Park"?) And aren't they really just the same guy in different suit?
Included in this book are all the Spy vs Spy's ever printed in Mad, along with all the "Spy vs Spy vs Spy" strips, in which the gray lady spy always gets the best of her male counterparts, Prohias' work in Cuba (that got him a "request" to leave from Castro) as well as Prohias' other work for the magazine. While "Spy vs Spy" goes on in Mad, it's just not the same. The new strips are OK, but they lack the Prohias touches such as the extended fingers (like Dr. Suess on acid). With Prohias, Don Martin and Dave Berg gone, we are losing the giants. Fortunately we can turn to volumes like this and which keep these artists like Al Jaffee, Mort Drucker and Jack Davis in the here and now.