Review by KC Carlson

Spy vs. Spy:
Danger! Intrigue! Stupidity!
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Three “lost” collections of Antonio Prohias’ classic Cold War characters Spy vs. Spy are finally back in print — for the first time in decades! Originally published during the late 1950s through the 1970’s as part of MAD Magazine’s bid to take over the world (more than 100 titles were published in paperback), the original Spy vs. Spy collections were unique in that they featured all-new material — as opposed to the MAD anthology paperback collections (like The MAD Reader) which were all reprints from the magazine. So, bottom line, these new collections — Danger! Intrigue! Stupidity!, Masters of Mayhem, and Missions of Madness — all feature original Spy vs. Spy strips by Prohias that did not originally appear in MAD Magazine and were not compiled in 2001’s Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook (despite its title).

Spy vs. Spy:
Masters of Mayhem
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(And if you don’t already have Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook, you should. It’s amazing — especially for the historical and personal background on Prohias, as well as the multitude of other extra material.)

For the record: Danger! Intrigue! Stupidity! returns to print the original The All-New MAD Secret File on Spy vs. Spy (originally published in 1965), Masters of Mayhem reprints MAD’s Spy vs. Spy Follow-Up File (1968), and Missions of Madness repackages the original The Fourth MAD Declassified Papers on Spy vs. Spy (1974). Or basically the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Spy vs. Spy paperbacks. No, I don’t know why they skipped the 3rd one. Perhaps there will be more — if everybody goes out and buys these!

Spy vs. Spy:
Missions of Madness
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All of these have been beautifully re-collected by Watson-Guptill for $11.99 each and are all available now at your favorite brick & mortar, online, or imaginary bookstore or comics shop.

And if you don’t know who or what Spy vs. Spy is — shame on you! You just failed Question #7 on the standard Comic Character Literacy Exam! Study up, buckos!

(Complimentary copies for this review were provided by the publisher.)