Mad #63
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMad #63 (June 1961) stands as one of the earliest showcases for Antonio Prohías's Spy vs. Spy, appearing just two issues after the Black Spy and White Spy made their debut in Mad #60. Rather than a single strip, this issue runs two separate Spy vs. Spy installments — Part 1 and Part 2 — giving the wordless, pantomime Cold War satire an unusually prominent platform at a moment when the characters were still brand new to readers. The issue captures Mad at the height of its creative confidence under editor Al Feldstein, assembling a murderers' row of contributors — Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Don Martin, Dave Berg, Al Jaffee, and Joe Orlando — around a strip that would go on to become one of the most recognizable recurring features in American magazine history. Nearly every major story in the issue was also reprinted in The Worst from Mad #6 (1963), confirming that editors considered this among the strongest runs of the early 1960s period.
In "Mad's Modern Elementary School Text Books," Al Jaffee delivers a sharp, satirical take on educational material, skewering the absurdity of mid-century schoolbooks with Wally Wood’s dynamic, exaggerated artwork. The issue, a standout from EC’s iconic run, uses deadpan humor and visual wit to parody the rigid, often nonsensical tone of elementary education—just as The Flintstones once parodied domestic life, but with a twist that’s all its own. Cover by Kelly Freas captures the same irreverent spirit with its bold, stylized imagery.
In this satirical take from Mad #63, a fictional cartoon series parodies the real-life accusation that The Flintstones borrowed its premise from The Honeymooners—turning the idea into a mock courtroom drama where animated characters face off in a bizarre, exaggerated trial over stolen ideas. The story skewers the absurdity of such claims with deadpan humor and sharp commentary, all rendered in Mad’s signature typeset lettering style.
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By June 1961, Prohías had been contributing to Mad for only a matter of months. He had arrived in New York from Cuba in May 1960 — fleeing the Castro regime's takeover of the free press after years of anti-government cartooning made him a target — and walked unannounced into Mad's offices roughly ten weeks later, his daughter Marta serving as interpreter since he spoke no English. Editor Al Feldstein and publisher William Gaines were initially skeptical, but purchased three Spy vs. Spy strips that day; the first appeared in Mad #60, and by Mad #63 the feature was already running two gags per issue. The issue's cover is a Kelly Freas painted illustration — Freas was the primary cover artist for Mad throughout this era — billed as the 'Special April Showers Issue,' a deadpan parody of the seasonal themed-issue conventions common in mainstream magazines.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published June 1961 by EC Publications (EC); cover dated as the 'Special April Showers Issue.'
- Cover art is a signed oil painting by Kelly Freas, Mad's dominant cover illustrator of the period.
- Contains two separate Spy vs. Spy strips by Antonio Prohías — Part 1 (White Spy booby-traps Black Spy's phone) and Part 2 (Black Spy booby-traps White Spy's chicken) — among the earliest installments of the strip, which had debuted just three issues earlier in Mad #60 (January 1961).
- The Black Spy and White Spy were created by Cuban exile cartoonist Antonio Prohías as a wordless, pantomime parody of Cold War espionage ideology; the characters were modeled on Prohías's earlier Cuban character El Hombre Siniestro, a long-nosed sinister figure he had created for the Cuban magazine Bohemia in 1956.
- Alfred E. Neuman appears in a cameo on a movie poster within the story 'How To Improve America's Prestige Abroad' (script by Frank Jacobs, art by Joe Orlando).
- The issue features art by Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Dave Berg, Don Martin, Joe Orlando, Bob Clarke, and Al Jaffee, as well as scripts by Tom Koch, Larry Siegel, Frank Jacobs, Sy Reit, and others.
- Includes a Mort Drucker-illustrated parody of John Wayne's film The Alamo ('Mad Visits John Wayde on the Set of The Alamo'), scripted by Larry Siegel.
- Multiple stories from this issue — including both Spy vs. Spy strips, 'How To Improve America's Prestige Abroad,' 'The Great Magazine Circulation Drive,' 'In the Park,' 'Sports Typography,' and 'The Minute After That One Minute TV Commercial' — were reprinted in The Worst from Mad #6 (EC, 1963).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Svenska Mad #1/1962 (1962), The Worst from MAD #6 (1963), Mad Follies #1 (1963), Mad #8 (1968), Mad #9 (1968), The Ridiculously Expensive Mad #[nn] (1969), The Completely Mad Don Martin #[nn] (1974), Mad #97 (1977), It's a World, World, World, World Mad #19 (88-733) (1979), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #36 (1981), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #38 (1982), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #104 (1995), Mad's Greatest Artists: Don Martin #[nn] (2014), Mad #37 (2024)
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