Cult Corner: As Spy vs Spy turns 65, Deej Johnson asks why licensed products are hard to find…

Tom and Jerry. Bugs and Elmer. Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote… There are plenty of legendary quarrels, struggles and squabbles under the roofs of Warner Bros. But as Paramount eyes up its vast vault of iconic IP, there’s one vendetta I’d love to see brought further into the limelight: Spy vs Spy.

Don’t know it? That’s not entirely surprising! While the property just turned 65 this year, it’s not widely known on the UK side of the pond… Sadly, it also hasn’t been shown a whole lot of licensing love in its native US either. Largely existing on the pages of Mad Magazine, the basic idea is simple, timeless – and fun!

In a nutshell, two pointy-faced, monochrome spies pit themselves against each other, endlessly and wordlessly. First appearing in 1961, the comic strip has routinely shown the two enemies in their foolish feud ever since. Month in, month out, the audience watches the two agents engage in espionage that’s mostly just designed to do the other down!

As a result, we witness an endless battle of booby traps, wits and wiles. Sometimes one wins, sometimes the other wins – and sometimes it’s not entirely clear if anyone’s won! Nevertheless, Spy vs Spy is always funny and creative.

First developed to parody the stresses of the Cold War, the cult strip is the creation of Cuban-born cartoonist Antonio Prohías. The characters made their debut in Mad #60, on January 1st, 1961 – so the IP is certainly no spring chicken. Perhaps that helps explain the only occasional appearance of the characters outside the pages of Mad… Quite what it would’ve taken to make them breakout characters with their own devoted audience we may never know! I’ve always felt, though, that the potential was there for the adversarial agents to flourish alone…

It’s not as if this would’ve been unheard of. Even at the time of the spies’ debut, several comic-strip characters had begun to garner attention and affection away from the pages that introduced them… To name just a few, Snoopy, Popeye and The Smurfs all began as somewhat secondary characters.

Away from the pages of Mad, Spy vs Spy has found a small market for trading cards and faithful figurines. But in terms of other media, it’s relatively slim pickings – although the so-called dynamite duo appeared regularly in animated segments of the Mad TV series…

Running from September 6th, 2010, to December 2nd, 2013, there are 103 episodes. Each one features the spies in their own short sketch. Sadly, the emphasis here is firmly on the word short: each section lasts somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 to 30 seconds. It’s a welcome addition to the canon – but a little has to go a long way with that running time!

Back in 1999, though, rumours suggested the two spies would be coming to the big screen in feature-film format. Indeed, Warner Bros. favourite James Gunn got so far as writing a live-action screenplay. Gunn himself confirmed this, adding that Jay Roach was slated to direct – and that both Nicolas Cage and Eddie Murphy were to have starred…

Alas, Warner Bros. and Gunn instead turned their attention to the live-action Scooby-Doo franchise. Fun though those movies were, it left Spy vs Spy fans out in the cold until 2011. It was then that Hollywood hero Ron Howard was said to be attached to a new adaptation.

Developed through Howard and Brian Grazer’s own company, Imagine Entertainment, this version saw John Kamps penning the script under David Koepp’s watchful eye. Despite enthusiastically being described as a “highly visual action comedy” this project also stalled – and remains so today. There appear to be no current plans to bring the property to the big screen.

Elsewhere, the Spy vs Spy characters HAVE featured on screen in computer and video games. Originally published for the Commodore 64 in 1984, the first Spy vs Spy was a one-or-two-player, split-screen action game. As ever, the characters set about doing each other down with their madcap antics, traps and weapons.

Considered a critical and commercial success, the game had two sequels: 1985’s Spy vs Spy II: The Island Caper, and 1986’s Spy vs Spy III: Arctic Antics. An iOS remake of the original got a 2012 release but is sadly no longer available, although a 3D remaster was released for Xbox and PlayStation in 2005.

Today, licensing deals for this brand are thin on the ground to the point of invisibility! Yes, the drinks company Mountain Dew had an advertising partnership with them in 2004. Meanwhile, contemporary animations have featured the spies… Robot Chicken and Family Guy both have episodes that show the characters – but in little more than homages and cameos.

One official product worth mentioning did come to fruition in 1986, however: The Spy vs Spy Board Game. This Milton Bradley release was created by the now-legendary designer Michael Gray. You can read more about him in his interview on our sister site here.

To win, you had to lay tiles to build tunnels. This let you collect and steal bombs… If they didn’t go off, you then took these back to your base. The bombs hid different actions on their bases, allowing you to take a free turn, move a bomb or remove a tile and so on. While delicious in appearance – and very creative – this execution of the IP didn’t quite capture enough of the cartoon’s spirit for some fans… It would be wonderful to see a Spy vs Spy board game that lets you set traps and get revenge!

In 2008, Puma and Boston-based store Bodega created a bold addition to the Spy vs Spy catalogue… Renaming the Sky II Hi ‘the Spy II Hi’, the collab comprised of striking black and white sneakers with special features… Hidden pockets, dynamite tags, bullet holes and a message in Morse Code brought a playful feel to the endeavour.

Finally, since the vinyl figures once issued by DC Comics don’t appear to be available at the time of writing, what can fans jump online and buy right now? Well, discerning hosiery wearers can turn to Sock Panda to keep their feet stylish. Similarly, you can also find cufflinks on the Polish website Ceneo… Elsewhere, Logoshirt offers men’s and women’s T-shirts in a classic-looking design.