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Together with ‘Playboy’ and ‘TV Guide’, ‘Mad’ magazine was commonly described as one of the greatest publishing successes in the 1950s.

Lasting more than half a century and almost devoid of advertisements, the satire comic book lampooned movies, sitcoms and other pop American culture.

Growing up in the 1970s, ‘Mad’ was as much of the Malaysian staple as ‘Beano’ or ‘Dandy’.

But chief among its monthly features were two voiceless bug-like characters which were almost identical. Save that one was white and the other, black.

In a world obsessed with separating and characterising white as good and black as evil, ‘Spy vs Spy’ was unique.

In each strip, the two (aptly named White Spy and Black Spy) would go to elaborate measures to kill each other.

There was also no moral or ethics involved when one or the other was murdered. Nor was any method of assassination deemed too gruesome for the reader.

Ironically, the only time when both suffered the same fate is when a female Grey Spy enters the scene to lure our heroes to their deaths.

Antonio Prohias’ characters, which appeared in the 1960s, paints a world without clear rights and wrongs but one dominated by grey.

The parallels are almost identical to politics here in Permatang Pauh.

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