2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Spy vs. Spy. To celebrate this historic milestone, every day TheIdiotical will be devoting a post to Antonio Prohias’ classic strip. Today, it’s the very first Spy strip, from MAD #60 (January, 1961).

Over the next few days we’ll be featuring Spy tribute art by different artists. Tomorrow, it’s a post-apocalyptic envisioning of Spy vs. Spy by legendary comic artist Jim Lee.

Then, in early July, we’ll begin unveiling “Operation Dynamite.” To celebrate the anniversary, we sent blank statues of a Spy to some of the world’s greatest artists and toy manufacturers and told them to go wild. You won’t believe the results!