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We have just picked up a large and rare collection of comic art by "MAD" magazine contributor Antonio Prohías, including approximately two dozen strips in his ''Siniestra'' series. Strips range in size from approximately 13.5'' x 5'' to 24'' x 17'', all in Spanish, with approximately half from a series entitled ''Paredes Sterium'', and most of the remainder from ''El Hombre Siniestro'', ''La Mujer Siniestra'', the lesser known ''El Nieto Siniestra'' (Sinister Child), and even one entitled ''Toditico [All] Siniestra'', with everyday objects turning sinister. Some of the larger comic art includes all three in the Sinister series, with a 3-4 panel strip from each series combined into one large Sunday-size strip. A few of the ''El Nieto Siniestra'' strips have acetate color overlays, and most of the largest pieces of artwork are from ''El Nieto Siniestra'' with amusing story lines such as the Sinister Child terrorizing Santa Claus. In addition to this comprehensive collection, other miscellaneous artwork is included, such as a play on the Olympics entitled ''Olimpiadas...o 'Limpiadas''', showing Olympic athletes at top, and hitmen and gangsters at bottom, as well as a strip entitled ''La Coartada'' (The Alibi).
Artwork is mostly rendered on either Strathmore board or Bristol paper.
Antonio Prohías (January 17, 1921 – February 24, 1998), born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, was a Cuban-American comic artist and one of the "usual gang of idiots" in Mad. He is best known for his signature series 'Spy vs. Spy' (1961-2021), which he drew personally until 1987. The pantomime comic featured the never-ending rivalry between a black and white spy. While a straightforward gag series, its surreal situations reflected the Cold War in all its paranoia and absurdity. Even outside this context 'Spy vs. Spy' has remained remarkably timeless. One of the longest-running features in Mad Magazine, it was continued by other cartoonists up until 2021.
Biography
Early life and career
Antonio Prohías was born in 1921 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. A sympathetic teacher noticed his drawing talent and encouraged him to keep drawing. Prohías studied briefly at the San Alejandro Academy in Havana but left after a year to become a full-time newspaper cartoonist. Right from the start all his comics used pantomime comedy.
Early comics
His political gag comic 'Liborito' (1948) debuted in Diario de la Marina. The comic starred a little man, Liborito, who was a take-off of Liborio (1905-1931), the national representation of Cuba as created by Cuban cartoonist Ricardo de la Torriente in La Politica Cómica. In Prohías' version, however, Liborito is a little man who interacts with caricatures of real-life politicians. Prohías also made a gag comic, 'Erizo' (1948), which ran in Carteles, while his comic 'Oveja Negra' ("Black Sheep", 1949) about a young boy, appeared in Información. Soon the cartoonist worked himself up as the house cartoonist of El Mundo, the newspaper with the largest circulation on Cuba.
In 1946, Prohías was given the Juan Gualberto Gómez award, recognizing him as the foremost cartoonist in Cuba. By the late 1940s, Prohías had begun working at El Mundo, the most important newspaper in Cuba at the time. In January 1959, Prohías was the president of the Cuban Cartoonists Association; after Fidel Castro seized power, he personally honored the cartoonist for his anti-Batista political cartoons. But Prohías soon soured on Castro's actions of muzzling the press. When he drew cartoons to this effect, he was accused of working for the CIA by Fidel Castro's government. Consequently, he resigned from the newspaper in February 1959.
With his professional career in limbo, Prohías left Cuba for New York on May 1, 1960, working in a garment factory by day and building a cartoon portfolio for Mad by night. Ten weeks later, he walked into Mad's offices unannounced. He spoke no English, but his daughter Marta acted as an interpreter for him. Before he'd left, he had an $800 check and had sold his first three Spy vs. Spy cartoons to Mad. In late 1986, he sold his 241st and last Spy strip before retiring due to illness. Prohías also wrote and drew six paperback collections featuring the Spies. During an interview with the Miami Herald in 1983, Prohías gloated, "The sweetest revenge has been to turn Fidel's accusation of me as a spy into a moneymaking venture."
Two years after Prohías' debut in the magazine, cartoonist Sergio Aragonés made the trek from Mexico to New York in search of work. Because Aragonés' command of English was then shaky, he asked that Prohías be present to serve as an interpreter. According to Aragonés, this proved to be a mistake, since Prohías knew even less English than he did. When Prohías introduced the young artist to the Mad editors as "Sergio, my brother from Mexico," the Mad editors thought they were meeting "Sergio Prohías." Twelve years later, Mad writer Frank Jacobs reported that Prohías' conversational English w
Preview All Pieces On This Page
Click the title below to view the artwork.
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PROHIAS - Absolutely All Sinister Sunday - 8 gags - immigration / weddings
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Absolutely All Sunday - 8 gags - Metro & Factory
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Cold War Political Cartoon - Fidel Castro ballet for Int. Communist leaders 1960s
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Computer Psychoanalytics Sunday - programmer thinks of Female co-worker
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - editorial cartoon - everyone broke after taxes even dogs and piggy banks
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - editorial cartoon - Olympic sports and violence circa 1960
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - food in
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - Old man and kids
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - "Hands Up" for deodorant
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - 'Band' goes to the bank
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - 'Jocks' in weight room
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - a Leo (lion) at the house
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - adult misundertands cowboys & Indians
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - alone with boyfriend after arsenic to old man
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - at restaurant. man grabs Chick
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - bad baby - Snow White & Witch
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - bad baby giving a parking ticket
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - bad Mothers Day
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - boy glues girl's feet to tree
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Diet plan for wife - tied to Rail Road tracks
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - doctor fixes toilet
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - drunk husband needs menial help
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - falling over bills / beads
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - fearful ghost
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Funeral Home, disposing of Wife
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Gun pops - not champaign
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Hanging tree before X-mas
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - hospital child eats Stop sign
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Hot item in the water - Maria
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - in hospital, crying over lost money
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Loving old wife (her fortune)
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Middle-age man gets a convertible... bedpan
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Mom knocked out
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - Numbers raid ? - not measures for dress
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - office sex break to "program the computer"
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - Parents and kid w' Mickey Moue balloon
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - playing a big guitar? - no, a big girl
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - robbery at hair saloon
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - humor daily art - Rolling Dice? - no Robbing Gays
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Serving a Husband for a meal
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - The Cat eats "Parrot" / Cocaine
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Tow-truck takes away daughter?
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - washing money - for piggy bank
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Wife has an empty clothes closet
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Wife hides her hair process behind mirror
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - wife murdering husband
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Woman drops 40 pounds
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Woman hits jackpot - w/ boyfriends
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Humor daily art - Woman leaves house while painted
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad #234 one-page story, Spy vs Spy, copter trick
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Magazine #234 1 page story Spy vv Spy 1980
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 131, Title pg, Towing
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 132, White Spy building bridge
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 133, White Spy detour
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 134, splash, Black Spy drives
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 148 zoo
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$For Sale, email VALNSTEVEZ@AOL.COM
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 153 monkey
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$For Sale, email VALNSTEVEZ@AOL.COM
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 154, White Spy with Monkey drugs Black Spy
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 161 caught bananas
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$For Sale, email VALNSTEVEZ@AOL.COM
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 163, Splash, White Spy throws bananas to monkey acting Black Spy
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book pg 51, punching your-self
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$For Sale, email VALNSTEVEZ@AOL.COM
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book splash pg 137 tow truck
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book splash pg 147, Operation
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book splash pg 162 monkey tail
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$For Sale, email VALNSTEVEZ@AOL.COM
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy vs Spy 1970 book splash pg 51
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Please Inquire
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PROHIAS - Mad Spy Vs Spy Follow-Up File first painted Cover 1968
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Magazine Illustration - family in Pawn-shop
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Magazine Illustration - Woman gets photos of hotel affair
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Princess & Dragon Sunday - The Alibi
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - Sinister Child daily art - bad baby - Snow White & Witch
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - Sinister Child daily art - bad baby rides bat to monster wedding
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child beats Santa with gifted bat
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child finds out truth where babies come from
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child gives beggar false teeth
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child hypnotizes bat & butterfly
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child shocks Santa Claus
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child takes blindman to tightrope
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - Child uses cremains as beach sand
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - hungry man only gets photo of food
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - ignored Child gets comfort from TV Mickey Mouse
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday - tricked with piggy bank
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Child Sunday topper - Child gives ticket for wheel-chair
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man / Woman / Child Cover / Pinup - Spy prototype - group shot
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man / Woman / Child Sunday - Spy prototype - 3 part Sunday - Coffins
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man / Woman / Child Sunday - Spy prototype - 3 part Sunday - dirty tricks
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$for sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man / Woman / Child Sunday - Spy prototype - 3 part Sunday - dirty tricks: Inflate Steal chopped
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man Sunday - Black Spy prototype - selling organ meat
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man Sunday - Black vs White Spy prototype - 1st appearances! freezing Miami job
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS - The Sinister Man Sunday - Spy prototype - Mothers' Day with egg incubator
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$for sale
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PROHIAS, ANTONIO - All New Mad Secret File on Spy vs Spy intro splash, artist bio, 1965
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$For sale
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Prohías, Antonio - Artist Bio
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$NA
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PROHIAS, ANTONIO - Mad Magazine #208 full 1-pager - Spy vs Spy, submarine attack 1979
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$For Sale
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PROHIAS, ANTONIO - Mad Magazine #245, Spy vs Spy, Black Spy crated upside-down! 1984
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$For Sale
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