Tin Foil Hats - When it is Not All in Your Mind

Tin Foil Hats - When it is Not All in Your Mind

Antonio Prohías - 100th Anniversary of his Birth

Antonio Prohías arrived in New York in May of 1960 with just $5 in his pocket, pressured to leave Cuba after Fidel Castro accused him of being a CIA agent.

It took a Cuban illustrator to really capture the essence of Cold War intelligence and counter-intelligence for the MAD-reading public. After penning one too many cartoons that were critical of Fidel Castro, Prohías — who was a prominent cartoonist and illustrator in his home country — headed for New York, writes Eric Grundhauser for Atlas Obscura. At the time, he didn’t speak a word of English.

“In New York, Prohías took work in a factory during the day, while working up his illustration portfolio at night,” Grundhauser writes. He changed the appearance of one of his characters from the strip he published in Cuba, El Hombre Siniestro, and gave him a counterpart: Spy vs. Spy was born. 

“The sweetest revenge has been to turn Fidel’s accusation of me as a spy into a moneymaking venture,” Prohías said in a 1983 interview with the Miami Herald. “One of these days I am going to have to make a sign saying, ‘Thank You, Fidel.’ ”

On the 100th anniversary of his birth last Sunday — the Cienfuegos native died in Miami in 1998 — Prohías is still spreading laughter with his Cold War spies, who pummeled each other brutally with whatever sophisticated weapons they could grab from the black humor bag of their creator. more & more

FutureWatch: Early (1930) Facetime Smartphone Calls

"This technology was predicted by many authors, futurists, and illustrators in the past. This one is one of the earliest illustrations on this subject; it was made in 1930. Again, the resemblance with a modern gadget that we all know as “smartphone” is uncanny." more

When We All Have Pocket Telephones

Daily Mirror, England, January 23, 1923

Spy vs. Spy - The Movie

The Spy vs. Spy comic strip has been a regular fixture in Mad magazine for almost sixty years. In that time, the two identical birdlike espionage agents — Black Spy and White Spy — have also featured in video games and cartoons, but a live-action big-screen adaptation has continually eluded the warring duo. However, that could all finally change, if new developments go according to plan.

According to Collider, Rawson Marshall Thurber is in talks to direct the movie for Warner Bros. and Imagine Entertainment. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are on board as producers, which makes sense as they’ve been attached to the project since its inception. It remains to be seen if Dwayne Johnson will star, but that wouldn’t be surprising as he’s Thurber’s go-to guy...

The movie, as silly as it will undoubtedly be, might also be very smart and biting. The original comics are rife with political satire, often taking aim at America’s involvement in wars. Given that there’s still plenty of real-life drama to comment on, don’t be surprised if the movie pokes fun at current affairs...

If the film lives up to its potential, Spy vs. Spy will be one entertaining, wacky ride. more

The Peregrination of a Childhood Promise

Finally, another childhood fantasy becomes reality. Hard on the heals of wall screen TVs; Dick Tracy's wrist radio.

• The now iconic 2-way wrist radio premiered in 1946 and was replaced with a 2-way wrist TV in 1964.
• 1952 prototype wrist radio.
• 1960's wrist radio.
• Apple watch Walkie-Talkie.
• FutureWatch: A "Real" Dick Tracy wrist radio watch. (Bluetooth)
• Wrist radios on ebay.
• Wrist radios on Amazon.
• In June of 1954, the radio was upgraded to increase the range from 500 miles to 1,000 miles, then again in 1956 to 2,500 miles. 

Chester Gould’s idea of Tracy wearing something like this on his wrist in the comic strip was actually turned down by his employer because it was thought to be too much of a cheat, so-to-speak, an easy way out for the detective who had been written into a scene where he was held captive with no possible way of escaping from the criminals.

It was then that Gould decided to call an inventor he had met, Al Gross (pictured above).

Al Gross was a man way ahead of his time with inventions such as the walkie-talkie. When Gross was just 16 years old, he already had an amateur radio operator's license and had built a ham radio going on to invent the first telephone pager in 1949.

When Gould stopped by, Al Gross had just recently invented a two-way radio that people could wear on their wrists, just like a watch. Gould asked Gross if he could use his idea and that’s where Dick Tracy’s wrist watch radio came into being. Gould was so appreciative that as a Thank You, he gave Gross the first four panels of the cartoon where Tracy is seen wearing and using the soon-to-be infamous gadget. The device proved to be the exact answer for Dick Tracy to rescue himself from the seemingly impossible situation.

Still on my list...
  UPDATE - 8/27/19
Apple reportedly kills project to turn iPhone into 'walkie talkie'
Damn!

The Cartoon You Won't See in Your Paper Today

"Today's strip that did not run in papers.
Seems harmless to me, but I guess these are sensitive times."
Stephan Pastis
@stephanpastis
Syndicated Cartoonist, Creator of Pearls Before Swine Comic Strip, 
Author of Timmy Failure book series

Click to enlarge.