How Did Antonio Prohias Influence Popular Culture

The Cold War is in full swing in 1952 and new ideas are emerging from everyone. The United States released its newly created nuclear submarine, DC Comics released Firefly and Rex the Wonder Dog, and Harvey Kurtzman on a lesser note released Mad. During this time period, middle aged Antonio Prohias was working for El Mundo and was an awarded cartoonist in Cuba. He will end up being one of the most important figures for Kurtzman’s the newly created Mad Magazine in the decade to come because of his ties with Cuba and familiarity with communism. Prohias will then use his position in Mad Magazine and in popular culture to address the problematic and ironic conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union through a comic he creates known
It was common thought that nuclear holocaust or World War III were only moments away. This caused radioactivity, science fiction, and spies to be everyday themes seen in literature, comics, movies, and thought. Examples of these themes are such things as James Bond being created in 1953, Star Trek in 1963, and the Fantastic Four in 1961. The Cold War was a period of political hostility between the democratic United States and communist Russia. This hostility changed everyday life for people; one such instance is schools practicing duck and cover drills in case of nuclear attack. There was a constant unease in society and popular culture picked up on this. Antonio Prohias felt this unease and hostility first hand. Prohias was a satirist cartoonist and often nudged on Fidel Castro and his political party through his cartoons in the 1950’s. Fidel Castro led a campaign in 1958 against Cuba’s dictator and became Cuba’s leader. Castro sympathized with Soviet Russia and brought communist policies and ideas to Cuba. Antonio Prohias thus became a target in the free press of Cuba and decided to go to the United States. A 1961 Mad Magazine introduced Antonio Prohias and summarized how he came to the United States and
Through popular culture by way of his comic, Prohias was fully familiar with the unease and issues the Cold War brought through him time as a award winning cartoonist in Cuba. Through his familiarity he was able to pick up the ideas and images of popular culture of the period and use it to his advantage. Images such as spies showed society used by Prohias were able to address the problems of the Cold War. He showed that both countries were equally absurd in their actions throughout the war by making the spies equal in everything they did. Mad Magazine was the perfect platform for Antonio Prohias’ spies. The satire and philosophy of the magazine helped his ideas pass person to person and have a laugh along the way. Antonio Prohias wanted to show the lies society was getting fed from the media that one country was good and another was evil. He wanted to show they were equal. Art Spiegelman summed up Prohias intention and Mad Magazines philosophy pretty easily by saying, “The message Mad had in general is, 'The media is lying to you, and we are part of the