Antonio Prohias was an award-winning and influential political cartoonist in Cuba. Once Castro seized control of the free press, Prohias fled from Havana and settled in the United States. Soon he presented a "captivating cartoon of a friendly rivalry" to MAD magazine. It has gone on to become one of the magazine's best-loved features. He died in 1998. John Ficarra earned a BA in journalism from NYU in 1976. He was hired as an assistant editor of MAD magazine in 1980 and became editor in chief in 1984.