I Spy #2: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The second (#2) I Spy comic book printed in 1967. Front cover has a color image of Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) and Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp), characters in the TV show "I Spy," posing in front of a sky (blue with clouds) backdrop. Cosby is standing wearing a light blue cardigan with his hands on Culp's shoulders. Culp is sitting wearing a white pull-over with a black and red lined v-neck, and holding a racket in his PL hand. There are two smaller black-and-white images: to the right of Cosby's head is a image of Cosby with a white button down shirt pointing a gun, and to the right of Culp's head is a smaller image of Culp in a suit and tie holding a gun. At the top, in a orange, white and red block coloring , reads [I SPY] in red and black type, centered, [ORDERS TO/SCOTTY AND/KELLY:/GET ATOMIC/SCIENTIST/BEFORE HE/SLEEPS-/AND TALKS!] in white and black type on orange background on the right, and a logo for Gold Key in the top left corner with [I SPY] in black type to the right and [10182-704] in white type underneath. [(c) 1967, THREE F PRODUCTIONS] in black type in the bottom right corner. There is a white type [12¢] in the top right corner. Inside front and back cover have black-and-white depictions from the TV show with accompanying text. Interior pages of color printed on newspaper type print, comic strip style. Comics include: "The Missing Man," "Mini-Comics," "Monster Museum," "Jest for Fun," "Quick Takes," and "The Tell-Tale Camera" . 16 interior pages total, all front and back. Back cover has a black-and-white image of Bill Crosby and Robert Culp, both in karate outfits with black belts, holding each other's forearms, with a block color background, purple on the left, green on the right, with [I SPY PIN-UP] in black type near the bottom edge, and two light depictions of pandas in the top right and left corners.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1967
• Published by: Gold Key Comics, American, 1962 - 1984
• Subject of: Bill Cosby, American, born 1937
• Subject of: Robert Culp, American, 1930 - 2010
• Type: comic books
• Medium: ink on paper, metal
• Dimensions: H x W: 10 1/4 × 7 1/4 in. (26 × 18.4 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (open): 10 1/4 × 14 1/2 in. (26 × 36.8 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Amusements
• Topic: Race relations
• Topic: Television
• Object number: 2014.53.9.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © 1967, Three F Productions Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.