{"id":37035,"date":"2022-01-05T07:28:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T12:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=37035"},"modified":"2022-07-11T07:38:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T11:38:45","slug":"mail-order-muscles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/05\/mail-order-muscles\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail Order Muscles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"37036\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/05\/mail-order-muscles\/new-years-resolution-detail\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C309&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,309\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;New Year&#039;s Resolution-detail&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"New Year&amp;#8217;s Resolution-detail\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;body builder flexing&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C309&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37036\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?resize=640%2C309&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?resize=300%2C145&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Charles Atlas<\/em> is the body builder that everybody knows from comic book advertisements, but if you actually bought and read comic books regularly any time between the 1950s through the 1970s, you would be just as familiar with the name of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bodybuilding.com\/fun\/joe-weider-1919-2013-remembering-the-father-of-bodybuilding.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Joe Weider<\/em><\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>Weider<\/em> is recognized as the <em>father of bodybuilding<\/em> having developed a number of techniques in achieving muscle mass as well as an entrepreneur in that he packaged those techniques and sold them through comic books as well as his own publications.<br \/>\n<a title=\"New Year's Resolution\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/51792704988\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51792704988_1b9ce431d2_c.jpg?resize=537%2C800&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"New Year's Resolution\" width=\"537\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><a title=\"Tarzan No. 220\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/51791688232\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51791688232_ef982c1e21_n.jpg?resize=218%2C320&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Tarzan No. 220\" width=\"218\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Comic books were particularly fertile soil for the products and services Weider and Atlas were offering. What better place could there be to sell power fantasies to pimply teens and misfits? I was one of those teens.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t order this course, but I did inquire about Weider&#8217;s <i>Be a Destructive Self-Defense Fighter in Just 12 Short Lessons<\/i>. I thought for the price of a postage stamp I would become the most feared kid in school. As it turned out, it wasn&#8217;t a free course. What I sent away for was a sales brochure showcasing a series of books that would give me all of the fighting secrets of the world. I forget what they cost, but I didn&#8217;t have the money so I never did unlock those secrets. Absolutely no one feared me, and I tried to perfect the art of invisibility by blending into walls.<\/p>\n<p>In doing a little research for this article, I learned that Weider had wed <a href=\"https:\/\/external-preview.redd.it\/DzD3spykdRGwkc1yWZ4rMRYseBap9XPhOePTVxACy7M.jpg?auto=webp&amp;s=b46e53ee58a104270f640d86b745f46a5ae2b0a8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Betty Brosmer<\/em><\/a> who was a cheesecake model.\u00a0Mr and Mrs Weider looked like the idealized characters from the comics they advertised in.<\/p>\n<p>The muscle advertisement appeared in issue 220 of <em>Tarzan<\/em> published by DC Comics in 1973. That series featured the incomparable art of the late, great <em>Joe Kubert.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4243\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/09\/12\/goofy-ideas\/comics-head-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?fit=640%2C144&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,144\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"COMICS-HEAD\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?fit=640%2C144&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4243 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=640%2C144&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=300%2C67&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Atlas is the body builder that everybody knows from comic book advertisements, but if you actually bought and read comic books regularly any time between the 1950s through the 1970s, you would be just as familiar with the name &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/05\/mail-order-muscles\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[335],"tags":[253,9,972,5241,61,5243],"class_list":["post-37035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-253","tag-comics","tag-joe-kubert","tag-joe-weider","tag-muscles","tag-tarzan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9Dl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36764,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/11\/04\/a-familiar-face\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":0},"title":"A Familiar Face","author":"Joe","date":"November 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As is usually the case, I was looking for something else when I came across an old stash of comics books. I immediately forgot about whatever I was originally looking for as I gleefully thumbed through my four-colored, battered beauties. I was leafing through a well worn copy of Conan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I Miss About Comics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/A-Familiar-Face.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/A-Familiar-Face.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/A-Familiar-Face.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40833,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/06\/29\/sexy-at-any-size\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":1},"title":"Sexy at Any Size?","author":"Joe","date":"June 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I Miss About Comics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Tired-of-being-skinny.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Tired-of-being-skinny.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Tired-of-being-skinny.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38786,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/09\/15\/barbershop-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":2},"title":"Barbershop Comics","author":"Joe","date":"September 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Some deep cleaning in work turned up a wonderful stack of old comics. I'm not sure who the comics belonged to and nobody currently working there has laid any claim to them. I refer to this odd stack of funny books as The Barbershop Collection. Why The Barbershop Collection? This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Great Gazoo 1975","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52344126190_9e5b738b78_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52344126190_9e5b738b78_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52344126190_9e5b738b78_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37147,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/26\/out-of-context-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":3},"title":"Out of Context Comics","author":"Joe","date":"January 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A panel from The Phantom from March 22, 1980. I'm not sure what's going on here. I never really got into daily newspaper comic strips preferring comic books instead. I would get a chuckle from the humor strips, but wasn't interested enough to pursue the action stories. It always seemed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Phantom!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42025,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/11\/21\/over-the-river-and-through-the-woods-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":4},"title":"Over the River and Through the Woods","author":"Joe","date":"November 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"During those long road trips when nobody could agree on what songs to sing along to or The License Plate Game proved to be a bust, a heaping stack of comic books was Mom and Dad's best friend. They were cheap, and if they had puzzles in them, they may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/comics-for-kids.jpg?fit=900%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/comics-for-kids.jpg?fit=900%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/comics-for-kids.jpg?fit=900%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/comics-for-kids.jpg?fit=900%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46437,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/11\/13\/dream-a-little-dream\/","url_meta":{"origin":37035,"position":5},"title":"Dream a Little Dream","author":"Joe","date":"November 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The advertisements in girl comics were always different. Whereas ads in boy's comics appealed to hapless adventurers with home built go-kart kits, antisocial ne'er-do-wells with practical jokes and future glue sniffers who had prurient interests with x-ray spectacles, girl ads were all about self image. They were either about finger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/crash-diet-det.jpg?fit=640%2C247&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/crash-diet-det.jpg?fit=640%2C247&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/crash-diet-det.jpg?fit=640%2C247&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}