{"id":5230,"date":"2011-11-14T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2019-11-25T21:02:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T02:02:03","slug":"buried-piano-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/11\/14\/buried-piano-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Buried in a Piano Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>For kids who grew up in a certain era, this photo is probably more familiar than anything Diane Arbus or Ansel Adams may have shot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This, of course, is the world’s heaviest human on record that appeared in The Guiness Book of World Records<\/strong><\/em> back when it was sold in the tacky little ads in comic books. It was the print equivalent to a sideshow, and it was a sure way to completely disrupt any classroom it was brought in to. Kids were clamoring to see the gritty halftone photographs of record-breaking deformities and freaks of nature. Who cared about the sports statistics? Everyone wanted to know how much the fat guy weighed or how tall the tallest man was. I remembered it being confiscated from classmates more than once in order to quell excitement and reinstate order.<\/p>\n

I never did own a copy of it, but I had seen it more than once. This image of the fat man used to sell the book bopped around for years – well after his big send off in the piano case.<\/p>\n

This ad was from one of the comic horror magazines in the stash that Bill Cucinotta<\/strong><\/a> lent me. This was in the first issue of Tales of the Zombie<\/strong><\/em> from 1973. It was a mix of old and new stories printed mostly in black and white in a magazine format that did not adhere to the Comics Code Authority<\/a>.<\/strong> There was more violence and the occasional nudity. The issue opens with a John Buscema<\/strong><\/a> illustrated story that features a tableau of naked women dancing around a fire. It screamed ADULT<\/strong> and was sold along with the detective magazines and the horror competitors from lower on the food chain like the comic I posted last week.<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a>This had a terrific Boris Vallejo<\/a> cover and contained a mix of mostly new stories featuring this particular zombie and a few old ones like a story written by Stan Lee<\/strong> and illustrated by Bill Everett.<\/strong><\/a> This weird cartoony style is from another era and stands apart from the usual Marvel House style as practiced by the aforementioned John Buscema.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What was interesting about this particular issue of this magazine was a green spot plate was added to some of the pages. You can see screened values of the green in the panel above which I think really adds to the overall effect, and I’d like to see more comics printed in black and a spot. I’ve seen the technique used in alternative comic books, but never in Marvel. I’ve seen a number of other black and white comics magazines from this era, but this is the only one I’ve seen spot colors used in. They may have decided not to bother in order to save some money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For kids who grew up in a certain era, this photo is probably more familiar than anything Diane Arbus or Ansel Adams may have shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335],"tags":[253,1024,1023,76,1025,308,838,1022,1026,711],"class_list":["post-5230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-253","tag-bill-everett","tag-boris-vallejo","tag-horror","tag-john-buscema","tag-marvel","tag-stan-lee","tag-voodoo","tag-world-records","tag-zombie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-1mm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19987,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/11\/17\/i-want-my-power-records-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":0},"title":"I Want My Power Records TV!","author":"Joe","date":"November 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"...and thanks to the Roku, you can have it! Back in the 1970s before the home video revolution and well before the advent of the internet, the only accessible entertainment that kids had besides the feeble offerings of broadcast television was comic books and records. Power Records, an offshoot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","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\/2015\/11\/man-wolf-leaps.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/man-wolf-leaps.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/man-wolf-leaps.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18527,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/04\/16\/stax-o-wax-huge-stash-of-old-vinyl-records\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":1},"title":"Stax o’ Wax – Huge Stash of Old Vinyl Records","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A customized van full of happiness! At a Philadelphia area printing company, in a dusty, unused darkroom, I uncovered three large cardboard boxes filled with vintage vinyl records. Apparently the guys in the print shop would listen to them in the the days before digital music. Radio was doubtlessly a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Customized Van Full of Happiness","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2079\/2263725728_70c062cffa_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2079\/2263725728_70c062cffa_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2079\/2263725728_70c062cffa_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35838,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/04\/22\/wfil-56\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":2},"title":"WFIL 56","author":"Joe","date":"April 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Before Philadelphia's American Broadcast Company affiliate was WPVI it was WFIL, and it had a sister radio station on the AM dial that played a heavy rotation of top forty hits and a whole lot of commercials. All of the kids in grade school listened to the omnipresent radio personalities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"WFIL Album","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51132484885_3a11216f94_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51132484885_3a11216f94_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51132484885_3a11216f94_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18655,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/04\/30\/whats-better-than-roses-on-your-piano\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":3},"title":"What’s Better than Roses on Your Piano?","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"More vintage vinyl from a huge stash of dusty Long Playing albums found in an unused darkroom at a Philadelphia-area printer. Back before MP3files and internet radio stations custom-tailored to taste, guys at this commercial printer would spin records while they worked. It's an eclectic mix, and I have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/f-and-t-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/f-and-t-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/f-and-t-det.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":742,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/11\/26\/crazy-little-shack-beyond-the-tracks\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":4},"title":"Crazy Little Shack Beyond the Tracks","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another card from Tina featuring the iconic Joe Head. What's nice about the Joe Head is that Tina took the photo and did all of the manipulation herself. No interns were involved. She actually owns the icon! It's kind of unusual these days. This time around, I was obsessed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sugarshack","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/sugarshack.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18587,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/04\/21\/a-piece-of-musical-history-bites-the-dust\/","url_meta":{"origin":5230,"position":5},"title":"A Piece of Musical History Bites the Dust","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A place familiar to people who attended the Philadelphia College of Art is gone as well. Demolition has started on the building at Broad and Spruce Streets that once housed Philadelphia International Records and, before that, Cameo Parkway Records. The locale was fairly important to the history of popular music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/philadelphia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Broad and Spruce Streets","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_64391.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_64391.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_64391.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}