A Real Man

It takes more than a gym membership and a set of free weights to become a “real” man.

Before there was the Marvel Universe, the DC Extended Universe or the mighty Star Wars movie franchise, there were comic books. Old-timers among us have fond childhood memories of paging through those superhero sagas. The cover images were lurid, the colors bold, the pages cheap newsprint, but, as kids, they loved them.

It didn’t seem to matter which comic you picked up — Batman, Superman, the Fantastic Four — but the same advertisement was always inside the back cover. There, in all his black-and-white photographic glory, was a muscle-bound guy in a skimpy bathing suit, flexing.

Next to him was a line drawing — not a photo but a cartoonish image — of a scrawny-looking guy in oversized bathing trunks, sitting uncomfortably on a beach towel. Several other cartoon guys are kicking sand in his face. Nearby, a girl in a skimpy bathing suit looks like she thinks this is the height of entertainment.

There was no mistaking the message of that ad....