Metazen (since today is Tuesday) published a story that I wrote with Elizabeth Rawlins called Bigger than Charles Atlas. The story is not at all based on this advertisement since Jesus has nothing to do with Charles Atlas, but there is a sand in the face reference.
We wrote it within personal messsages on Facebook. Metazen has also published such folks as Alexandra Isacson, Howie Good, Mel Bosworth and Jen Michalski.
Here's what they say about themselves:
metazen publishes stories by various authors
metazen publishes poems
*metazen publishes new content every single day
*
metazen has a schedule:
monday- a story is published
tuesday- a story is published
wednesday- a story is published
thursday- a story is published
friday- a story is published
saturday- a ‘literary saturday morning cartoon’ is published
sunday- a “best of metazen” is (usually) published
6 comments:
It's amazing how Charles Atlas has become part of American mythology. I keep coming across riffs on him-- mostly in comics, of course.
But it's a simple story and so lends itself to that mythological presentation.
Thanks Ian. Those magazine ads which were in so many of the magazines I used to read as a kid were like early reality TV in print. But it was only one episode, the one where the scrawny kid becomes the "real man" and punches out the mean ol' Jersey Shore guy.
I know those adds full well. Recently came across a series that Bill Griffith did in Zippy the Pinhead on Charles Atlas-- and then there was Grant Morrison's surrealist take on Atlas: "Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery."
As I said, he's now part of the American mythology: scrawny young man is bullied and humiliated on the beach in front of his love interest, answers an ad in the back of a magazine and is soon even more muscular than the bully, whom he bests in a fist fight, proving that he's a real man.
And this was the pre-steroid era!
Charles Atlas is a registered trademark owned by Charles Atlas, Ltd. and the ad that is posted entitled "Hey Skinny" and it is also a trademarked ad owned by Charles Atlas, Ltd. 2010 All Rights Reserved www.charlesatlas.com
OK, Mr. Anonymous. How do I contact you?
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