Charles Atlas

During the 1960s, gay boys could find beefcake in unexpected places.  The interior cover of nearly every comic book featured a bodybuilder in a posing strap, usually Charles Atlas, sometimes Joe Weider, Earle E. Liederman, or someone else from the early days of bodybuilding.

The sales pitch was heteronormative. "Get girls!"  "Attract the opposite sex!"  Charles Atlas offered a mini-comic strip about a "98 pound weakling" named Mac, who gets buffed, beats up a bully, and attracts the attention of a girl.

But who paid attention to the plot when you could look at pecs and abs?