Charles Atlas - Smooth operator.

We've used an ad featuring this same photo of Charles Atlas before, so no, your memory isn't an idiot. Different ad. Same picture.But the first time around. I didn't notice that old chuck has no nipples. Also, it LOOKS like he has no belly button, but it could be disguised in a fold of his "ten pack". It really doesn't look like his nips are hidden in shadow. It looks like they've been airbrushed out.

What gives? All I can think of is something like the code of Standards and Practices set up in 1950, but A) that was television and B) this magazine is from 1948. So why are Charlie's raisins MIA? He's definietly got them in THIS picture of him and Joe Louis.

The world may never know why Charles Atlas' torso is nearly featureless. The only reasonable assumption we can make is that he accidentally shaved them off while preparing for his photo shoot.

Interestigly, a bunch of pages toward the back of this same issue of Popular Mechanics, we find this ad for home plastic casting kits. It looks like drawings of naked ladies are perfectly okay with the Mop Mech editors, cartoon nipple and all.

P.S. Check it out! The Plastic Arts Studio is in Muncie Indiana, home of all the Tom Slick cartoons. Can it be a coincidence that the plastic casting ad from a company in Muncie IN features a cartoon nipple when no nipples were EVER seen in any Tom Slick cartoon? Hmmm? Of course it is. Don't be an idiot.