Johnny Eck

Johnny Eck

$190.00

14 in stock

Only twenty (20) prints of JOHNNY ECK were produced for this 2025 edition. Each print is artist-signed in the lower right, hand-titled in the center, and numbered in the lower left (all beneath the image).

The image area is 19-1/4″ high x 14″ wide on an untrimmed 22″ x 17″ sheet. Paper, ink, and production specifications, as well as shipping details, are available on our PRINT SPECS page.

Prices will increase for subsequent prints as the edition depletes. Purchase price does not include shipping costs, which are calculated during checkout.

NOTE: These prints will be shipped 4–5 weeks after the launch date (November 17).

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Description

JOHNNY ECK was billed as “The Most Remarkable Man Alive,” “The Amazing Half-Boy,” and “The King of the Freaks.” John Eckhardt Jr. (1911-1991) was born with sacral agenesis — he had no lower torso or appendages — and learned to walk on his hands. Eck, who described himself as “snapped off at the waist,” enjoyed a long career as a famed sideshow performer and was memorably featured as the “Half Boy” in the classic 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks. He also performed as a winged creature (“Gooney Bird“) in three Tarzan films. Among his other exploits, Johnny conducted an orchestra in his hometown of Baltimore with his “normal” twin brother, Robert, on piano.

Eck had a lifelong predilection for drawing and painting, was a fast-car enthusiast, and drove his own custom-built racing car (the “Johnny Eck Special“), that was street-legal in Baltimore. In 1938, Eck climbed the Washington Monument on his hands.

This is Drew Friedman’s second portrait of Eck. The first appeared in Drew’s anthology Sideshow Freaks (Blast Books, 2010). This new portrait is the first to be offered as a limited edition fine art print.