Zippy beckons students to McDonald's

Zippy is 7 feet tall, made from recycled stainless steel

This photo has nothing to do with the Beacon Journal, but former employees and retirees will remember Zippy as the mascot of the University of Akron. The giant stainless steel Zippy is now beckoning students from the corner of the new MacDonald’s restaurant at 246 E. Exchange St. in the university area.

Zippy is made of recycled stainless steel and is seven feet tall. He stands on a pedestal which is about 5 feet tall so he rises 12 feet into the skyline. Zippy is the creation of local artist John Comunale who operates from his studio at Communal Structural Concepts which he started in 1991. The studio is on the sixth floor of Canal Place, the old B.F. Goodrich complex at 540 S. Main St., Akron,

The idea for Zippy came from John Blickle, president of Heidman Inc., a local McDonald’s franchisee who knows Comunale from grade school. He had seen other pieces done by Comunale and asked him if he could fashion Zippy. Zippy actually is made from old McDonald’s stainless steel work stations and restaurant equipment.

Zippy and similar creations by Comunale start with a stainless steel wire skeleton. Comunale then cuts pieces of stainless he fits over the skeleton and welds and hammers into place. He used UA’s newer Zippy logo as a model.

Comunale, now 54, graduated from Firestone High School in 1968 and attended Ohio State University and the University of Akron. He has done everything from custom work for home and restaurant interiors including gates, railings, brackets, tabletops and light fixtures. He spent a number of years in North Carolina working as a carpenter and sculptor on movie sets for such films as Mr. Destiny, A Few Good Men, The Last of the Mohicans and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film.

Work by Comunale includes a stainless steel bull he did for the Rib Doctor, a barbecue vendor, a giant steel cockroach climbing up an exterior wall of TNT Exterminating, a clock outside the historic Everett building downtown and a big stainless steel catfish at Furnace and Howard streets..

Projects in the works include one for Omicron Delta Kappa honorary society in the Student Union which will show five birds soaring with trailing ribbons that flow through the ODK logo. He also is making a sign for a coffee shop called Mocha Maiden that will open on Maiden Lane.