The 3-D movie craze briefly flared-up and died-out in the mid-1950s! It's apex being the year 1953.
Now, I'm not about to say that comic books were "behind the times" (...because, far more often than not, they looked forward rather than backward) but apparently, in comic books, the 3-D movie craze held on into the next decade...or two!
For evidence of this, we need look no further than today's "Separation at..." well, not exactly "Mirth"... but maybe...um, "Delightful Weirdness"? That okay, with you all?
AHEM! And so, we present today's "Whatchamacallit Separation" that brings together the heretofore "Separated" BLACKHAWK #157 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February, 1961)...
...And BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #35 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: June, 1971).
And, just like those fondly-remembered movies of the '50s, some scary stuff is "comin' atcha!"
Put 'em together in reverse chronological order, and they're "comin' at each other!"
...Perhaps it's better - and safer - this way!
Oh, and from (more or less) the heart of the 3-D movie craze, we can add the first page of WONDER WOMAN #64 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February, 1954)... Actual On-Sale Date: 1953-12-21.
...Showing that comic books also did this bit when it was current!
There we have the 3-D Triumvirate of BLACKHAWK #157, BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #35, and WONDER WOMAN #64... Separated at (the Third Dimension of) Mirth!
4 comments:
Well, this post certainly went in a different direction than I was expecting! As soon as you mentioned "3-D craze" and "1953," I thought you were going to talk about 3-5 comic books, such as this one from 1953: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=55534
Apparently, that book came with free 3-D glasses.
That reminds me of a couple of National Geographic magazines from the 1990s, one about the Titanic and the other about the Pathfinder expedition to Mars. Those magazines came with free 3-D glasses, since they included 3-D images of Mars and the shipwreck of the Titanic, much like the 3-D images of the Nativity story in the aforementioned comic book.
Those National Geographic magazines were a delightful part of my childhood. I thought the 3-D images of Mars and Titanic, and the 3-D glasses were a wondrous new technology.
Little did I know that that technology had been around since the 1950s, as I eventually found out, courtesy of comicbookplus.com!
All of this is my preface to this question: How common were comic books with 3-D images? Did you see any as a child? How many have you encountered over the course of your many years as a collector?
Okay, okay, so those are three questions. Appropriate for a post on 3-D, I suppose.
By the way, it was courtesy of the aforementioned Nat Geo Mars issue that I learned that there is a rock on Mars named after Scooby-Doo!
To make sure I wasn't misremembering what I saw in the magazine, I Googled Scooby-Doo rock, and there is indeed a rock on Mars known by that name.
Interestingly, it's far from the only rock on Mars named after a classic cartoon character, as this Wikipedia article shows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocks_on_Mars
In closing, here's a PSA from comic book artist Dave Alvarez about the dangers of using 3-D glasses as eclipse goggles: https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/436973501_830251849140826_6932754035257127577_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=daY8A8cyriQAb5YC3Sf&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfAyDDRCdnruXeDfIimpIj4lrjORifK1CoHOA690ctO8RA&oe=662CC9E7
Interesting--that Boris Karloff cover didn't work at all for me--I didn't get what was supposed to be going on until I read the post. The projection on the wall just looked like a painting, partly due to the white "frame," and the monster didn't seem to be coming out of the picture, it didn't seem to have any connection to the picture. What, is it emerging from the fire? That doesn't immediately make sense. So, to me at first glance it looked like a monster in front of a framed picture. Only on reading the post did I really notice the projector and the lines showing the light coming from the projector to the image on the wall.
In both covers, it seems to be awkward to portray clearly all four elements: the projected image, the projector, the monster emerging from the projected image, and people being threatened by the monster. I guess I would have figured it out on the Blackhawk cover, even without the expository dialogue balloon (our favorite thing on covers!), but it's still quite an awkward drawing. The fact that the people are parachuting in doesn't help!
So, the representation in Wonder Woman wins in my book, though I must recognize that by showing a movie theater the artist was delivered from having to show the projector along with everything else.
I dunno, Elaine… The running projector on the Boris Karloff cover was pretty apparent to me, and not just because I had the advantage of having the actual comic to look at. I’d say it’s pretty apparent in the Blog post too. Especially as I had enlarged the image to as full an aspect as the confines of the Blog will allow.
But, as they say, that’s what makes horse races… and monster bug races, and charging rhino races… and 3D dragon… well, you know!
However, I do agree with you that the Wonder Woman splash panel is the BEST representation of the concept. So much so that, upon discovering it as part of a recent purchase, I actually added it to the post after it had been completed and queued! …Even rewrote the copy and changed the post title to accommodate it!
The dragon’s extended neck and wingspan was the type of thing 3D movies were made for and the “reader’s perspective” of sorta being a moviegoer in a mezzanine to the right of center-screen helps further sell it!
“In both covers, it seems to be awkward to portray clearly all four elements: the projected image, the projector, the monster emerging from the projected image, and people being threatened by the monster.”
…Proving that it’s not easy to do 3D, when working in 2D! :-)
Sergio:
You write: “Well, this post certainly went in a different direction than I was expecting! As soon as you mentioned "3-D craze" and "1953," I thought you were going to talk about 3-D comic books, such as... this one from 1953
To your 3(D) questions:
“How common were comic books with 3-D images?”
Actually, they were quite common in the 1950s, even featuring such characters as Felix the Cat, Mighty Mouse, and the Three Stooges. OH, LOOK… HERE’S ONE NOW!
“Did you see any as a child?”
I had a large Batman 3D comic in 1966 at the height of the Batman craze. It was not in color. None of the 3D comics were, for the two red and blue lenses of the 3D glasses to work. It was made up of reprinted stories from (what else?) the 1950s. You can see it HERE!
“How many have you encountered over the course of your many years as a collector?”
A few, but not so many. I didn’t really enjoy using the glasses. Being usually cardboard, they always felt uncomfortable around the ears. There was even a 1992 Disney comics 3D one-shot published during what Elaine refers to as “The Disney Interregnum”, a term I completely endorse, that came plastic bagged with glasses. You can see it HERE, badly drawn cover and all! By 1992, I was so disinterested in the remaining comics after the “Disney Implosion” (Thank you, Dana Gabbard – we miss you all the time!) that I never even looked at it! Still got it bagged somewhere! Don't much care where! It was followed by a similar issue for Roger Rabbit. I totally passed on that one!
There was also a “Valiant Vision” 3D comic with what I consider the best 3D glasses ever made for comics, allowing you to see 3D on COLOR pages! They came in THIS THING!
I never had any interest in Valiant as a publisher – a relic of the many industry excesses of the ‘90s – but I still have the glasses! To this day, I occasionally put them on and check out various covers that I think have the proper balance of red and blue to create a good 3D effect! It's even FUNNIER when the glasses produce an "unexpected" and improper 3D effect! They were great for looking at different covers from the publisher of your choice! At the time, I particularly enjoyed looking at the cover of THIS ISSUE through those glasses! In the event that you have those particular glasses, and that particular comic, try it!
HERE is Sergio’s link to the Rocks on Mars… and, yes, there IS one named after Marvin the Martian!
And sorry to all but I can’t get that “Dave Alvarez link” to work. All I get on my screen is “URL signature expired”… and I’ve been retired from IT/computer work for too long to try to figure that out by now! Besides, there’s a whole boatload of links for you to enjoy in this reply already!
Also, as much as I appreciate Dave Alvarez’s concern (and LOVE his work), I don’t think that ANYONE who reads this humble Blog is of an intellect to believe they could safely view an eclipse through 3D glasses! Heck, I’d put that one right up there (…more like “down there”) with drinking bleach as a defense against COVID!
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