Monday, May 21, 2018

Manic Monday--In 3-D!!

You know who went really big for the 3-D craze of the early 1950s?

Harvey Comics!

Yeah, the cover wasn't in 3-D...you had to have it decipherable to those who hadn't taken the glasses out of the comic yet, plus you needed color on the newsstand.

But the interiors? 3-D!!

OK, it probably looks better with the glasses.

But look--3-D!!

A guy fighting an octopus--in 3-D!!

Dinosaurs--in 3-D!!

And Harvey did all kinds of books in 3-D. Look--Kiddie books!

Funny animal books!!

Because nothing says "this story needs 3 dimensions" than funny animals!!

Westerns!

Super-heroes!!

Captain 3-D was a Simon/Kirby joint...

You wouldn't think you'd need to make a Kirby story 3-D, because his stuff already leapt off the page...but here you go:

Now, you've no doubt noted that each cover had this:

Allow me to call bullshit. Since these were 36 page comics in 1953, and Harvey was charging 25¢, there certainly was "extra cost" compared to "regular" comics.

Still, Harvey got some eye doctors to sign off on a statement  claiming that reading 3-D comics was good for children's eyes!

And 3-D, in all media, was the vanguard of the future!!

Well, not so much. Whether because of poor sales or high costs, none of the Harvey 3-D titles lasted more than 2 issues.

Now when do we get 4-D comics?

2 comments:

Siskoid said...

Hypercube comics, coming soon in a future near you.

Jason Glor said...

I remember a lot of 3d comics in the late 1980s also. Right around the time when there were tons of indy black and white books, there suddenly were a bunch of 3D comics as well. Blackthone had a ton of licensed 3D comics, like GI-Joe and Transformers. A quick Google search shows there was even a California Raisins 3D comic. I remember owning a lot of them. I was in high school with a part time job and a lot of disposable income back then and bought a ton of comics, many of which were pure crap.