3D Comic Book

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The 3D comic book began as a brief fad slightly after the start of the 3D Movie fad, in 1953. The first 3D comic book was Three Dimension Comics and starred Mighty Mouse. After that, many different comics came out, but they only lasted one or a few issues; the comics were expensive (25 cents when others were 10 cents) and sold mostly as novelties, which got old quickly. By the end of the year, the fad was dead.

Note that 3D comics of this era didn't star superheroes (except for Superman and Batman) because the fad happened during The Interregnum, when The Golden Age of Comic Books had died down but The Silver Age of Comic Books hadn't started.

The next 3D comic book fad was in the late 1980s, a few years after the next 3D movie fad. Three-dimensional comic books were generally limited to independent publishers such as Eclipse Comics and Blackthorne—not Marvel, or DC. They were released as specials, not ongoing series. This fad lasted longer than the 1953 fad, but eventually 3D comics faded away again.

And that's pretty much it.

Of course, the 3D Movie has cycled around again, and already has been around a lot longer than the earlier fads. If 3D movies are here to stay, who knows when 3D comic books will return?

Examples of 3D Comic Book include:


1950s

  • See a complete list on Ray Zone's page. Also, this article.
  • Captain 3-D was a comic book Superhero created in 1953 by Simon and Kirby (the creators of Captain America (comics)). It was printed in anaglyphs and used the 3-D as a theme for the hero, he lived as a drawing in a book and sprang to life when someone looked at him trough red/blue glasses. It lasted one single issue.

1980s

Other

References to 3D Comic Books in Media
  • The 3D Man was a retcon 1950s Marvel Comics superhero who was created in the 1970s in Marvel Premiere. The 3D Man was a combination of a man and his missing brother, who transformed using a pair of glasses and had a red and green costume. He had three times the abilities of a normal man. In modern times, an Affirmative Action Legacy character is 3D Man.
  • Mad Magazine: In the Fifties this fad was (naturally) mocked in a segment by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood where the Fourth Wall was utterly demolished that the characters ended up falling out of the comic, leaving the last page of the story completely blank.