How 3D Comics Bankrupted Two Companies
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2024
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3-D Comics have a fascinating history within comic books. It involves inventions by luminaries of the field, like Joe Kubert. Lawsuits involving William Gaines from EC Comics. Jumping into fads from movies like Bwana Beast and Friday the 13th Part 3-D. And the bankruptcies of two comic book publishers. - Розваги
Interesting take on 3-D comics. Just to clarify, the 3-D comics were very successful. The demise of the company was due to a dispute with the IRS regarding if the creators/ talent were freelancers or employees. This dispute with the IRS cost over $100,000 in legal and accounting fees, leaving little fast flow to continue publishing. Blackthorne won, the talent was in fact freelance.
Steve Schanes
Kind of you to clarify.
..i still prefer to think the bad comics bankrupted the companies. It was a lot of paper for nothing
I will keep supporting your channel as long as I can. I love your content so much
Chris is this an alt account
Alan Moore and KevinO'Neill revived 3D comics with the second and third volumes of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to evoke 'the Blazing World'. It worked really well to separate the different realities.
and the effect is really really good!
I was gonna mention that but you beat me to it. Ray Zone did the 3d work so that surprising its top notch. I watched this vid with the glasses from LoEG Tempest.
not surprising i mean
California Raisins were inexplicably huge in the late 80s. In 89, my mom got me a bootleg Raisin tshirt that read "Raisin Hell". They also has their own tv specials and were part of Will Vintons Claymation Christmas special, which is now a classic... they *almost* had a Capcom produced NES game that was saldly shelved but was mostly completed.. its since been found and its rom distributed online.
I still remember the California Raisins!
I think there was short lived saturday morning cartoon too, if im not hallucinating.
I had a couple of their claymation specials on videocasette, they can be found on YT.
Edit: also looks like the Raisins have been cancelled. Something about depicting motown singers as pruney little dried up grapes.
Interestingly as you can see in 10:50 there is also a Noid 3D comic, which was another Will Vinton creation for Domino's Pizza, and which also had a NES game by Capcom (which was a reskin of an existing Japanese game). Noid definitely didn't reach the heights of popularity as the raisins, but I always enjoyed the oddball goofiness of it (and I didn't know about the comic)
Dude I still love the raisins! Wil Vinton was a legend, I really miss seeing new claymation stuff from him
My mom's co-worker used to work for Blackthorne and even wrote the California Raisins books. Fun times.
Interesting video but I especially appreciated the "GLASSES ON!" "GLASSES OFF!" segments you put in. really reminded me of the awkward way they implemented 3D scenes in some movies. Gave me a really good chuckle
I still remember being 10ish, and waiting through all of Nightmare on Elm Street 5 to see "Freddy in 3d!!" God damn it. Our whole group was like.."Wait. Did it happen? Was it that part? We missed it, or we saw it? Uh....ok. 3D is not that cool." 😅
@@crashingatom6755 Watched several kids movies (i think one of the spy kids did this) where actors literally turned to the screen to say "put on your glasses" or a timer turning on. funny now, but not great at the time.
Seeing "Pacific Rim" on opening weekend, in 3-D, THX *and* 4DX (haptic seats) is probably my favorite 3-D experience and I'll never forget it.
I saw a terminator movie in 3d and really enjoyed the experience (the one where John Conner became a terminator ? Can't remember it's title,lol)
@@andreworr4307Terminator: Megadryve
Terminator Genisys. I haven't seen that one, mostly due to the bad reviews, but I'm glad you had a good time watching it.
@@0TheEnemy0 that's the one and yeah it wasn't a great addition to the series,lol,but the 3d was awesome,I kept jumping as things seemed to fly at you from the screen,hahaha,sad but true
The "3D glasses on" bit made me laugh out loud multiple times. Nice work!
The glasses-on stuff was absolutely hilarious. Especially the skiing bit, that one had me dying
I have a Batman graphic novel by John Byrne that had 3D glasses. I liked it a lot at the time.
This was a super fun episode!
My favorite 3D comic will still be the packed-in Solar comic from the Valiant Vision Starter Kit because the holographic 3D was incredibly well done.
Oh, I remember seeing that one but never read it. Oops!
Maaaaan, do I miss Valiant Comics… before they were cannibalized 😢
@@ComicTropesThe ChromaDepth 3D comics were really cool (aka Valiant Vision) however the colorists had to wear the glasses when coloring the pages. It was a fine experience for the 20-30 minutes one might spend reading a comic, but apparently migraine-inducing for a full workday. They only put out about a half dozen issues with the 3D coloring, and about the same number of comics with 3D colored covers only. It's a beautiful effect, but migraines killed it. I do wonder if it's something that can be revisited with digital coloring, there must be a way to automate at least some of what's required to make the ChromaDepth magic work.
I’m looking forward to 3D text-only novels.
I'm not ashamed to say that the "glasses on" joke made me laugh everytime
You never cease to present me with comics history that makes my jaw drop. This business is insane.
The industry of movies, music and games are all weird at times, but there's always method to the madness
The comic book industry feels like it's run by a trickster god
@@Sorrelhas Loki season 3...
I think there must be something wrong with my eyes because I've never been able to see 3-D in comics or the movies.
As a result, the fad passed me by completely and watching this must be the closest I've ever come to understanding its appeal.
I can do 3D glasses, but the 3D images that were big in the 90s were completely lost on me.
One common cause of that sort of thing is amblyopia, which is a developmental problem in the visual cortex that weakens visual processing from one side. This makes it hard to interpret stereoscopic depth cues, though overall depth perception might not be affected very noticeably because there are actually lots of other cues the brain uses to infer distance. Amblyopia is associated with strabismus (misaligned eyes), but can be caused by something as simple as an uncorrected nearsightedness in one eye during childhood.
@@TJStellmachThat sounds about right, when I had my last eye exam the doctor told me my eyes were not aligned properly.
Thank you so much.
I've never considered it so much of a problem that I've ever wanted or needed to investigate it.
But having it explained to me and being able to understand that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation has made my day just that bit happier.
Thank you again. Your response was much appreciated 🙂
gave me a headache
Oddly enough I actually own that 1st issue of Three Dimension Comics featuring Mighty Mouse. I got it from my LCS for free years ago. Its pretty beat up and doesn't have the glasses with it, but I thought it was pretty damn cool at the time and it's the only golden age comic I own. I had no idea it was the first 3D comic book. That was a fun fact! Great show Chris, thanks!
The best use of 3D I ever saw in a comic was Alan Moore in the ending of LXG's Black Dossier, The Blazing World. Using it to represent a higher dimension on the page, as well as other tricks like having two different images overlaid in the same space, one only visible in red and one only visible in blue. It can be used very creatively, and I advise everyone to keep a pair of glasses in a drawer somewhere, they come in handy from time to time.
Thats right, they made something like that in Final Crisis too
I'm currently attending my second year at the Joe Kubert School and every time I hear Chris mention it I smile. We Kubies all love you dude.
Good luck with your studies!
Two things:
First, a friend of mine contacted Pacific Comics back in the day, and he was told the name is pronounced "Shay-ness," not "Shanes."
Second, someone else has commented about the Valiant Vision system. This is a fantastic version of 3-D which did not give me eyestrain. The lenses are not colored, but somehow filter the light so that the warmer colors (red, yellow) seem closer to the reader than the cooler ones (blues). This meant that any comic book that took this into consideration when the coloring was done could be 3-D. (I'm not certain about this, but I believe Neal Adams actually came up with this process. Perhaps you could learn more about it.)
I remember Valiant Vision! It was actually really great.
My favorite theatrical 3-D experiences were My Bloody Valentine 3D and Hugo. As an 80s-style slasher flick (a remake, in fact, of an actual 80s slasher), My Bloody Valentine was able to showcase the range of the gimmick, whether that means shoving pickaxes and severed body parts in your face or having two characters converse through a chain-link fence to highlight that uncanny sense of depth. And what can I say about Hugo, except that when Scorsese decides to make a movie in 3-D, it's more than just a gimmick?
I should probably also mention Tyrannosaurus: Back to the Cretaceous for being one of my few IMAX experiences as a kid. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of 3-D, so these films really deserve credit for adding more to the trip than just a heftier price tag.
Thanks for this. I liked Pacific Comics, but never knew the backstory behind them.
No mention of Valiant Comics? They experimented with a new method of 3D, which they called ValiantVision. (Crayola released a set of markers called "Jumping Colors" at the same time, which used the same method; maybe there was a patent conflict.) ValiantVision used glasses with refracting lenses to bend colors of light, so red and yellow surfaces appeared closer to the viewer, and blue and violet seemed to recede. It was surprisingly effective, even on normal comics, although the glasses did make it look like Superman's trunks were flying off.
Yes! I remember wearing Valiant Vision glasses to other publishers comics as well just to see what happened. Some worked really well, and some (like Superman's trunks) did not work at all. Either way, it was fun!
I've never left a comment on a UA-cam video before. I just wanted to tell Chris that he does a great job, and Comic Tropes has basically become Comfort Viewing. It's in the background while I work so, so much.
All the videos are fantastic, and everyone likes to hear that they do a good job.
"Good job Chris, thank you for all the content, looking forward to the next installment!"
Thanks!
I can't believe that 3d has been the future for almost a hundred years now
This was a really well done video on what most would consider to be a niche part of comics history. The only 3-D comic that I remember releasing in recent memory was the Crossover 3-D special by Donny Cates that released a year ago.
I really enjoy the handful of BLACK & WHITE 3D comics I own, like a few issues of 'Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters'. However the analglyph 3D presentation just DOES NOT work well with COLOUR comics. Like I have the Uncanny #268 and the 3D effect doesn't work very well in most panels, and mostly just causes eye strain...
If you want to really enjoy a '3D Comic' then your best bet is to watch the first 'Spiderverse' movie! And it was such a shame that the producers decided not to bother with 3D for the sequel...
There was also Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill’s recent The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ‘The Blazing World’ comic released in 3-D complete with glasses.
Unless you were there it’s impossible to explain how popular the California raisins were.
Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil had 3-D sections in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier. They used it when they showed an other dimensional world
Excellent episode! Thanks for a look at this faddish gimmick. I can remember another example from the 80's, when Eclipse published an issue of Mister Monster and promoted as being in 6-D--I think the gimmick was it was in color and 3-D.
For movies, while I don't think the Spielberg/Jackson Tintin movie was great (but I wanted it to be!), I saw the 3-D release and thought they handled the effect really well. My pick for best use of 3-D in a movie, though, is the Werner Herzog documentary on neolithic cave paintings discovered in France, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The 3-D effect really enhances the sense of how the artists used the cave's contours to create a sense of dimensionality in their paintings of animals. (Also excellent in 2-D!)
Was lucky enough to see “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” in the theater in 3D when it came out and was incredibly blown away emotionally seeing the 30,000 year old paintings “up close” as it were. Definitely the best use of 3D in film as only a handful of scientists are ever allowed in the cave at any given time and 2D just doesn’t do the cave walls justice.
I can't remember the name, but I remember reading a Superman book where the phantom zone was in 3D, I thought that was pretty cool. Other than that I don't think I've read any 3D comics, but I'm definitely curious to check more out.
I can still remember getting a 3D "Spider Man and His Amazing Friends" comic as a kid in the 80's.
I was too young to understand how it worked, but I figured out that I had blue and red colored pencils that were rendered visible/invisible by the colored glasses. I spent several days drawing my own comics in red/blue so that I could alternately open and close one eye creating a primitive two frame animation and showing my "3D comics" to my parents.
It's a wonder that they never shipped me off to a "special" school.
I was also a massive California Raisins fan.
Ive enjoyed your content for years but i have to take issue with one thing... the California raisins were epic. The commercials never felt like commercials. The characters were unique unto themselves and resinated (or should i say "raisinated") with all of my peers. I had a whole collection of figurings that proudly shared a shelf with my mix of Heman, transformers, GI Joe and various super heroes action figures.
Love your work. Carry on.
Stop being so unraisinable. Remember, not all heroes wear grapes.
@@ClayMann hug
@@nonedefense8296
I remember being really impressed with the 3D on *Monsters vs Aliens* back in the day. A handful of "thing coming at you" gimmicks, sure, but also just a really clean experience that didn't make me motion sick while giving some nice depth and scope.
I actually had several Blackthorne 3D comics. I remember that one of the Transformers books had really bad artwork. I also remember that after Marvel's New Universe was launched, Blackthorne attempted to launch their own crossover-heavy universe - they only put out two issues and cancelled everything else. And yes, I have both those issues. I remember the already produced but unpublished comics would have been gathered into trade paperbacks, but I never saw them in stores. So much wasted potential.
Now i really hope 3D comics get a revival.
I would like to try it.
I have a collection of 3D comics that I've been building up since I picked up Battle for a Three Dimensional World from 7-Eleven as a kid. That might have also been my introduction to Jack Kirby. I feel like AV in 3D was the next one for me, which introduced me to so many 80s era indie books that I still revere today.
One of the most unique uses of red and blue 3D I've ever seen was this one comic I had as a kid. It was an adaptation of the recently released live action Flinstones movie. Rather than just do standard 3D, they did this unique thing where if you closed one eye and looked through the red lens, the art resembled the actors from the movie, but if you closed your other eye and looked through the blue lens, the art resembled the classic Hanna-Barbarra cartoons.
Coraline was brilliant in 3D. The best 3D presentation I've seen by far.
My first 3D was the bizarre METALSTORM: THE DESTRUCTION OF JARED-SYN from Charles Band. It was a cheap catch-all sci-fi that had elements of Star Wars and Road Warrior in it. Corny as hell and I LOVED IT.
Often good, well considered and well executed videos. Thx man.
I had a collection of Basil Wolverton comics that had been rendered in 3D titled The 3-D Zone Presents: The Weird Tales of Basil Wolverton. They were a lot of fun, drawn in a very bold and over-the-top style. Every now and then I'll find a few frames online and dig out my 3D specs to take a gander.
I even learned how to do my own 3D drawings with red, blue and black pencil. They were just doodles but it's really cool how quickly you can get the hang of it. One of the things I discovered was it's possible to change how much an image "pops out" at you by messing with the placement of the red and blue images and how you can change perspective based on how you place them as well.
Brilliant work Chris. Thoroughly researched and referenced and very professionally executed. Love your content.
Awesome episode, Chris! The Micheal Jackson sound effects had me cackling. I remember my first 3-D comics were Three Stooges comics from 1986 by Eclipse. I loved those.
Muppets In 3-D was awesome " All these people think I'm talking to them but I'm really talking to YOU!"
Someone needs to make a tier list for all Chris' shirts. This one is S for sure.
You know it's a good day when there's a new comic tropes episode
I liked the episode where he told us he was a real life street super hero!
oh that's so much fun. Around the mid 80s, I did explore a lot of 3D books, so this does speak to me. And also I shop at the comic shop from Lost Boys. Fun video.
The Groth quote from Vulture is F'ing BRUTAL!!!
Your presentations just get better and better. A very genuine attitude. Thank you.
Another great and informative video, love the glasses-on bit!
I loved watching the movie Life of Pi in 3D in my local IMAX cinema... The 3D was really used to give the movie glorious depth, and not just to throw stuff in your face!
Probably the only 3d film I actually enjoyed life of pi I’d amazing
I remember buying a 3D comic from 7-11! God, I miss that!
always a good day when there's a new episode :D LOVE your shirt btw!!
I suppose the modern day novelty equivalent would be AR enhanced comics. I know Marvel had that feature a few years ago, but I couldn't get it working most of the time and just gave up on it. Which is that Marvel did also! 😆
I don't mind the inclusion of 3D, just as long as it's an option and not mandatory in order to read the book.
I'm one of the few people that actually loved the 3D on the Nintendo 3DS and kept the 3D slider cranked up the whole time.
Despite your advice, I watched the whole video wearing 3D glasses - the Mighty Mouse comic was actually kinda effective. Also your shirt was pretty trippy.
I think I'm doing something wrong. I put the glasses on and I couldn't see the 3D images, but I did go bankrupt.
Always nice to have a new CT on a sunday morning!
Good job. The production values of your channel are good. But especially good is the effect ' Glasses on! Glasses off!'😢💬💋
I have a copy of Scott McCloud's "DESTROY!" from Eclipse in 3-D and it looks and reads astoundingly fun! Completely perfect use of the 3-D format given that it's just one big, city-destroying, epic fight. I'd highly recommend anyone track it down and give it a try! :)
Awesome! When I was in 5th grade, my friend made an order from Mile high comics and got Destroy! as a free promo. I think it had a stamp across the cover. We thought it was great even up to it’s expletive laden ending, something we had never seen in comics- takes me back!
always great stuff. thank you!
My first encounter with 3-D comics wasn't with the R&Bl/B&W but with the Valiant Comics line of full-color 3-D comics of the mid-90s. I bought quite a few of those. I have no idea where those glasses are anymore they actually gave everything else a rainbow effect and you could still enjoy the comics even w/o the glasses.
I can not give enough compliments to Comic Tropes. I stumbled on CT looking for info on artists only and it's been years and I'm still here learning new stuff about the medium.
I have a pair of 3-D glasses lying around here somewhere....
I got a few of the Blackthorne and Eclipse comics. Really enjoyed them.
This was a really fun -- GLASSES ON!!!!!!!! -- GLASSES OFF!!!!!!! -- video, Chris.
Tron Legacy was probably the best 3d movie I've seen. The effect worked really well and you only had to use the glasses when they went into the digital world.
Tron Legacy was 3d?? I saw it in theatres but didnt know it was also in 3d. That movie deserved a sequel!
@@Robd07 you could see it in standard or 3D. If you had a theater in town that could show 3D movies you could pay a bit extra and see it in 3D.
What a pleasant surprise, waking up to new CT content made my morning. Thank you for the awesome channel and videos
I really like guardians of the galaxy in 3d. The way they frame scenes in the ships is so very cool.
Great ep as always
I bought a set of 3D glasses to watch Freddy's Dead with some friends (so I actually got to enjoy the 3D parts of your video). I bought the DVD box set like 20 years ago and the glasses that came with them are long lost.... and they didn't have arms! You literally had to hold them up to your face! Not my favorite 3D movie, but it's the only one I own :(
Great video, as always!
Thank you for sharing another fascinating Comics History video! I love your shirt too, so colourful!
I like all your videos and have been subscribed since the inception of this channel!
Great, and interesting video. Love history stuff like this.
this is super interesting, loved learning about this weird bit of comic history
Great episode as per usual, super interesting topic as well
I learned something from this. Thanks, Chris!
Very good video! The comic history was interesting and well-presented as always, and the "glasses on/off" gimmick was goofy and fun. Thanks for the vid!
Incredibly informative and well producer sir.
Very Interesting! Amazing video as always.
Another interesting and well thought out video.
Love this video and discovered your channel through it! I'm currently a museum intern and am working on an exhibition on 3D comics, and found this video through researching their history (:
I never really liked the 3D effect. To me the images already are 3D. The only time I was ever impressed by it was The Marvel Super Heroes 4D experience I saw at Madame Tussauds of all places (I assume it was shown at other venues as well) . That shit was magic. Great video as always. U think I have to dig out a pair of 3d glasses and watch it again.
I’m really surprised you didn’t mention the stellar John Byrne
3-D Batman graphic novel it had pinups from a Who’s Who in the industry. Ray Zone also worked on that.
At the height of the current 3-D craze, some very prominent filmmakers like Scorsese and Ang Lee made some really non-gimmicky cool 3-D films like life of pi and Hugo.
I’ve always been a lover of 3-D I have a bunch of Viewmaster reels, and in a similar vein any stop motion film is really great in 3-D, like Coraline or box trolls.
That's not mentioned? Shame! The pinup section in that comic was really good too as I recall
Thank you for creating content and for giving me a reason to use my old 3d glasses. Felt good.
This video takes me back! Not that I read a lot of 3-D comics (or any), but I remember seeing the Blackthorne 3-D comics on the shelf at my local Super X -- in particular Moonwalker, which I now kinda wish I had picked up. But I was still a kid at the time, and when my parents told me that, at those cover prices, I could have one 3-D comic or two regular comics, the choice was simple. I think part of the reason I remain fascinated by 3-D movies is that at around that same time, the local TV stations would make a big event out of showing a movie in anaglyphic 3-D -- usually one of the more bargain basement B titles that they had picked up the rights to for a song. But they would run commercials for weeks in advance, telling everyone to make sure they stopped by the Roadrunner Market for their free pair of Channel 5 3-D glasses.
I LOVE the more recent 3D TV and movies. Wish the tech was more widely accepted. The college and medical students I work with are amazed and jealous that I have a 4k 3D TV. They wish they had the chance to buy one, but were too young.
Great research 👏
Thanks for another wonderful video! It's both fun and informative.
The only 3-D comic I remember reading was "Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3-D." It was awesome, but the appeal was more Grant Morrison and JH Williams and less the 3-D itself. It was a a fun mini series, though. The first 3D I ever remember seeing was in the RCMP Dome Theatre during our local exhibition (or summer fair for you Americans). That was a big dome they put up on the midway with no seats. You'd get your flimsy 3-D glasses at the door, then stand and sway with the crowd for 15 or 20 minutes as they showed 3-D films of roller coasters and skiers like in your video. It impressed the heck out of me at age 10.
Glasses on!
The raisins, they're coming right at me! Aaaaaa!
I’m shocked you didn’t mention the Dredd 3d movie!
The Force Awakens was improved by 3D. Loved the scene where Rey was exploring the wreck of the star destroyer.
I'm glad I've held on to the glasses from Spykids 3D so I could properly enjoy this video.
Are you going to do a video on Ray Zone and his company 3-D Zone?
What I liked about the blue-red glasses was wearing them to read normal comics, especially older, pre-computer colored stuff.
This was a good, informative video. Thanks for the hard work on this!
Always a good morning when you wake up to a new Comic Tropes video
Ultimately, I always feel like 3D effects don't end up adding anything that good focus and depth of field don't already take care of, and usually doesn't do it as well anyway.
Every comic i read in 3d sucked as a kid. Had McFarlane used it in his Spiderman it would have worked!
It’s funny to me how 3D fads come and go. The 50s, 80s, and 2010s each saw 3D become popular again, so I’m ready for the next 3D boom of 2040
Chris, you are an amazing goldmine of information. I have no idea how you do it. Keep up the good work!!
Nice and calm
Really enjoyed this
Well, this is some serendipitous timing on my part! I've been really interested in Blackthorne Publishing recently, researching some of its history, really wanting to learn more about it and how this seemingly plucky little start-up could somehow become the *fifth* largest comics distributor in a few short years.
Then, today by complete coincidence, Caravan of Garbage released a video about The Rocketeer, which briefly features *this* video, and seeing the title, I knew I had to check it out. And it was well worth it! This video covers areas I had no idea about, and really helped fill in some of the blanks I had about Blackthorne! An enjoyable watch all around!
I had the Captain EO comic bought it London's Forbidden Planet (60 miles from my home) then travelled all the way back to return it. I swapped it for a Brian Bolland Joker T shirt!
I suspect the Star Wars prequels were shot with 3D post conversion in mind. The number of shots with foreground planes, and light sabers pointing at the screen is quite noticeable if you have 3D in the back of your mind. The 3D versions of The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and It Came from Outer Space are rather good!
Phantom Menace actually WAS converted to 3D, and had a short theatrical run. Unfortunately they never bothered releasing it on 3D BluRay... I think they had plans to re-release ALL of the Star Wars films in 3D, but the plans were abandoned when the home 3D TV market failed to take off.