Get out the red/blue 3-D glasses (red on the left, blue on the right)...
Script by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Art by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Simon, Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko (inks).
In the early 1950s, "3-D" using red and green prints of simultaneously-shot movie footage from cameras a couple of feet apart. (note: sometimes blue was used instead of green, but the stereotype of 3-D is a red / green lens juxtposition.)
When a viewer wore glasses like these they would perceive the two projected images as a single 3-D image!
Taking comic book line art and modifying it to produce a similar 3-D effect was technically simple, so almost every company attempted at least one 3-D book between 1952-55.
Most were 3-D versions of
existing comics including
Superman,
Batman,
Tales from the Crypt, even
Katy Keene.
However,
Captain 3-D was the
Simon & Kirby
team's attempt to jump on the 3-D bandwagon with NEW material.
As you've just read,
Captain 3-D had both a cool premise and nice set-up, playing up the use of glasses to both empower the hero and perceive villains. (The John Carpenter movie
They Live!
used a similar gimmick)
Unfortunately, a
legal battle involving the 3-D process all but killed the financial viability of producing 3-D books, and, though material was already finished, there was never a second issue of
Captain 3-D!
Special treat: If you want to see this story in traditional full comic book color (but 2-D), go to
Atomic Kommie Comics™ now.
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