3-D comics had a short but bright moment back in 1953 when St. John tried it following the movie gimmick of 1952. The comics came with the traditional green-and-red glasses. One notable title was Joe Kubert’s 3-D Comics #2 (October 1953) featuring Tor. The phase passed and comics went back to only two dimensions.
Beginning in May 1985, Blackthorne’s 3-D series brought 3-D Comics back with modern characters. The first issue featured Sheena, Queen of the Jungle but other issues had G. I. Joe, the California Raisins, Hamster Vice, Rambo and Michael Jackson. Most of the choices were perennial favorites like The Flintstones, Casper, Sad Sack, Bullwinkle and many others.
Five issues were of interest to Sword & Sorcery and Robert E. Howard fans. Beginning as early as Issue #3, Blackthorne offered 3-D Heroes (February 1986). Creating their own S&S characters we got “Rescue” featuring Roland and Axada. “Deathblow” had Princess Sarma and Prince Jahmek. “A Perfect Match” starred Axis, King Julian, Daktar, Baron Moresha, Assdun and Princess Luana. The stories were written by Cliff Macgillivray with art by Steve Huston.
Robert E. Howard’s King Kull replaced the generic heroes for two issues #51, Kull 3-D (January 1988) “The Gem of the Golden Waters” was written by Bobbi JG Weiss and David Cody Weiss. Interior art by Aaron Lopresti and Edgar Martiarena.
I’ve often wondered about the copyright for Kull at that time. I assume Marvel had lost it. They were using the character in comics up to 1986, then reprinted old stuff. Whatever the case, the next character was a product of Marvel Comics, not Robert E. Howard. Roy Thomas had created Red Sonja based on a REH character. Blackthorne must have paid some kind of license for Issue #53 Red Sonja 3-D (October 1988). (The cover bears Copyright 1988 Conan Properties, so the copyright holder not Marvel). This one was written by Bobbi and Cody Weiss and drawn by Aaron Lopresti and Edgar Martiarena.
Another Howard character that Marvel had lost control of was Solomon Kane. Again like Kull, Marvel hadn’t done a series since 1986. Issue #60 (Winter 1988) Solomon Kane 3-D had “Perceptions” written by Bobbi and Cody Weiss and drawn by Aaron Lopresti and Edgar Martiarena.
Kull returned for a second helping is Issue #67 Kull 3-D II (March 1989). “A Night on the Town” was written by Bobbi JG Weiss and David Cody Weiss. The art was by Jeff Johnson and Dan Schaeffer.
As Sword & Sorcery comics go these were not major events. Simply a fun sideline to Marvel’s massive output. One person involved did go on to be a major artist. Aaron Lopresti would return to Red Sonja for Dynamite, producing some amazing work there. Having worked on Red Sonja 3D at only twenty-four, there was time to improve. He would work on S&S titles like Xena, Warrior Princess, Lady Death, and “Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld” in the Sword of Sorcery, as well as many top superhero comics including Wonder Woman.
BTW, Marvel didn’t “loose control” of those properties until the late 90’s.
Solomon Kane appeared in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #220 (Apr. 1994)
Kull last appeared in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #233 (May 1995)
Sonja appeared as late as CONAN THE SAVAGE #9 (Apr. 1996)
The reason Blackthorne was able to publish comics using properties whose rights were owned by other companies (including Star Wars, GI Joe, etc..) is because a 3-D comic is a novelty item, and doesn’t fall under the licenses for regular comics. Read all about it in this article from the San Diego Reader in 2004
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2004/aug/19/two-men-and-their-comic-books
“The only way for us to get a product license based on Star Wars was to create a new product category,” Steve explains, “so I approached Lucasfilm with the idea of 3-D as a novelty comic book. It turned out there was a legal loophole in their contract with Marvel that didn’t cover what we were proposing.” [same thing applied for other licenses]
Thanks. I wondered about that.