My Rating
“Breaking The Time Barrier!”
Zero-hour – 0900, the U.S. Army is about to launch its ultra secret rocketship with the world’s first atomic powered time-reactor drive. On board are three of the army’s best pilots. Their mission is to travel past the red planet of Mars, then engage the time drive on their return path home. It was a simple mission on paper, but chaos always seems to find a way to hinder the most well made plans.
Is there something sinister awaiting the U.S. Rocketship on its return fight? Can the crew evade the massive meteor storm hurling towards their craft? Where did the other ship come from?!
“Jungle Drum”
Khiva cannibals have overrun the British settlement in Central Africa! With all hands lost, Jim and Flora escape the savages by way of the east river. Now hunted by both man and animal, the two survivors must make their way to the coastline. Grab your gun and your canoe Jim, the adventure has just begun.
“Three D Blinkey”
Close the left eye for the first part of the story, the the right for the conclusion
Red Toppe and Truman Blue were partners in a mining operation, until one day their gold went missing. Who was the low down varmint responsible for the bushwack? Red or Blue? Pull those pistols, boys and let fate decide!
“The Hidden Depths”
You race from the foul things that chase you. Fear causes you to make bad decisions. The other goers remind you that it is only a fun-house, but the monsters in pursuit have real swords and real knives. Is this a dream?
You don’t remember entering this place of horror, yet here you are. It is as if you awoke in this nightmare with no knowledge of your past or present. The other fun-house goers have now joined the hunt. Will the police help you escape this place? The mother matrix quickly approaches.
“The Snowman”
The Himalayan mountains were extremely dangerous this time of year. The season had changed for the worse but one of the men in the climbing party sought fame and fortune over safety. Colonel Lunt would soon discover his party members thought otherwise. Mutanty, even from their local guide, this was preposterous! The weather be damned, there was a Snowman to trap.
Higher and higher the men climbed. With each passing yard the temperature dropped and the wind blew harder. Then Anders collapsed from hyperthermia. “Get up,” Lunt shouted. “If the others can go on, you must too!” Lunt struggled to his feet but he refused to chase the myth of the monster no further. This is when Colonel Lunt pulled the revolver on them. It appears they hand no say in the matter…
“Sand”
The legion marched out into the Sahara in pursuit of their Arab enemy. It had been weeks since the French soldiers had any rest as their desert fort came under constant attack. Now Captain Leclerc made the decision to mount a counter offensive on the Chieftains as he believed their numbers had dwindled to a manageable level.
It was on the third day of their operation when the sandstorm hit. No man was able to see more than a few feet in either direction. The Captain ordered the men into a single line, with hands on the scabbard of the man in front of them. “They would make it out of this nightmare alive,” he promised. Yet the sands continued to blow over them in wave after wave of suffocating torment. Then blackness.
Reviewer Notes
This was my first dive into the world of 3-D comic books, and I can sum it up with one word…Awesome! It’s really amazing to see this kind of effect being utilized in print format. For a comic book printed in 1953 the Harvey artist really had this trick down to a T.
As per the time it was printed, Amazing Adventures in 3-D presented in standard anthology format filled with an assortment of storylines covering multiple genres. To be fair, the writing is targeted to a much younger audience, I’m guessing 8 to 10 year-olds, however the stories are very entertaining for what they are. The real attraction here, hands down, is the 3-D effects.
With every scene drawn in multiple layers, highlighted with monster hands and native spears shooting out into the reader’s face, its hard to believe any kid would not find this engaging. Heck, I’m 51 and I studied these pages for several hours over the past week. If you are looking for a new experience in comic books I would highly recommend getting a few of these 3-D books.
The website Comic Book Plus has this very issue. I’m not sure if the effect will be the exact same as looking at it on real paper, but if you have a set of red & blue glasses definitely check it out. I’m giving this Harvey book five out of five stars. Are there any modern publishers out there brave enough to bring back the 3-D comic? Let’s hope so.
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