Brain Power in 3-D

Hey, Kids! Time to break out the old 3-D glasses for a trip into the retro-future!

Brain Power is a nifty little science fiction tale published in True 3D #1 way back in December of 1953! If I was alive then, I would have enjoyed one of these in my stocking that Christmas!

True 3-D was an experiment in the "3-Dimensional" experience by Harvey Comics that lasted all of two issues. In the 1950s comic books and the cinema both made attempts during that era to drum up some extra business through gimmicks and bizarre, if not outright fraudulent, stunts. The 3-D craze didn't last long as consumers swiftly realized that the special effects didn't really ad anything to the product other than being a cheap novelty and for the average B-Movie and Grade-C comic book the extra expense of producing the effects may have been prohibitive.

Yet 3-D is an aspect of entertainment that refuses to fade completely away. 3-D has made several temporary resurgences, and comes in cycles. 3-D appeared most recently in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth. The graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier and the Superman: Beyond comic book mini used 3-D effects to further the story. For my money the 3-D experience I've enjoyed the most were those great Viewmaster Donald Duck slides of years past.

Brain Power as I've reproduced it here is best enjoyed using the traditional red and blue 3-D glasses. I used them and the story looked great on the monitor. In some panels the printing process is a bit off but it still an enjoyable read with a surprise, shocking twist ending sure to send a tingle up the spine of the reader! If you don't have the glasses then you can easily make some out of colored plastic. The ingenious could even print out some colored shapes suitable for use if they used the right printing media. FYI, the polarized dark lenses you can get at a movie theater won't work.

Finding 3-D glasses or colored plastic of the correct hue in San Diego was pretty difficult. I was having no luck finding what I needed at various party, craft and retail stores and I was getting disappointed. Also, angry. There was some interactive Hannah Montana thing that had 3-D glasses but there was no way I was buying stuff that expensive just for the cheap spectacles. So I stopped into one of those San Diego comic book shops that sell more stuff than just comics to see if they had any. I asked the proprietor if they had any 3-D glasses and he did not, but ever the sales-person, reminded me that Superman: Beyond #1 was published a few weeks earlier. I checked out the copy to make sure it still retained the special glasses and then purchased it. The proprietor cautioned me not to break apart the cardboard glasses and that I should keep the book intact as is because "the magazine was a collector's item and would be sure to appreciate in value."

Sure, dude. Maybe so, but I just can't take seriously the advice of any comic book store owner that doesn't maintain their own humorous comic book web blog.

Click the images to make them...Well, you know.

Enjoy!

Starring William Baldwin as Richie Rich

Richie Rich #39 (November 1965).

She started out pretty and smart

Click the picture to "Fly Me".

Info page about the airline personnel who serve you while on your flight. From the 1968 issue of AstroComics, an American Airlines giveaway comic book published by Harvey Comics promoting air travel.

Honey Ball's Babysitting Job

Honey Ball, the younger sister of Bunny Ball, takes on a babysitting job and gets viciously assaulted by little Edgar over the course of the story. Intrigued by the expression "for my sake" that Honey uttered, Edgar demands that Honey give up her "sake" to him (by which he means her virginity or virtue, I imagine). The brat kicks, bites, bludgeons with objects and forcibly subdues Honey before sated, collapsing from exhaustion.

This tale isn't so much a comic book as rape-fantasy porn. You can walk through the crime here.

Much of the imagery is disturbing for a children's comic book and I believe is without question rendered by the artist in a manner designed to be questionable, particularly the oral-sex centric panel from the last page of the story above.

From Bunny #16 (September 1970)

The Electric Bunny Acid Test

Harvey Comics was an interesting comic book company. Much has been written about them, but one thing to remember about the company is that they were early masters of crime, horror and gore comic books. Harvey changed the content of their magazines to that of being more suitable to children only as an effort to avoid being crushed by the external pressures of parent groups and politicians. It was a bold move that allowed them to outlast several other companies and the Harvey line created the memorable characters of Richie Rich and Casper.

While on the surface the Harvey titles seemed benign a more adult eye would easily see themes that children did not. After all, comic books about a dead baby, a demon free to wreak havoc on Earth, a witch and an exploitative capitalist couldn't possibly be harmful, could they? While everyone knows about the more popular Harvey characters, one of their forgettable characters was Bunny Ball, teen sensation, successful model and a young woman with a name worthy of a Bond Girl.

Bunny also had a psychotically boy-hungry kid sister who bore the name of Honey. She was obsessed with discovering new ways to make boys like her. To me, a "Honey Ball" sounds like something involving many drunken co-eds on spring-break, but I digress. Bunny was one of those comic book attempts to cash in on the Archie dollars. DC and Marvel did the same thing with Binky, Patsy and Debi and the Harvey line was no different. Like their counterparts at the other companies the late 1960's was a schizophrenic time for teen-oriented comic books. The characters were often trapped between being the idealized Donna Reed archetype while at the same time trying to appeal to a young crowd being force-fed Mod styles and psychedelic imagery. In Bunny #4 (March 1968), the clothing styles and idioms of all the characters fluctuate over the course of several stories, bouncing from conservative 1950's to the hip 1960's and back again (this is likely due to the style of whatever artist happened to be on the pencil chores for any given story).

The entire series is odd and Bunny #4 itself is a very strange book. The issue is chock full of fetish imagery and hints of the seedy underbelly of the pornography industry of the late 1960's. One of the tales in Bunny #4 is about a "Happening" at the home of a member of the BBIC, the Bunny Ball "In" Club. The BBIC is a fan club for the Bunny readers that also appeared in stories.

The feature Yvoorg Nam (that's Zatanna-speak for Groovy Man) in Bunny #4 is uncredited but it looks to have been drawn by Ernie Colon, who did a lot of work for Harvey. This is one of those Seduction of the Innocent-type stories that has content that will sneak past a child but gets recognized for what it really is about by an adult. The story is about a drug dealer named Yvoorg Nam who visits the home of bored teenagers and dispenses to the gang plenty of psychotropic drugs. The kids have an LSD-fueled orgy and they even experience a bad trip, freaking out and taking the dealer hostage at one point. Yvoorg is well-rendered and is suspiciously detailed, more than the other characters (I suspect that Yvoorg has the features of a celebrity of the time or is someone the artist knows). I'm just giddy that Harvey comics was able to depict teens doing hard drugs in 1968 and they got away with it. And yes, it is Comics Code approved!

So click the picture to tune in, drop out and experience the entire groovy trip for yourself.

Tags: Seduction of the Innocent Harvey Comics Bunny Ball