Transformers in 3-D #1-3

In the mid-1980s Stereoscopy briefly became a fad in comics. And by "fad in comics" I mean "a gimmick tried by a few also-rans in the hope it became a fad in comics". Primary offenders were Eclipse, who specialised in applying the process to vintage comics, some of which they might have even owned the rights to (the most famous of Eclipse's efforts being Miracleman 3D #1).

Blackthorne were a slightly different case. They actually had a bit of a link to Eclipse - they were formed in 1986 by the former owners of Pacific, who went bust in 1984; Eclipse took over many of Pacific's properties, including the negotiations to import Alan Moore's reinvented Marvelman serial from the classic British anthology Warrior. Like Eclipse they also plundered cheap old comics, but also managed to get licences for several toy properties like G.I. Joe, Robotech and Transformers. Marvel already had the Transformers comic licence (and G.I. Joe... was it Valiant that had Robotech? Never cared for Robotech...), of course, so Blackthorne arranged what can be described as a 'secondary licence'.

Marvel had little interest in 3-D, their comics selling fine already. Blackthorne had no interest in colour comics, their various attempts selling badly for the most part. So, there was no real harm to Marvel for Blackthorne to sling out the odd 3-D comic book. They also produced a tutorial series called How to Draw Transformers.

What Marvel did own and weren't about to share were the negatives to every Transformers comic published up to that point. With no public domain newspaper strips to prey on, Blackthorne would have to do some work - coming up with original black-and-white strips to Stereoscopy.

This resulted in three of the most bizarre Transformers comics of all time. Both staff and storylines showed no real continuity. The first issue, cover-dated Fall 1987, seemed to be taking most of its' cues from the cartoon continuity somewhere around "The Rebirth", albeit with Scorponok and Fortress Maximus appearing despite the text making it clear the Headmasters process was still in development. All this is enlivened by some quirky, fun art and some endearing characterisation - Ratbat appears to be a blend of his comic and cartoon personalities, while it's undoubtedly Searchlight's finest moment. This issue is quite common second hand.

The next two issues are rarer. In the case of the untitled story in #2, dated December 1987 - featuring an all-chance creative team, a random appearance by Ironhide, some annoying kids, several complete logic breakdowns and next to nothing in common with the first issue - this is probably a blessing.

It's a shame for the third issue, though. Featuring a third batch of hapless Blackthorne staffers, it's not quite in the same vein as the first issue, but still interesting thanks to the debut of the made-up-on-the-spot-after-too-much-coffee Destructons - a menacing race of aliens. Their names, in ascending order of awesomeness, were Medusa, Bruton, Psychokhan and - best of all - Lord Imperious Delirious. It again featured no significant connections to the previous two issues.

It came out in March 1988, and was intended to be the first installment of a three-part storyline. By then, Blackthorne were in severe financial trouble after sinking much of their money into the licence to produce the 3-D comic of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker film. The film tanked, which obviously did the 3-D comic no good. Both originated material and licenced titles rapidly disappeared from the Blackthorne roster. The company limped on into early 1990 before finally folding.

So no more Destructons - though considering the scatter-shot nature of Blackthorne's material up to that point, there's no guarantee any Transformers in 3-D #4 would have picked up the story anyway...

Despite the rights having presumably reverted back to Hasbro and then included in the rights reprint bundles rented to the likes of Titan and IDW, surprisingly (well, maybe) no-one's reprinted these things. These scans will have to do for now... The ones for #1 aren't by me, those for #2-3 are. The 3-D effects have been removed and flattened to make a halfway-presentable set of black-and-white pictures.They were hosted on the main site until they fell by the wayside, but I've had a few emails asking for them to be put up somewhere. The files are showing their age, though, as a word of warning - I sold the comics some time ago, and the scans are about half the resolution they need to be.

- Issue #1 - The Test!
- Issue #2
- Issue #3 - The War Against the Destructons, Part 1 of 3