Popularity of the 3-D movies in the 1950's brought about the first 3-D comic books printed in 1953 by Three Dimension Comics using the 3-D Illustereo Process. Standard comic books were converted to 3-D via a "stereo art process" by Joe Kubert and brothers Leonard and Norman Maurer. "Mighty Mouse:Men of Sola" was the first published in September, followed by "Three Stooges: Men in the Moon" in October with more to follow.
The process for printing 3-D comics existed a century before the first 3-D comics were printed. Prior to 1953, the process was used to create images as a treatment to correct eye disorders in children. Converting images for anaglyph printing is a highly technical process that desaturated the cyan, a bluish green and red from the original image, moving those colors onto a new channel or layer for each color. Each color is then horizontally offset from the original image. Human eyes see colors differently, so the channel for viewing with the left eye has the cyan, while the red ink is specific to the right eye. The images are then superimposed over one another to create the comic book image.
When looking at a 3-D comic book image with the naked eye, one will see the original black ink image and what appears like similar red and blue images overlapping, but not in perfect alignment. Looking at the images for too long may feel uncomfortable. However, when viewed with special glasses that have one red and one blue lens, the layers of images are pulled together, creating the perception of depth in the image.
Any comic book image can be put through the anaglyph process, and achieve the illusion of depth. However for it to work most effectively, the original drawing must first possess a sense of depth through the use of shadows, highlights, and perspective. Many cartoon images, whether strictly black and white or in color, typically lack a lot of detail. The greater the sense of realism in the original drawing, the greater the impact of the 3-D process.
Digital software has made it easier for many people now draw their own comics in a variety of styles from the traditional comic strips, to graphic novels. Whether intended for print or viewing online, it's now easy to create 3-D comics using the anaglyph process. Drawing programs such as Photoshop allow users to pull the cyan and red colors into different channels, but the user must manually adjust those channels or layers horizontally. Software such as StereoPhoto Maker makes the adjustments and can process large batches of images necessary for a comic book.