Comics in Remote Corners: The View-Master Experience / R. W. Watkins
Comics in Remote Corners: The View-Master Experience
The first in a series of short essays exploring
the most unusual deployments and adaptations of the comics medium
R. W. Watkins
As comics thinkers and theorists from Will Eisner to Scott McCloud have either pointed out or implied, the possible applications and adaptations of the comics medium are limited only to the human imagination. One of those realised possibilities that could definitely be classified as an adaptation would be any given View-Master reel that utilises comic-book or comic-strip characters as its subject matter.
Introduced by the Sawyer’s company four years after the 1935 advent of Kodachrome colour film, ‘View-Master’ is the trademark name given a line of specialised stereoscopes and the thin cardboard disks that are viewed using them. Each disk—or ‘reel’, as they are officially known—contains seven pairs of identical miniature colour photographs, producing 3-D images when viewed through the stereoscope. The images are selected as a reel is gradually rotated by pulling a small lever-like handle with the forefinger. Introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the View-Master was originally sold out of stationary stores and gift shops, with an eye on the general tourist market. Hence the reliance on major tourist attractions (e.g., the Grand Canyon) and historic sites (e.g., the Seven Wonders of the World) for subject matter for the early reels. During World War II, the American military also purchased some 100,000 viewers and almost six million reels for the purposes of training.
In 1951, Sawyer’s bought out its only major competitor in the field of stereoscopes, Tru-Vue, thus acquiring Tru-Vue’s licensing rights to Walt Disney Studios. The subsequent production of numerous reels featuring Disney characters, as well as the 1962 switch from bakelite to a more lightweight plastic for View-Master construction, were indicative of the company’s increasing appeal to a decidedly younger market. Following the 1966 acquisition of Sawyer’s by the General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation, there was a definite move towards more child-focussed subject matter; hence the increasing use of youth-oriented television series (e.g., Doctor Who, Batman) and cartoon characters as the basis for new reels. By the 1970s, as the earliest Gen-X’ers entered the advertisers’ sights, the View-Master was most definitely being marketed as primarily a toy.
The comics that were adapted for View-Master reels in the wake of this turn towards the child market represent a fairly broad spectrum of genres and print mediums; from superheroes to funny animals, from twelve-cent magazines to newspaper dailies to even Bazooka Joe gum inserts. Also, the adaptations themselves can be classified according to three distinct types.
The most popular type of adaptation involved the images being lifted directly from a drawn two-dimensional source—either printed comics panels or animated film stills. Whether derived from animation or directly from drawings, the majority of these reels were released (or re-released) as part of the ‘Cartoon Favorites’ series of three-reel packs in the 1970s. Released in 1959 and ‘authored’ by Walter Becker (not to be confused with the Steely Dan guitarist), the Crisis at Blue Thunder set of reels, featuring Milt Caniff’s Steve Canyon, would be an early example of an adaptation from a drawn strip:
The 1977 Captain America packet, Where Walks The Sleeper, on the other hand, was obviously adapted from the 1966 animated Marvel Superheroes television series:
One-reel abridged version included in the 1977 Spider-Man Gift Pak canister
(Scanned by Spectergirl)
In the sense that they are adaptations of adaptations, essentially, the(se) reels adapted from animated productions can be looked upon as being twice removed from the original comics.
The least frequent type of adaptation can also be seen as twice removed from the comics. This type involved using stills from live-action films and television shows that had been based on the comics. Featuring scenes lifted from the ‘The Purr-fect Crime’ episode of the eponymous ’60s television series, the Batman pack of reels would be a fine example of this adaptation type. Originally released in 1966, it would later be reissued as part of View-Master’s ‘Showtime’ series.
Complete with the show’s trademark THWACK!s and POW!s visible in at least two of the images, the Batman reels give the overall impression of a very upscale photo comic—albeit one without speech balloons.
The third type of adaptation is also twice removed from the original comics, for it involves the photographing of three-dimensional models and dioramas based on comics characters and settings. It is this form of adaptation that is my personal favourite. One of the earlier examples would be the 1963 Beetle Bailey pack of reels, which featured sets staged by American artist Montyne (born Sherman LaMont Sudbury in 1916; d. 1989). According to Brian Walker at the Beetle Bailey website, Montyne created “dioramic sets, with cartoon images blended with painted objects made mostly out of cut, shaped, molded and glued paper. There were also objects made from plastic or clay to create a rounded look.” Apparently, Sawyer’s/GAF was not satisfied with the end product, however, and no sequels were produced.
Reel One: ‘Eight-ball, Anyone?’ from Beetle Bailey (1963)
(Scanned by J. Clement)
This was certainly not the case with The Wonderful World of Peanuts. Staged by noted in-house artist Lelia Heath (Pearson), the initial set of Peanuts reels in 1966 was followed by two more sets based on Heath dioramas over the next six years.
Reel Three: ‘Throw It Home, Snoopy’ from The Wonderful World of Peanuts, 1966
(Scanned by J. Clement)
Complete with speech balloons, Peanuts packs like Charlie Brown’s Summer Fun (1972) represent dioramic comics adaptations at their finest. Aesthetically, they seem to exist in a space somewhere between Schulz’s printed page and Bill Melendez’s animated television specials and motion pictures. As I noted in my recent review, they even foreshadowed the 3-D Peanuts Movie in all its (surprising) splendour.
Reel One: ‘Croquet, Almost Anybody!’ from Charlie Brown’s Summer Fun, 1972
(Scanned by Lance Cardinal)
Of course, when a cartoonist draws any subject in a series of panels, the result can be construed as a sort of comics, including those intended for viewing through a stereoscope. Take for instance the drawings of house artist Lew Turner which served as the basis for several sets of reels celebrating the American Bicentennial; e.g.:
Reel One from America’s Bicentennial Celebration: Forging a Nation, 1976
(Scanned by J. Clement)
Such reels easily fulfill the definition set out in Scott McCloud’s groundbreaking 1992 tome, Understanding Comics; i.e., “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”. (In theory, the entire View-Master experience can actually be interpreted as comics according to McCloud’s rather open-ended definition.)
Regardless of its seminal attributes and mid-century ubiquity, the View-Master has become increasingly invisible in popular culture over the past three and a half decades—particularly in the wake of the Internet and the widespread appeal of handheld devices. The numerous takeovers and mergers that the former GAF (now View-Master, a division of Mattel) has experienced since 1981 have undoubtedly not helped matters any, either. In recent years, the product has been redeveloped and modified to reflect the digital times—incorporating game packs and virtual reality via one’s smartphone. The Fisher-Price division of Mattel continues to produce the ‘classic photo View-Master viewer’ and the corresponding reels, but the traditional stereoscope and its accoutrements have been aimed at an even younger and younger market. A brief perusal of the division’s products on distributor Bridge Direct’s official website, however, reveals a line of reels that includes a pack adapted from the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series; so I guess it can be said that the View-Master still has the potential to deliver three-dimensional comics in a medium beyond the printed page.
The following is an incomplete list of View-Master reel packets that were adapted from comic books or comic strips:
Steve Canyon: Crisis at Big Thunder (1959)
Beetle Bailey (1963)
Batman (AKA ‘The Purr-fect Crime’) (1966)
The Wonderful World of Peanuts (1966)
Dennis the Menace (1967)
Snoopy and the Red Baron (1969)
Charlie Brown’s Summer Fun (1972)
It’s a Bird, Charlie Brown (1973)
Archie (1974)
Captain America in ‘Where Walks the Sleeper’ (1977)
Iron Man in ‘The Spell of the Black Widow’ (1977)
Thor in ‘The Wrath of Odin’ (1977)
Spider-Man in ‘Double Identity’ (1977)
The Incredible Hulk (1978)
Little Orphan Annie (1978)
The Amazing Spider-Man versus Doctor Octopus (1979)
The Fantastic Four (1979)
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980)
Batman: The Joker’s Wild (1981)
G.I. Joe (based on the 1982 Marvel comic book, G.I. Joe No. 1) (1982)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Not a Toy (2012)