TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (BASTICH approaches HACKER-LAD who is staring at a book while sitting at a table.) BASTICH: Hey, Hacker-Lad. Whatcha Doin'? HACKER-LAD: Checkin' out some new Stare-EO-Grams...
PANEL 2 (BASTICH holds up his finger indignantly.) BASTICH: Oh, boy just what I wanna see..! A towering CUBE popping out of the page! Perhaps even a PYRAMID! WhooHoo! Sign me up!
PANEL 3 (HACKER-LAD raises his hand dismissively as BASTICH looks on.) HACKER-LAD: Get with it, 'Stich! Stare-EO-Grams have come a long way since those primitive days. Now, the shapes they reveal are quite complex! BASTICH: Whatever, fool. Let ME have a look!
PANEL 4 (BASTICH holds up the book and stares intently at a two-page spread as HACKER-LAD stands behind him.) BASTICH: Hmmm... Hmmm... HMMM... HACKER-LAD: Well, what do you see? BASTICH: I see...
PANEL 5 (CLOSE UP on BASTICH as faint spirals begin to form in his glasses.) BASTICH: Why, I see a Stare-EO-Gram! HACKER-LAD: A WHAT!? BASTICH: A Stare-EO-Gram of... A Stare-EO-Gram!
PANEL 6 (Deeper CLOSE UP on BASTICH's eyes as intense spirals now fill his glasses.) BASTICH: ...of a Stare-EO-Gram of a Stare-EO-Gram of a Stare-EO-Gram of a... Must... Probe... Further..
PANEL 7 (ZOOM OUT to BASTICH and HACKER LAD.) BASTICH: A-HAH! HACKER-LAD: Well, what IS it..!? BASTICH: It says.. "For all your optical needs call Dr. Smith's Optometry Center." Ooh... better write down this number...
CREDITS (c) 1996 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
I made this strip over Summer break and then submitted it for publication in The Orion a few weeks into the new semester.
In case you don't know, Stare-EO-Grams (technically autostereograms) are computer-generated images that looked like random noise but if you crossed your eyes in just the right way a 3-D shape would form on the page. I used to struggle to see them but my eyes must be getting lazier because I find it pretty easy now.
As evidence of how bored we all were, these things were everywhere in the 1990s after being popularized by the Magic Eye book series. There were countless books, posters, calendars, and a famous scene in Kevin Smith's Mallrats ("A schooner IS a sailboat stupid head!").
When these first came out, seeing a cube bumping out of a flat page was an amazing feat, but the shapes got increasingly complex as the audience got more used to the technology. The more complex shapes were harder to resolve, especially if you don't know what you're looking for. If you're bored, go check a bunch of these out, but have your optometrist's number ready first.