Ray Zone, the "King of 3-D Comics," has died of heart failure at the age of 65. Word comes from the enthusiast site 3D News & Reviews via The Beat.

If a comic fan picked up a comic printed in the unique red and blue form of 3-D over the past 30 years, it was likely Zone's handiwork. The filmmaker, artist and historian got his start in 3D in the 1980s when, after moving to Los Angeles, he rolled his interest in the stereoscopic cinema pioneered in the 1950s to a number of small publishing projects. Soon, he was noticed by the big publishers as well and began helping them convert art to 3-D starting with John Byrne's 1990 graphic novel "Batman 3-D."

Over the next three decades, Zone worked for a variety of publishers including DC, Image, Blackthorne, Disney, Nickelodeon Magazine and many, many more. His output totaled over 130 comics projects. Zone also became the leading historian of 3-D technology, writing a number of academic history books on the subject and chronicling his passion on his website, The 3-D Zone.

Zone's final set of comics projects came in the last decade where he converted pages for DC's "Action Comics" #851 where he was able to work briefly with 3-D comics originator Joe Kubert, "League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier" with Alan Moore Kevin O'Neil and Tom Jane's "Bad Planet."

CORRECTION: When this article was originally published, we had an incorrect photo of Ray Zone included with the article. We apologize for the error.