Before you start downloading this weeks latest public domain comics, I'd like to bring your attention to this interesting bit of news from Newsarama concerning DC bringing back the *Archie* or MLJ Heroes...I don't have any copies of the old MLJ comics handy (The Fly or The Shield, among others...) but I feel certain that a lot of them have fallen into Public Domain, so I'll try to round out some for next week.
If you can't wait until next week, feel free to hop on down to http://goldenagecomics.co.uk/ where you can find a huge library of Public Domain comics.
Until then, enjoy some more issues of Unknown Worlds!
NOTE about these comics. I saw this on Wikipedia:
In the 1980s or so, Roger Broughton obtained the rights to the ACG materials from Fred Iger, and started doing reprints of Herbie and other characters under his Avalon/ Sword-in-the-Stone/A+/ACG/Charlton imprint. Broughton also licensed Herbie to Dark Horse Comics for a 12-issue reprint series, but only 2 issues came out.
I know some ACG are definitely in Public Domain, but I'm not sure where the line is drawn. If Unknown Worlds is not in public domain, feel free to email me and I'll remove them from my site. - Jim
[ Unknown Worlds 31 ]
[ Unknown Worlds 32 ]
4 comments:
The pre-comics code material is PD for sure. The post comics-code material begins to run into some issues because of the change in copyright extension in the mid-70's.
if and when the Dark Horse Herbie collection comes out, it will be interesting to see what the title page claims for copyright. Dark Horse will be able to claim copyright for the reconstructed work they are printing, but if there's a previous copyright holder involved, there's usually an indication of such on the title page somewhere.
Dark Horse is also reprinting the Nemesis series that ran in ACG's Adventures into the Unknown, so that may mean they have bigger plans for that ACG material beyond Herbie.
And that's the real reason DC snapped up the MLJ characters: to keep them out of any other publisher's hands. Dark Horse or some other company might have figured out a way to make money from them, so this is a preemptive form of competition.
(I'm sure the results will be every bit as thrilling as what DC has done with the Fawcett, Quality, and Charlton characters. And they've given the job to a writer with a proven track record in reviving defunct comics characters by squeezing all the life out of them and making them dull as dishwater, so that tells us what to expect...)
@Jim Kosmicki - thank you for the information. I might have to do some more research on this.
@Dr. K - Dark Horse is reprinting this guy? http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/n/nemesish.htm
That's interesting. I'm not really familiar with the character, but at a glance, I don't see the reasoning for that. (Maybe the Green Lama books did really well.)
@RAB - re: 2nd paragraph - You said it, but I was thinking it! I'm trying to be optimistic, and I'm glad to see the characters back in the fold, but did they REALLY have to go with JMS?! :DDD
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