The Four Color Media Monitor

Euronews/AP Wire has some more about Popeye's entering public domain in 2025 (which, as previously noted, is unfortunately being taken advantage of by horror film directors) along with a notable European comics figure who first appeared around the same time as the spinach-eating sailor:

Crack open the spinach and get yourself a trusty Fox Terrier companion, because two beloved animated icons are entering the public domain next year.

Indeed, Popeye the Sailor can punch without permission and intrepid kid reporter Tintin can investigate freely in 2025.

The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the US on 1 January 2025, meaning they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders. [...]

The simply drawn teen with a quiff that could out-class David Lynch’s first appeared in a supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, and became a weekly feature. The comic also first appeared in the US in 1929. Its signature bright colours didn’t appear until years later, and could, like Popeye’s spinach, be the subject of legal disputes. And in much of the world, Tintin won’t become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.

Let's just hope that both Tintin and Popeye will be spared naff horror adaptations once they enter the public domain. The mouse and the bear weren't so lucky...

If only it were all that simple, and we could look forward to men and women with good taste taking advantage of this. But sadly, as the recent example from the film industry makes clear, Popeye for one isn't immune (which makes this AP article pretty sloppy), and for all we know, Tintin likely isn't either. Even European filmmakers could exploit this in time for bad directions when public domain takes effect in the middle of the century. Though I suppose there will come along some artists who'll try to complete the last story George Remy had in store, Alph-Art, which wasn't completed before his passing in 1983.

But it's clear there'll still be quite a few cases where Popeye for one won't be done justice, nor Olive Oyl, and that's a shame. Mainly because the MSM won't cover the more positive examples, if at all. As a result, it's not easy to celebrate with spinach realizing something's bound to go wrong.

Labels: comic strips, Europe and Asia, history, msm propaganda