"Popeye" and "Tintin" fallen to US' Public Domain

Update (January 2th 2025): There was a bit of erronous information towards the article posted here yesterday, I have says that the 1928s characters of Mickey and Minnie Mouse and then, the 1929s ones from Popeye and Tintin by labelled at Public Domain, but this is the images of them that are part of it. Not the characters we love. I shouldn't says about Tintin his 1929s design but the image. As anyone are eagerly determinate to producing another Gore flick about Popeye the Slayer Man or Tintin been a Russian slayer. (Many thanks to Historian Ray Pointer from Cartoon Research to clarify what weeks of misinformations going to be spread.)

Today's the day! From the creative works that are getting an official copyright or are created in 1929, these are going to join the Public Domain market. The 1929s depictions of the E.C. Segar character Popeye  (see at right) and Hergé's Tintin and Snowy are part of them. For the latter, it's not tommorow you going to use or reproduce Hergé's works on any matter like what says the "legal" owners of the Hergé work: Tintimaginato.

Regardless of your hurrys or fears, I've never comprehend the utility of make copyrighted our works if one day, they're going to be free for any uses. The purpose of copyright first, is a guarantee to artists, creators and/or makers to getting a compensation for the fair use of their work, past or present. In the Digital age, these are been useless. Online piracy in the early-00s have proven that this is more easier to steal copyrighted works in the comfort of our home. TV and radios commercials have also the bad tendency to pretending giving to artists a favor by include their material there, but we know it better: They rarely getting any viable authorization to do this. It's as they wanted something that came from a nerd's basement who just bake a batch of random clips on a YouTube's music video, without read the song's lyrics.

In 2023, It was Winnie the Pooh (Not the Disney character) that were fallen to Public Domain, by have released to what was probably the most pointless and irritating take-off of a lovable child storybook: A Z-horror flick where Winnie and Piglet been serial killers. What could be possibly worse than this?

Last year was the 1928s Mickey and Minnie mouses to join. Steamboat Willie having a long history from Disney to not merely achieving its copyright leasing of the cartoon for decades. It was a important film on any way, though innapropriate today. (Mickey plays Turkey in the Straw by cows, goats and ducks?) It was the first ever-encompassing animated film that accompagny the synchronization of sound and voices on any matter. Anything was done better before it. By 1998, when it was time for Disney to says "Bye bye" to this fetish cartoon, the large corporation having "extended" its copyright expiration to... 2024. After it, we'll know the history.

For Tintin and Popeye, things went more suitable. In the America, the very first Tintin design is now officially a Public Domain property, but NOT the characters or names themselves! In Europe, it's only in 2052 that all the Hergé characters cast would be a worldwide PD property, but aside of that, their respective owners are still going to find many ruses to not be fallen to that. About Popeye, as long that Home Video existed, a serviceable bunch of his Fleischer/Famous shorts were neglected by United Artists to be copyrighted in the older days. Popeye was perhaps a big star on Television since the mid-1950s and on Public Domain videos, but it wasn't on luck at an official Home Video property. It will took 2007 when Jerry Beck planned an "agreement" with King Features for licenced the character onto several fancy box-sets featuring his exploits from the black-and-white Fleischer days. That results of three box-sets from 2007 and 2008. And ten years later, by Warner Archive, three single-discs on Blu-Ray/DVD chronicling the rest of the sailor's 1940s filmography. It only left the 1950s, althought these are easily the weakests they could ever offered.

But the question that may lingered all classic 'toons fans is, what will look the future for our beloved characters heroes and stars without their legal owners could says anything? Could you imagine Batman been re-invented in many ways if the caped crusader going PD in 2034? Or worse, if A Wild Hare that debuted "officially" the Bugs Bunny series of films would be a Public Domain thing in 2035 or anything? This is why copyrighted on any legal way our works are important. It is even more vital in the age where it's more easy and lazy to stealing the intellectual property on advertising or sells bootlegs versions of what we must own (Even if that remains unlegal for commerces and unfair to creators!) to what has took weeks, years or decades of hard work!