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On Public Domain Superheroes

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 1:03 pm by Jami

This whole Superman rights discussion has got me thinking about public domain superheroes. I know there are a number of Golden Age heroes that were never copyrighted that are up for grabs for anyone to play with. Most of them are so far out of the public eye that they might as well be new characters. So I got to thinking, which is never a good idea.

Wouldn’t it be insanely cool to have a modern lineup of public domain superheroes!

Okay, hear me out. When fans complain about comics, they usually believe, in some small way, that they can do it better. In Japan, mangaka regularly encourage their fans to play in their sandbox. The biggest comic convention in the world is made up of these fan comics, doujinshi, starring characters that don’t belong to the artists. That would never fly here. But if there was a public domain stable to play in, fans could put their money where their mouth is. Then we could see if fandom can actually do it better. The stories that resonate with fans would sell. Those that don’t, wouldn’t.

I think it’s an idea worth trying and had I more time, I would. I think there would need to be some sort of established cannon. Certainly origins of characters should be somewhat fixed. And character personalities should be well established. Aside from that, I’d expect anything goes. Would be a fun experiment.

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7 Responses to “On Public Domain Superheroes”

  1. AvatarCharlie
    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
    1

    Thats kind of a cool idea. What if you did that using a web based distrobution to cut down on the cost of actually printing out all of these fan based comics. You could have a web page like youtube that where popularity can be measured by number of views and user ratings. Infact, Jamie, you could do something like letting your viewers make a comic using the monsters at the top of the page as superheroes. Then you could post a few of the entries and have people pick which ones they like best.

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    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
    2
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  3. AvatarGunner143
    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
    3

    That’s a pretty interesting idea. I wonder where you’d be able to find these characters. I wonder if there’s a index somewhere that give a brief summary of the character. You’d need some of their history before you can do any character building, right? Hmmm…

  4. AvatarVal
    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
    4

    I think it’s brilliant idea. I think the stuff multiple companies are doing with some of the golden age public domain characters is just awesome. You open the playing field to everyone, and let the best “takes” on certain characters win out.

  5. AvatarMauricio
    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
    5

    I agree with the rest of the guys in here, I’d like to know which are these superheroes and stuff, maybe we could start that as contest right here, don’t ya think?

  6. Avatartorso_boy
    Posted: Apr 1st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
    6

    I think it’d be wonderful. But I think there should be more than just established canon and character personalities. In order for the fans to have any sort of ideas or criticisms, there would have to be some runs of the comic out there already, and then the titles could be turned over to public domain. So the universes shouldn’t merely be set up, they should be working and “lived in” before the fans took over. At least that’s what I think.

  7. Avatarfiftywan
    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
    7

    That’s a very good idea. FYI, Japan is not the only one where the law would allow doujinshi style things.

    French law explicitly allows parodies, in the Law regarding Intellectual Property. To this extent, doujinshi, and fanfictions, are completely allowed.

    And have you seen just how many fan fictions are written about Harry Potter? Don’t tell me Rowling’s dead, or that Harry Potter is now public domain. Not that he’s a super hero. But why oh why shouldn’t the fans be able to write and draw stories featuring their paper heroes (I believe the word Superhero has a copyright on it :p)? It gives more visibility, encourages creation, and who knows, the editors might spot talents in all the fanwork.

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