Clifford is a big red dog who belongs to Emily and causes mischief but is ultimately a good dog.
While Clifford the Big Red Dog was registered for copyright in 1963 upon its publication it was not renewed in 1991 therefore the first book and only the first book is public domain.
The game Abuse is a run n gun 2d platformer published by EA for MS-DOS. The game featured the character Nick Vrenna fighting through hordes of monsters who are former inmates of a prison he was wrongfully sent to. Some expirment goes haywire that turned everyone into monsters except Nick who is immune now he’s trying to stop the local water supply from being infected in the same manner.
Abuse was developed by Crackdotcom, who in 1997 released the game into the public domain along with releasing the source code. The only thing not public domain was the sound effect as they did not own those.
Crackdotcom would go out of business around the same time and likely what prompted the release of Abuse into the public domain.They had another project that was cancelled around the same time which most likely contributed.
It’s got a cult following despite having that 90s edginess to it and obviously involving abuse as like its central focus albeit it doesnt really go much further than the lab experiments from what i gather.
The Pink Panther as many likely know is a creation from the 1963 film The Pink Panther which is primarily about a jewel with that name. The Pink Panther was created for promotional material, the trailer and the opening.
He first appeared in the trailer for the film, pictured above which did not have a copyright notice making it public domain. The film itself obviously isn’t but it creates the situation of the Pink Panther, the cartoon panther being public domain.
Pink Panther is a registered trademark so keep that in mind and any later appearances obviously aren’t public domain.
Diane Adams is a character from the film Silent Night, Bloody Night from 1972. One of the earliest slasher films and an often overlooked entry in the genre from a time when they really were more influenced by the likes of italian giallo films and of course Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Diane is one of the earliest final girls in the genre and while she doesn’t stand out among her peers she’s still noteworthy in that regard.
The film is often known as Deathouse and initial prints of the film had no copyright notice attached therefore placing it in the public domain.
Diane is the Mayor’s daughter and is one of the central characters of the film, she’s fairly reserved and rightfully paranoid but tries to get to the bottom of things throughout.
Charlie Brown was originally a character in the comic Li’l Folks, a comic strip that predates the original Peanuts comic strip. Charlie Brown is a friendly kid who tries to have fun in his neighborhood. He often has a dog named Rover with him, who is a proto-Snoopy of sorts.
Ouiselle or “The Bird” is a woman named Véga de Ortega who fights crimes thanks to her artificial wings. She was raised by an anarchist group to be immune to fear.
She also has potions she gets from a scientist that give her additional powers like telepathy or heightened senses.
She first appeared in Véga la magicienne by french author Renée Gouraud d’Ablancourt in 1909.
Interesting character and kind of ahead of its time as far as a flying crimefighter is concerned.
Matilda is an elephant who has motherly instinct to sit on an egg until it hatches. This is an early Dr Seuss story for Judge Magazine published in 1938 called Matilda, the Elephant with a Mother Complex.
The story was never renewed therefore it’s another Dr Seuss story that’s in the public domain.
The story itself would be reworked into the Horton book “Horton in Horton Hatches the Egg”, making Matilda like a proto-Horton.
Horton won’t be public domain until 2036 but Matilda already is.
Captain Z-Ro was a space opera serial from the 50s playing off popular serial characters like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
He had a device called the ZX-99 which was a time machine used to view the past but also send people back in time, usually in order to alter it in some way. While it was always used to go back in time, mainly as a way to teach kids history it stands to reason the ZX-99 could also travel into the future.
The serial was not renewed and subsequent renewal efforts in the 80s were rejected by the copyright office.
The Backrooms is a creepypasta concept of glitching into some sort of liminal space outside of space and time. The inspiration was most likely the liminal space aesthetic that had been gaining popularity around that time. The original post came from 4chan’s /x/ post by an anonymous user who posted this image along with a small creepypasta. Due to the anonymous nature of it, there is really no person who can be credited with creating the Backrooms so the concept is public domain.
As for this picture, last year the owner of Hobbtown USA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Bob Mazza held a fundraiser for repairs of the location and one of the promises was releasing some old photos he had, including the iconic one which was found on archives of his website from 2003 when they were doing renovations.
He released them into the public domain and posted all his pictures of the location from back then onto the Internet Archive, you can find all the images here
So you can use the images and concept however you like.
Fin Fang Foom is an ancient dragon being that can shapeshift that is awakened to attack the Communist Party thanks to some herbs by Chan Liuchow when his homeland of Taiwan is under threat.
Strange Tales #89 was not renewed 28 years after publication as was standard at the time so copyright would’ve expired in 1989.
They specifically did not renew issues 85 to 99 so those are all public domain now.
