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.
Popeye is a sailor character created by E.C Segar for his 1929 comic strip Thimble Theatre. Popeye has an unusual manner of speaking, always is seen smoking a pipe and has super-human strength.
Generally considered a simpleton due to his lack of worldly knowledge he still has a good heart and tries his best to overcome challenges he faces, often to save his friends from foes.
Popeye throughout the years has dealt with many people such as meeting Sinbad the Sailor, another nautical themed public domain character in the equally public domain Fleischer cartoon “Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor”
Father Brown is a Roman Catholic priest who uses intuition and understanding of human behavior to solve crimes, usually murders in the small community around his parish.
He uses the fact that he doesn’t really seem like the typical detective to his advantage and has a rather soft demeanor.
Father Brown first appeared in G.K Chesterton’s 1910 story “The Blue Cross” and went on to be a prominent character in pop culture well into modern times, in no small part due to the successful 2013 BBC TV series.
He has been cited as the inspiration for another unassuming detective character with a soft personality, that being Detective Columbo. Who sadly is not public domain but Father Brown can fill the same role rather well.
One of the earliest superheroes in Japanese media, originating in Kamishibai or paper theaters around Japan in the 1930s. Ogon is an ancient warrior who awakened from slumber to defeat the evil Dr. Naizo. He has a red cape and a rapier sword.
Often called Japan’s first superhero he possesses super strength and can fly. He lives in a castle in the mountains of Japan’s northern region.
Ogon bat has been adapted to manga, anime, live shows and more and has had a great influence on pop culture in Japan with modern versions still appearing from time to time to this day such as the manga in Champion RED magazine serialized from February 2023 to August 2024, so its relevance is still felt today.
This character is from a Donald Duck short called the Spirit of ’43. This was a WW2 propaganda short about paying your taxes to support the war effort at the time.
The character here isn’t really named but has a Scottish accent and is on the side of saving your money and paying taxes.
The character was designed by Carl Barks and is the prototype for what would become Scrooge McDuck.
Jor-L is the father of Superman and was a scientist on the planet Krypton discovering the upcoming catastrophe that led to the destruction of it early enough to send his infant son to a different planet.
While his son remains copyrighted for another decade or so, Jor-L the father of Superman is public domain because the first appearances of him and his wife Lora in the 1939 Superman newspaper comic strips did not have proper copyright notice on them at a time that was a requirement.
This also extends to their home planet Krypton.
You’ll notice I’m not using the later spellings of Jor-El and Lara as those are trademarked as is the term Krypton. But Jor-L is not trademarked.
Mazza Oshkosh is an inhabitant of the Backrooms and has lived there for a long time, having set up a marketplace for people who appear there. In lieu of money they accept favors in exchange for goods.
Their voice is different from what one would expect them to sound like and they seem to be able to influence people once they make a deal with them, a sort of way to guarantee that the favor is actually done.
They either refuse to leave the Backrooms or can’t, that’s up to interpretation. As is a lot of things but that’s the general idea behind them. They generally use they/them pronouns and are nonbinary.
Mazza Oshkosh first appeared in the Jenny Everywhere Day ’24 story Jenny: Out of the Backrooms by me.
