Tag: 1930s Debut

Nancy Drew

painting of a blonde girl with blue eyes in a blue coat and blue hat holding a large clock in a forest

Nancy Drew is a sixteen year old girl who is the daughter of a very well known lawyer and former district attorney. She comes from money but is generally polite and well spoken. She frequently starts to sleuthing because of her rather sharp reasoning skills.

Nancy Drew has a sidekick in the form of her friend Helen Corning who is a more typical teenage girl than Nancy.

She’s often unassuming making folks underestimate her abilities as a detective.

Notes

  • Only the first four books from 1930 are public domain. The later books or the revisions of those books are not public domain.

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Scarface

Tony “Scarface” Guarino is a character based on Al Capone the Chicago crime boss. The crime thriller novel was written by Armitage Trail and was a smash hit, altho sadly the author died of a heart attack shortly after selling the film rights to the book.

The book was adapted into the 1932 film Scarface as well as the 1983 remake of said film which is probably the one people know about, the famous Al Pacino movie.

The book is in the public domain as the rights were never renewed in the US and in other countries it has long since lapsed in copyright due to Armitage’s premature death at only 28 in 1930.

Notes

The 1932 film will become public domain in 2028. The 1983 movie and original elements to it are of course not public domain.

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Matilda

drawing of an elephant sitting on an egg, the elephant has eyelashes and theres some sort of creature looking confused at it to the left. it appears like a screenshot from a magazine. in the lower right corner is a signature of Dr Seuss

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.

Ōgon Bat

Image of a man with a skull head and deep sunken eyes, brownish and white colors for the outline and off-white, with only a few teeth, he has a big puffed out color and is wearing a buttoned up suit, french-style. he's holding a rapier and has a red cape

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.

Notes

  • Later appearances such as the manga and subsequent anime adaptations are not public domain, only the paper theater version.

Links

Jor-L

Black and white drawing of a man concentrating while writing with a pen on paper, wearing a buttoned shirt. He's using a geometry compass to measure something

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.

Notes

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.

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Dumbo

drawing of a grey elephant holding a brown feather, the elephant has green eyes and large ears

Dumbo is based on a book that was made and illustrated by Helen Aberson-Mayer, Harold Pearl before the now famous movie came out. This book, published by Roll-A-Book Publishing is actually considered lost media since it was made as something akin to a prototype for an interactive toy where you’d scroll through the story with a lever.

Dumbo is an elephant with big ears and can fly, at first seemingly due to a magic feather but then he finds out he was able to fly by himself.

Notes

  • The original book prototype did get registered for a copyright in 1939 but was not renewed therefore making its copyright expire after 28 years. Its record number is AA 296948.
  • The Disney film and any subsequent appearances and designs are not in the public domain and Dumbo is a registered trademark owned by Disney.
  • The image used on this page was drawn by Tinyel and has been released into the public domain.
  • The original book is now considered lost media.

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Hakaba Kitaro

image of a young boy with a disheveled hair, one bulging eye and one eye partially shut. his hands are claw like and he's wearing tattered clothing. he's in a cemetery in front of an officer with a sword. the image is in black and white

Kitaro originates from 1930s kamishibai, which were a kind of paper theaters where traveling storytellers would mix oral storytelling with illustrations.

Kitaro was born in a cemetery after his parents died and is an adaptation of earlier yokai folklore Kosodate Yūrei or “the candy-buying ghost” about a woman who appears for seven days and buys candy, turns out to be dead and when the shopkeeper digs up her grave she has a live baby in her arms.

This folklore is similar and most certainly inspired by the Chinese story of “the woman who buys rice cakes” which first appeared in print in 1198 in Yijian Zhi, a compilation of Chinese stories put together by Hong Mai of the Southern Song dynasty.

These days Kitaro is known primarily because of the manga and anime GeGeGe no Kitarō and also its crossover with Yokai Watch where he appears as a character in some games and other media.

Notes

Kamishibai stories were not registered for copyright at the time due to that just not being really a priority or due to the medium. Therefore they fall outside the parameter of the Uruguay Round Agreement Act of 1996 and are therefore public domain in the United States and everywhere else.

Any appearance outside of the initial Kamishibai appearance are still under copyright, such as the manga and anime.

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