Tag: 1940s Debut

“Thrifty Saver” Duck

Image of a duck character from a disney short that bears resamblence to Scrooge McDuck. He's wearing a plaid kilt and a tammie cap leaning on a cane

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.

Notes

  • Because this short was commissioned by the US government it was automatically public domain upon release.
  • While this is undoubtedly a prototype for the character, Scrooge McDuck is not public domain and is still copyrighted and trademarked by Disney.

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Casper

A cartoon ghost with a smile on his face walks around with arms outstretched on a starry night background.

Casper is a happy and pleasant ghost that depending on the media can be found in the cemetery or a haunted house. Despite being a ghost he likes to make friends with people.

Originating in the Noveltoon “The Friendly Ghost” he eventually became the subject of comics by Harvey Comics who eventually purchased the character outright.

In 1984 Harvey Comics sued Columbia Pictures for the Ghostbusters logo, feeling like it looked too much like Fatso, a side character of their Casper comics. The judge found that they had failed to renew copyright and therefore Fatso was public domain. Later research found this to be the case for Casper as well.

Notes

Dreamworks owns the trademark for “Casper, the Friendly Ghost” through its Classics Media subsidiary. Therefore any media using Casper can not be advertised under that moniker, but still can be freely used if trademark is respected.

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