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.
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.
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.
