Batman has seen enough not to get complacent.

With a new year comes a new crop of books, films, music, and other works falling into the public domain. For 2025, that includes works that were originally published in 1929.

According to the Duke University School of Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, that list includes a number of iconic characters.

At the top of the list is Popeye, but before you crack open your celebratory can of spinach, it's important to note the version of the sailor entering the public domain is the version that appeared in the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip, first appearing as a minor character in the strip "Gobs of Work", published on January 17, 1929.

While this version of the character does have superhuman capabilities, key details such as him deriving strength from spinach weren't introduced into the comics until 1932. Furthermore, trademarks regarding Popeye still belong to Hearst Holdings, Inc. Unlike copyright, trademarks only expire when they cease being used.

Another character in a similar copyright quagmire is the intrepid reporter Tintin, who first made his appearance in 1929 with "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets," created for the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle by George Prosper Remi, under the pen name Hergé.

Like 'Popeye,' it is only the initial version of the character that appears in the series of newspaper comic strips, which comprise the first volume of "The Adventures of Tintin." That means that other beloved characters, such as his best friend Captain Haddock and the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson, remain under copyright.

One character that does not have nearly as many snags is the classic sci-fi hero, Buck Rogers, as the first comic strip, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D." was first published in January 7, 1929.

However, he had technically already been in the public domain for a number of decades, as the copyright protection for the strip had lapsed before copyright protections were extended under the 1976 Copyright Act. Furthermore, the original version of the character, first introduced in 1928 in the novella "Armageddon 2419" as Anthony Rogers, had already fallen into the public domain as well.

My old dog used to love the Superman theme song. He got so used to it we would make it an XMAS tradition to watch all Superman films. My new dog doesn't seem to care for the Superman song. Maybe he is a Batman fan or is there any other songs and shows of super heroes that have their own song specifically known just for them?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22144519

2000 AD and publisher Rebellion had a bumper year on the comics front – a successful Kickstarter for romance anthology Roxy; a Gail Simone-led supernatural Misty special; a third series for Garth Ennis‘ war comic revival Battle Action; and celebrating 40 years of cult kids horror anthology Scream! with a hot-selling Archival Collection compiling every single issue of the beloved but short-lived British weekly plus an anniversary special of new material. 2000 AD also got some ‘special’ treatment – with a mashup themed Scifi Special – and the return of the 2000 AD Annual after 35 years. Plus the surprise news that a certain long-gestating movie adaptation had wrapped filming.

2024 was also a special one on another front — as The Beat’s own reviews editor Zack Quaintance took the plunge and became a regular reader, with weekly Prog Report instalments joining Wednesday Comics Reviews column. To also mark a year of Prog Report, Beat contributor and veteran reader (or “Squaxx dek Thargo”) Dean Simons discusses with Zack the Report’s genesis and the new reader experience, before they each select their highlights from the year.

Read on!

Absolute Batman #1 First Printing was the best-selling comic book in comic book stores in 2024, according to the Bleeding Cool Annual Bestseller List, followed by Ultimate Spider-Man #1 First Printing. DC's Absolute books get four places in the top nine, while Marvel gets three Ultimate titles. The other two are Marvel's X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1. Missing is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, despite selling more than all the others, as that was skewed to specific stores that ordered a huge amount of retailer-exclusive variants – including one store ordering over 60 exclusive variants to sell on WhatNot. Also, it is worth knowing that Ultimate Spider-Man has been through seven printings, and Absolute Batman has had four… but only the first printings make it onto the chart. Last year's chart was almost entirely the Batman and Amazing Spider-Man ongoing comics… and not a single issue of either made it onto this chart. That won't be the case next year. And why nine instead of ten? That was a quirk of getting the top ten data from ComicHub this year, as a non-eligible item was in the chart and couldn't be removed…

The list:

1. Absolute Batman #1
2. Ultimate Spider-Man #1
3. Absolute Superman #1
4. Absolute Batman #2
5. Absolute Wonder Woman #1
6. X-Men #1
7. Ultimate Spider-Man #2
8. Uncanny X-Men #1
9. Ultimate Spider-Man #3

Over in the Connecting Comic Book Writers and Artists open Facebook group, people were asked about pitching to Image Comics, the publisher best known for creator-owned work without taking any IP ownership, publishing titles such as Spawn, The Walking Dead, Youngblood, Saga, Savage Dragon, The Wicked + The Divine, Witchblade and Wanted. There were a lot of false assumptions lifted until Massive-Verse founder Kyle Higgins popped up with a list of responses

They include:

1. You do not need to be previously published in order to get a book at Image. Yes, the odds are against your favor, but Image is one of the few legitimate publishers (maybe the only one) who accept unsolicited pitches. Follow the guidelines on the submission site: https://imagecomics.com/submissions.
2. You do not need a fully finished book. You need exactly what is listed on the submissions site.

New Comic Book Day is TYPICALLY Wednesday, however this week it's Christmas and your local comic shop is likely closed Christmas Day.

Sheesh! "Do they know it's comics day at all?" 🎅

So here's what to expect to see on THURSDAY.

As a life long Superman fan, who grew up on Christopher Reeve, I've been on the fence about this movie but I think this trailer has sold me.

I was thinking about it, and I can actually envision it. But I bet some people would HATE it. The character suits his style though. He has clauses in his contracts where he can never lose a fight, he can never look bad, ect ect ect. And that's Superman in a nutshell. There's no stakes, because he never loses. It's right up his ally.

It was great, that he didn't say a word until the very end.

Merry Christmas.

Short one for me this week,

Black Hammer Spiral City #2 - Black Hammer is pretty good, I need to pick up all the back issues. One of the few superhero things I like.

From The World Of Minor Threats Barfly #4 - Last of Barfly's saga so far. Good luck Shiteater, we love you! The Brood (the next Minor Threats series) is shaping up to be pretty good so far too.

Groo Minstrel Melodies #4 - My shop missed #3 I think.

Freddie The Fix #1 - One shot, looks interesting.

Moon Is Following Us #4 - Been a good series so far! Parents have to enter their kid's dreams to save her consciousness and wake her up.

Sacrificers #13 - Man, even as a god of vengeance, Pigeon has it rough.

That's it for me, what're you grabbing this week?

In 2000, Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, and Jimmy Palmiotti revived The Punisher for Marvel Comics and Marvel Knights. In which the Punisher discovered that he had inspired copycat characters such as Mister Payback, who took his own personal brand of vengeance against corporate CEOs. Both in the boardroom…

…in the airspace above the city…

… and then taking his message to the media of the day as well.

However, Frank Castle has an issue with Mister Payback as much as he did with the Punisher wannabees, in that innocents got killed in his targeting of CEOs.

Jimmy Palmiotti also wrote, "In 2006 – based on an original story Justin and I did, we had a screenplay written by Chris and Ruth Gage called BALLERINA- About a sniper killing the CEOs of a corrupt corporation that made the studio rounds. Drawing of the character by since-passed Steve Lightle. The story was a soldier overseas gets word her retired military father killed himself. She comes home and finds out the company he worked for did it and takes out the CEO's as they hire assassins to take her out first." Any relation to the John Wick spinoff? "We shall see."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/21241602

Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, having developed a robust periodical, prose, trade comics, and collectibles business and broken into both tabletop gaming and merchandising. Rebellion also made a big investment in a media production facility as part of its plans to bring properties including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper to both big and small screens.

Rebellion keeps its offices in four U.K. locations, including Oxford, where its headquarters is home to an archive of British comics and original artwork going back to the 19th century. The company took custody of this treasure trove when it completed the acquisition of Fleetwood, one of the two longtime U.K. comics publishers, in 2016. The purchase followed Rebellion’s acquisition of Fleetwood’s marquee asset, the landmark science fiction periodical 2000AD, in 2000, which marked the company’s first foray into the publishing industry.

Rebellion sees value in the stockpile of company-owned IP from 2000AD and the rest of its archive as fuel for its gaming and media businesses, but it also takes its role as custodian of the legacy of British comics very seriously. The archive is lovingly maintained in museum-quality conditions, pointing the way toward the future as well as the past.

...

While many of the company’s titles are aimed at British readers, Rebellion is reaching for more North American fans with the relaunch of another classic series, Battle Action, featuring a hard-hitting lead feature by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher), as well as the first new work from Brian K. Vaughan (Saga) in some time. Gail Simone (Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey) is doing a four-part miniseries for Misty, a gothic horror/romance and another vintage title from the 1970s. Smith said that Rebellion is also putting together curated collections of archival material by such British comics superstars as Brian Bolland, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and others who got their start in the pages of 2000AD, featuring restored artwork and complete storylines.

...

Between Rebellion and Titan—the other major British comics publisher, whose lineup includes such licensed series as Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, The Simpsons and, of course, Doctor Who, alongside some original properties—comics publishing in the U.K. looks as healthy as it has been in quite a while.

So I only read two comics. Spiderman, and Batman.

The problem I've run into is with Spiderman, the comic has been running since the 1940s or whatever, as one continuous comic. I'm the type of person who gets obsessive over one thing, instead of casual about 10 things. So my natural instinct is to start reading at issue 1, and then go until current. Let's see, how many issues are there? Ohhhh.......oh that's a lot of issues.......

So obviously I'm not going to read them all, and not even in order. Even though that's what my brain is telling me I should do. At some point I have to let the logical side of me take the wheel and say NO! You're not going to go reading hundreds if not thousands of comics, just so you can stay current with monthly releases!

So my other option is Batman.

And Batman releases little arcs I guess you could call them. I'm currently reading a little 5 comic mini-series, which is like the perfect size for me. A nice complete comic I can read once per day, for 10 minutes, and at the end of the week I have a complete story. But the problem is, each complete story doesn't carry over to the next. Batman assumes you know a few core things about Batman. He's Bruce Wayne, his parents were murdered when he was a kid. He's constantly fighting crime to deal with his own mental illness of not being able to cope with the concept of crime. You know.....the basics.

But the individual stories don't carry over. Batman could kill Catwoman in a story. Murders her completely dead. And that will carry over the following issues. Until they reboot the whole damn thing, and then Catwoman is back. Never murdered. That's no longer canon. It mattered to the story you already read....but that's done now. We've moved on.

So I guess the thing I don't understand is, why can't comic books find the balance between "Neverending story that's literally lasted since before your grandpa was born, but somehow is still going today with the same people", and "Basic characters and themes stay the same, but individual stories will eventually mean absolutely nothing for having had them happen"? Why can't we get comics that can be 5-10 issue complete stories, but if a future story wants to mention it's past, then this character died. And no bringing them back. No making a replacement. I still haven't gotten in the comics how Miles Morales exists. I heard of him through the video game.....no clue how he comes to be though, or why he replaces spiderman.

I guess I'm just having difficulty finding points in comics where I'll say "I start here". Because I would like end dates. The open ended date of spiderman is intimidating. Even though Batman offers conclusions to the story, it's also disheartening to know that eventually what you're reading won't matter.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/19554773

The Comic Arts LA site has a list of artists and panel schedules.

Poster by Tola Howard.