Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.
This yearβs crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of last yearβs entrance of Mickey Mouse into the public domain. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon's public domain presence expands.
Hereβs a closer look at this yearβs group.
A helium-filled Popeye balloon appears in the 33rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 26, 1959, in New York. The earliest version of Popeye is now in the public domain.
Comics characters loom large
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging forearms, mealy mouthed speech, and propensity for fistfights, was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip βThimble Theaterβ in 1929, speaking his first words, ββJa think Iβm a cowboy?β when asked if he was a sailor. What was supposed to be a one-off appearance became permanent, and the strip would be renamed βPopeye.β
But as with Mickey Mouse last year and Winnie the Pooh in 2022, only the earliest version is free for reuse. The spinach that gave the sailor his super-strength was not there from the start, and is the kind of character element that could spawn legal disputes. And the animated shorts featuring his distinctive mumbly voice didnβt begin until 1933 and remain under copyright. As does director Robert Altmanβs 1980 film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his oft-fought-over sweetheart Olive Oyl.
That movie was tepidly received initially. So was director Steven Spielbergβs βAdventures of Tintinβ in 2011. But the comics about the boy reporter that inspired it, the creation of Belgian artist HergΓ©, were among the most popular in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The comic also first appeared in the U.S. in 1929. Its signature bright colors β including Tintinβs red hair β didnβt appear until years later, and could, like Popeyeβs spinach, be the subject of legal disputes.
And in much of the world, Tintin wonβt become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.
From left, authors Ernest Hemingway in 1950, William Faulkner in 1950 and John Steinbeck in 1962.
Books show American lit at its height
The books becoming public this year read like the syllabus for an American literature seminar.
βThe Sound and the Fury,β arguably William Faulknerβs quintessential novel with its modernist stream-of-consciousness style, was a sensation after its publication despite being famously difficult for readers. It uses multiple non-linear narratives to tell the story of a prominent familyβs ruin in the authorβs native Mississippi, and would help lead to Faulknerβs Nobel Prize.
And Ernest Hemingwayβs βA Farewell to Armsβ joins his earlier βThe Sun Also Risesβ in the public domain. The partly autobiographical story of an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War cemented Hemingwayβs status in the American literary canon. It has been frequently adapted for film, TV and radio, which can now be done without permission.
John Steinbeckβs first novel, βA Cup of Gold,β from 1929, will also enter the public domain.
Movie legends in the making
While a host of truly major movies will become public in the coming decade, for now early works by major figures from the not-always-stellar early sound era will have to suffice.
A decade before he would move to Hollywood and make films like βPsycho,β and βVertigo,β Alfred Hitchcock made βBlackmailβ in Britain. The film was begun as a silent but shifted to sound during production, resulting in two different versions, one of them the UKβs β and Hitchcockβs β first sound film.
John Ford, whose later Westerns would put him among filmβs most vaunted directors, also made his first foray into sound with 1929βs βThe Black Watch,β an adventure epic that includes Fordβs future chief collaborator John Wayne as a young extra.
Cecil B. DeMille, already a Hollywood bigwig through silents, made his first talkie with the melodrama βDynamite.β
Groucho, Harpo and the other Marx Brothers had their first starring movie roles in 1929βs βThe Cocoanuts,β a forerunner to future classics like βAnimal Crackersβ and βDuck Soup.β
Music of the Roaring Twenties
Songs from the last year of the Roaring Twenties are also about to become public property.
Cole Porterβs compositions βWhat Is This Thing Called Love?β and βTiptoe Through the Tulipsβ are among the highlights, as is the jazz classic βAinβt Misbehavin," written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.
βSinginβ in the Rain,β which would later forever be associated with the 1952 Gene Kelly film, made its debut in the 1929 movie βThe Hollywood Revueβ and will now be public domain.
Different laws regulate sound recordings, and those newly in the public domain date to 1924. They include a recording of βNobody Knows the Trouble Iβve Seenβ from future star and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, and βRhapsody in Blueβ performed by its composer George Gershwin.
