I was watching this video where it is suggested to take public domain characters and create stories with them. It is not a new idea, Disney has been doing this for decades. Personally, I prefer to create original characters. Nothing against it, of course: maybe it is useful as a creative exercise.
In the description of the video there is this link containing a list of these characters. The list surprised me with characters that I did not expect to be there. Like Helen of Troy (?!): she is a character from Greek mythology… wasn’t that always in the public domain?
3 Likes
That list also includes Thor and Ivanhoe, among others.
It may be that the author of that list only knows about them by reading old comic book stories and assumed that those stories were the character’s origins.
I don’t understand why Barbarella is in there because she was created in 1962 and I thought copyright of the image was for 70 years in most countries.
If anyone is interested, the characters Popeye and Olive Oyl have been public domain in all countries since January 2025 but their names and images are still trademarked.
Edit:Add: I’ve just realised something: The characters shown are all accompanied by artwork representing them and I now think what’s being said is that those artworks are now out of copyright. So, you can use those particular images in your own artwork as you wish.
2 Likes
I also noticed something similar on the Internet Archive: there are books from the 1960s and newer included there, I don’t know why…