Introduction[]
Hello there! I'm work as an illustrator who works on illustrating original characters. You can check out my work on my Official Site or catch me doing streams on Twitch for commissions and such! Public Domain Superheroes looks like a great community to expand into with so many resources! CharlesLogan (talk) 06:44, January 27, 2017 (UTC)
Hi,
i'm new registered here, i'd like to say thanks to all here,
i have read a lot of interesting here and it helped me a lot.
Many thanks,
Mary
Some suggestions[]
Hi guys, Simon here again. I have a few suggestions to make for PDSH, hope I'm not stepping on anybody's toes with these propositions.
Long story short, I'm interested in writing articles for "resource" sites such as Digital Comic Museum and Golden Age Comics. While we're all familiar with DCM and GAC, new users may not know of their existence, and I think it would be a good idea to provide information on the various download hubs available within the community.
We might also consider doing articles on historical projects such as Markstein's Toonopedia or The Grand Comics Database, both of which are excellent reference sources for anyone with an interest in golden age comics. In my humble view, PDSH is part of a much wider network, and we'd probably benefit by including articles on websites similar to this one.
My second proposal concerns the general structure of the wiki. At the moment, our content is divided up by categories - which works fine, I should hasten to add - but I was wondering if we could also group the main genres under Portals as well. For example, we might have a Superhero Portal, a Crime Portal, a Western Portal, a Horror Portal, and so on. If we include Portal Links on the Main Page, it might make navigation easier for any new users who are unfamiliar with the category system.
Please note that these are only suggestions, I'm not trying to force my views on anyone here. However, if you think these ideas might be worth pursuing, I'd be more than willing to work on Resource Articles and Portals in my free time (BTW Wikipedia provides a basic model we could develop for our own purposes).
Please let me know what you think; I'd be grateful for any feedback you may have on these matters, and I'm always open to advice and input. Ciao, SimonKirby 08:19, October 10, 2011 (UTC)
- Hmm. I'd been thinking we could/should have articles on the comic publishers (Nedor, ACG, etc.), specifically as they relate to the material being PD. This sounds good to me.
12:39, October 10, 2011 (UTC)
- I agree with both.Hyju 22:24, October 10, 2011 (UTC)
- I already gave you my opinion on the resource articles on my talk page. The rest seem like good ideas to me. --Strannik01 15:01, October 13, 2011 (UTC)
No to the resources individual articles, but we could create a single page that lists resources and gives a brief description of each. The Portals sound like a good idea if you could create them that would be fantastic SimonKirby. I also like Roygbiv666's idea to create pages for the comics companies who work are in the public domain. I would also suggest we add a little more info on the creator pages for people unfamiliar with them. Crimsoncrusader 18:47, October 14, 2011 (UTC)
RE; SOME SUGGESTIONS
I noticed that you had a List of Characters catagorised by Religion. However, you did not include ay Christians. THere were also no Alien Religions. Why is this? Are there seriously no Christian Characters? And no Alein Religions an Alein would follow?
- I noticed you seem to expect others to do what you want done. That's not how life works.Cebr1979 (talk) 11:55, October 17, 2018 (UTC)
Cebr, I just found this site, and know little of the characters. I don't Think it sunreasonable to ask this question.
RE: Portal Page Experiment[]
OK, here's my first shot at structuring a Portal Page. I'll do some more fine tuning tomorrow, particularly on the Main Categories section (put them in rows, try to figure out a way to integrate thumbnails into the text). I designed it in monobook, so it probably won't look the same in the default setting.
I'm thinking it might be a good idea to create a new category specifically for Superheroes, ie differentiating between super-powered beings and "regular" non-powered heroes. We might also separate superheroes from villains, otherwise characters such as Nazi Shock Gibson might be listed under the proposed "Electrical Heroes" category.
BTW: What do you think of the idea of starting a youtube channel for public domain superhero serials (eg "Spy smasher")? Might be worth considering SimonKirby 11:43, October 15, 2011 (UTC)
Categories of images[]
I tried to copy the model of Wikimedia Commons and make the template by adding categories to images and could not leave.Hyju 00:54, October 16, 2011 (UTC)
Pulp Heroes Portal[]
Here's the basic design for the Portal Pulp Heroes|Pulp Heroes Portal. I was thinking we could use a different color scheme for each one, as the wiki has become much more diverse over the past year or so. I also experimented with blinking text here, and plan to add more "special effects" as we proceed. Let me know if you think we're ready to add these first two portals to the front page.
I noticed that we don't have many entries under the Pulp Characters category. I'd like to add a few more to the list, but I'm not sure of the copyright status. Project Gutenberg has a number of Robert E. Howard novellas and short stories listed as public domain. Do you think it can be trusted as a reliable source for PD material? Ciao, SimonKirby 06:07, October 17, 2011 (UTC)
Super Patriot Portal[]
Next, here's the Super Patriot portal, home base for the "stars and stripes" brigade. Includes a youtube video for chapter 1 of Republic's Captain America serial (1944). Would really love to see a restored and colorized version of this one, CA just isn't "Cap" in monochrome :( Ciao, SimonKirby 11:41, October 21, 2011 (UTC)
Unknown names[]
Is there any merit to the idea of "Category: Name unknown"? -Derik (talk) 06:09, September 21, 2013 (UTC)
Do you mean in regards to characters whose secret identities are unknown? We already have:
and
Cebr1979 (talk) 17:42, September 21, 2013 (UTC)
Question About PD Status?[]
Hey, I was wondering, would any of the Gamera characters who's movies (Or at least some dubs thereof) technically count as public domain, because at least one of the works featuring them is? You know, like Gurion, the Gyaos, ect.?
And would the Gappa count since their film is public domain? And would Pulgasari count, since I've seen its movie listed as PD in several places?
Tbok1992 (talk) 16:46, February 1, 2015 (UTC)
I don't know anything about those characters, sorry. Generally speaking, though, as for whether or not a character is PD, it all depends whether or not their first appearance is. So, if this Pulgasari's first appearance was in its movie (and the movie actually is PD), then, yes, he/she/it/they would be PD. If the movie is PD but, not his/her/its/their first appearance, and their first appearance is still copyrighted, then still images of the film would be able to be used as would the storyline taking place within it (provided it's an original story and not a depiction of a copyrighted book or something) but, any characters still under copyright would need to be left out or have their names changed. Such is the case with the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer film. It is PD but, is not Rudolph's first appearance. The colouring book he first appeared in is still under copyright so he can't be used in new works without permisson however, the original characters created specifically for that film can be. There was a landmark case recently involving Sherlock Holmes that reinforced this (you can read about it here). It's also worth noting that a character, in and of itself, doesn't really have a copyright. It's the work the character appeared in that does but, I don't think I can explain that fully. A guy on here did explain it really well once, and I thought it was on Crimsoncrusader's talk page but, I didn't notice it just now when I made a quick look. Hope all that helps.Cebr1979 (talk) 18:25, February 7, 2015 (UTC)
Oh! Here's that conversation I couldn't find before - I knew "in and of itself" was mentioned! hahaCebr1979 (talk) 18:58, February 7, 2015 (UTC)
Phantom Princess[]
Does anyone know anything additional about this character? Thanks in advance!Cebr1979 (talk) 18:37, February 7, 2015 (UTC)
Can we make the Fairy-Tale/Literature/Mythology characters less Wiki-Clogging?[]
By that I mean, it's hard to search for primarily film-based characters in the Film Characters section with all the supoer suepr obvious PD characters who have appeared in films but aren't primarily film-bases. Yes we know folks like Santa and the Oz-characters have appeared in films before, but that's not why I'm looking in that section, and i doubt others will too. It just makes the whole thing really hard to search.
So, maybe we could remove them from there and just keep them to their primary spheres, I.E. fairytales and literature such, or create a separate category for them, tho we could keep the pulp-lit characters in there as they're more relevant to what I see as the main focus of this wiki, I.E. pulp-y characters dropped into the PD via negligence or screw-ups?
- It's one of those things... Once we start getting rid of one group of characters, someone else will want another group gone and then where does it end? When we're right back to where we started? No, we won't be moving any groups somewhere else.Cebr1979 (talk) 12:34, September 26, 2016 (UTC)
Is he public domain?[]
The Copperhead was a masked hero in the Mysterious Doctor Satan serial but I was wondering if he qualifies for here as I am unsure about his status. I should mention other then the similar name he has no relationship to any DC or Marvel character named "Copperhead".
Ideas to Make Better Use of the "Characters by time period" Section[]
So I noticed that there's a catagory called "Characters by time period". That seems like the sort of thing that would be really useful for research purposes—'cause, I mean, knowing when a character was written is great, but if you want to use them in a story, it'd be kinda useful to know what time they acutually lived in—but the only catagories are American Revolution Characters, Arthurian Characters, Crusade Era Characters, Mythological Characters, and Prehistoric Characters. I feel like you're not using that section to its full potential there. I mean, there's plenty of characters from the Victorian era, from the Nepoleonic era, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the '20s and '30s, the Golden Age of Sail, the Old West, the Distant Future. Those are time periods, aren't they? Maybe throw in a Post Apocalyptic period, since Anthony "Buck" Rogers and Well's Time Traveler definately traveled to settings that would qualify as that, and I think there were some others as well.
I can do it myself if I've got permission and you don't want to do it. I got time.
(Also, I second the previous suggestion regarding the fairy tale characters. That dude didn't sign his post, so I didn't want to add anything to that topic 'cause then it'd look like he wrote it and that would just be confusing) ~ BrokenEye3 (talk) 09:53, July 11, 2016 (UTC)
If you want to create sub-categories for all those time-periods... fine by me! We already have a "Western Heroes" category, though, so an "Old West" time period one would most likely just be a duplicate of that.Cebr1979 (talk) 13:04, July 11, 2016 (UTC)
Adding categories like those is a great idea, BrokenEye3. —ElyaqimNYC (talk) 18:38, July 11, 2016 (UTC)
Great.
I've never added a catagory before. Is there, like, a tutorial or something that I can take a look at? ~ BrokenEye3 (talk) 20:26, July 11, 2016 (UTC)
Ne'er ye mind. I've figured it out, and got a lot of work done catagorizing characters. There are quite a few that I can't determine the era of, though, and I don't want to make any assumptions. ~ BrokenEye3 (talk) 21:17, July 12, 2016 (UTC)
Understanding the comments field[]
I noticed that the comment field will put the title of the previous section as comments if you don't watch where you are putting things (ie put new comments between two old ones) and don't leave a comment. This may result in "Ideas to Make Better Use of the "Characters by time period" Section" being displayed as the comment for this even though it has NOTHING to do with that subject.--BruceGrubb (talk) 15:04, March 26, 2019 (UTC)
- Yep! You are absolutely right and I sincerely apologise! You were in no way in the wrong!Cebr1979 (talk) 15:14, March 26, 2019 (UTC)
- I told you on my talk page I did nothing wrong! This quirk in the comment field seems to applies to all wikis (even wikipedia) which can result in you slogging through a rambling mess to find out what the author is actually going on about. I can run off the keyboard myself though I try to keep it brief. Though this is the first time I have ever had this issue regarding titles being seen as comments. --BruceGrubb (talk) 15:22, March 26, 2019 (UTC)
The Copperhead[]
Now back to my original question - given there is a Turkish derivative work does The Copperhead qualify as public domain? I know Turkish studios weren't above ignoring copyright, as seen in the late Emer Prevost's "Turkeys From Turkey Month" with such relevant pieces of joy as Turkish Superman and Turkish Spiderman, but The Copperhead should have been in the public domain by the time they got ahold of it as Republic was no longer around to renew the copyright when it came due in 1968 (1940+28).
While we are there does the Turkish Superman qualify as a derivative work given he has the right costume but seems to have Captain Marvel's (aka Shazam's) powers?--BruceGrubb (talk) 15:35, March 26, 2019 (UTC)
- Can you give me more info on this "Copperhead" character please? I'm not familiar with it?Cebr1979 (talk) 07:40, April 11, 2019 (UTC)
Miss Fear[]
I noticed that there isn't a page for Miss Fear, from Quality Comics. Does she also count as public domain?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Fear_(comics) Crazyface201 (talk) 01:00, July 16, 2019 (UTC)
- I'm not familiar with the character? Do you know what issue of what comic she debuted in?Cebr1979 (talk) 05:06, July 16, 2019 (UTC)
Boystate[]
Hey guys. Been a while since I was last on here, but I noticed that the page for Boystate (Novelty comics) has gone. Does anyone know why? Was it not actually Public Domain? cheers (talk) 10:51, March 31, 2020 (UTC)
- You'll need to give me some extra info? Was it a team or a business? I deleted all the business pages years ago (and won't be bringing them back).Cebr1979 (talk) 03:56, April 2, 2020 (UTC)
- Hey Cebr - uh best described as a location, maybe? It was a town, though I could see it getting grouped in with the bussinesses (talk) 13:29, April 02, 2020 (UTC)
- I deleted locations years ago too.Cebr1979 (talk) 12:39, April 2, 2020 (UTC)
- Hey Cebr - uh best described as a location, maybe? It was a town, though I could see it getting grouped in with the bussinesses (talk) 13:29, April 02, 2020 (UTC)
Red-X[]
Why was my article "Red-X" deleted? I was going to contribute further than just the say-so. Red-X is from comics, a character in fact that seems to be a spirit of DC Comics. You want me to explain what that means? It means they're not good enough to create it into an actual character. But for MARVEL Black Cat is now a comic book of her own. I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to be here for Red-X! Explain yourself Transparent Questionmark. --SpecialOperationsTrooper 01:44, May 3, 2020 (UTC)
- How about you try that again with sone manners please. I don't respond to "Explain yourself" demands.Cebr1979 (talk) 01:46, May 3, 2020 (UTC)
No, you omnus. --SpecialOperationsTrooper 03:27, May 4, 2020 (UTC)
Are characters from H. G. Wells' books allowed to be put here?[]
I say this as I read an article from 2017 that said that all of H.G. Wells' books have now entered the public domain. So with that said, are characters from his works allowed to be put here. I've noticed a few here and there but wanted to be sure so I don't spend time making a page (be it the Morlocks, Martians, Selenites, etc), just to have it deleted.
Thank you for your time.
DeltaSquad5 (talk) 16:55, July 15, 2020 (UTC)
Buster Brown comic book[]
In Comic Book Plus there is the Buster Brown comic book, I saw some characters that were from the TV show Andy's Gang, like Gunga and Rama, are they in the public domain?Hyju (talk) 00:41, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
Derivative Works based on Open-Source characters question[]
If I was to make a derivative work based on an open-source character but change almost everything about the character other than similar powers, same secret identity name, and a similar costume, would this still require the disclaimer text? -- The Creature Slayer (talk) 21:11, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
Solomon Kane[]
Is Solomon Kane in public domain? His first appearance is in 1928 story "Red Shadows", and everything written in 1928 entered public domain this year.Shinobody (talk) 23:04, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
Comic Strips[]
The Daily Cartoonist often lists strips that have entered the public domain: public domain.Hyju (talk) 13:25, 23 January 2024 (UTC)