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As of yesterday, the one-eyed, spinach-fueled sailor became one of thousands of copyrighted works to enter the US public domain, allowing a new generation of artists to adapt, share, and rediscover old characters, books, music, and more.
It’s an annual tradition: Every year on Jan. 1, the copyrights for works introduced 95 years prior expire, per US intellectual property law. So yesterday, art from 1929 came up for grabs: In addition to the first version of Popeye, highlights include the character Tintin and legendary books The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
The goal of the public domain is to unleash creativity by releasing locked-up stories, and recent hits show what’s possible:
- The box-office smash musical Wicked is a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz books.
- One of the most celebrated novels of last year, James by Percival Everett, is a retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- But things could take a turn to the macabre: A wave of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse horror movies have been released since those characters’ copyrights expired in the past two years. Three Popeye slasher flicks are already in the works, per NPR.
Looking ahead…the coming years will bring more iconic characters into the public domain, including Mary Poppins in 2030, Superman in 2034, and Bugs Bunny in 2036.—NF
