Most comics that are still under copyright (at least, golden age books) are owned by companies, not by individuals; and even in some of those cases the rights get complicated.
Pogo by Walt Kelly is the most obvious candidate to my mind to qualify; original comics owned by the creator and not lapsed already. (The Animal Comics stories are PD already; they didn't get renewed.) I think most other comic characters like that are owned by companies (work for hire), or they were originally done as strips and it's those rights that are at issue.
Interesting question, to say the least!
