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Author Topic: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)  (Read 2170 times)

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Offline jimsmegos

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Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« on: March 27, 2012, 09:39:15 PM »
Hello everybody! My names Jim I'm logging in from Harrison, AR. I've just gotten tuned into Golden Age Public Domain comics and must say I am intrigued and fascinated. While I look forward to learning and discovering more as time goes by I do have a question that I would like to get an answer to relatively quickly... does anyone know if "The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis" are in the public domain? Any help is truly appreciated.

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Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« on: March 27, 2012, 09:39:15 PM »

Offline Geo (RIP)

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2012, 09:58:44 PM »
Welcome aboard, I'm sure you will find a lot of stuff you'll enjoy.

As to "The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis", I'm sorry to say no they are not as they are the property of DC Comics which are not in the public domain.

Geo
Filling holes, by ONE book at a time

Offline jimsmegos

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2012, 10:10:53 PM »
Thank you for the quick reply. I figured as much but thought maybe, just maybe those may have slipped past someones radar.

Offline josemas

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2012, 07:54:42 AM »
A slight correction to what Geo said.  The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comics are not owned by DC Comics.  The original comics were published by DC but it was a licensed feature and not one that they ever owned. 
I'm not sure who owns the current rights to the comics- possibly Jerry Lewis and the Dean Martin estate.

I sometimes see the occasional story from these comics pop up on blogs.  The series did have some nice art on it, generally by Bob Oksner, although I seem to remember some issues with art by Mort Drucker and Howie Post too.

Best

Joe

Offline narfstar

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2012, 09:34:07 AM »
I believe that I read somewhere that the Dean and Jerry issues were never removed

Offline Snard

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2012, 10:36:11 AM »
I sometimes see the occasional story from these comics pop up on blogs.  The series did have some nice art on it, generally by Bob Oksner, although I seem to remember some issues with art by Mort Drucker and Howie Post too.

Best

Joe

Some of the later Jerry Lewis books had art by Neal Adams! (issues 102-105 and 107, according to comics.org)
« Last Edit: March 28, 2012, 11:27:58 AM by Snard »

Offline John C

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2012, 05:45:58 AM »
Based on the Copyright Office database, the original copyright was by DC, with the renewals by Universal.  It didn't look like the full run, but (a) a decent number and (b) it was a lazy search of just the full title.  If the book changed names at all (even on paper), ran long enough that renewals wouldn't be required, etc., there might be more than the couple dozen renewals I saw.  So, I wouldn't necessarily bet on it being clear, but depending on the run, some of it is possible.

However, even if the books are public domain, I recommend treading lightly.  There's a huge difference between dealing with DC (who, by and large, seem to understand the public domain ecosystem and tend to turn a blind eye to piracy) and Universal (who will sue grandmothers on seeing their IP address download a torrent with the same name as one of their movies).  If anybody finishes the research, finds some gaps, and makes them available, I'd recommend being absolutely clear (on any download pages, for example) on which issues are which.

Offline jfglade

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Re: Greetings and salutations! (and a couple questions too)
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2012, 11:34:18 AM »
Based on the Copyright Office database, the original copyright was by DC, with the renewals by Universal.  It didn't look like the full run, but (a) a decent number and (b) it was a lazy search of just the full title.  If the book changed names at all (even on paper), ran long enough that renewals wouldn't be required, etc., there might be more than the couple dozen renewals I saw.  So, I wouldn't necessarily bet on it being clear, but depending on the run, some of it is possible.

However, even if the books are public domain, I recommend treading lightly.  There's a huge difference between dealing with DC (who, by and large, seem to understand the public domain ecosystem and tend to turn a blind eye to piracy) and Universal (who will sue grandmothers on seeing their IP address download a torrent with the same name as one of their movies).  If anybody finishes the research, finds some gaps, and makes them available, I'd recommend being absolutely clear (on any download pages, for example) on which issues are which.

 I have to agree that it would be best to use caution. The series did start out as "The Adventures of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin" but it mirrored the real-life breakup of that team and became just a Jerry Lewis book which ran well into the late sixties. Best to treat the series with kid gloves.