Re: David MaKay and Thompson

[movielover]

David McKay books are not in the public domain

[Yoc]

Some of the WONDERFUL Feature Book 16, Red Eagle book is being shared on JVJ's Facebook page.
Some stellar work there!

[chrisbeneke]

i do dislike fb and searching for posts in a timeline can be a PITA internet hole, but i'll give it a go.

sorry, wasn't aware of the non-PD status of McKay.


is that confirmed by a LOC copyright search for all titles/works or is this publisher simply avoided because of the preponderance of trademarked comic properties?


it would seem unlikely that Thompson's earlier Red Men centerfolds and the Red Chief book would fall into this more protected, trademarked realm.


i looked at the late 2011 thread about this topic and saw a couple posts at CB+ that asked a similar question/request, but it seems that specific research into the public-domain-ness of the McKay Jimmy Thompson work has never been clarified.


(i'd have more doubts about the Gang Busters, just because it was a multimedia property.)


cb

[Yoc]

Hi CB,
I hope you can find it, the work in amazing.  You are right on the button about McKay - so many licensed properties it's a mine field that would take forever to sort out.  As we don't have a large staff and finding out for sure would take a Lot of work it's frankly easier and safer to just say McKay is not safe for the site.  Sorry.  We do not want to put the site at risk for any reason.

-Yoc

[chrisbeneke]

re: Red Eagle


found a repro of the cover and 15 black and white pages!


fewer panels per page than was typical of the time, but that helps explain how Thompson was able to do the whole book himself, if it's not some repurposed previous work.


checked the CBDB again: seems that half the book is in color but on glossy, cover stock...? odd.
also not clear if this book is all-original or reproduced from the Red Men two-pager from King Comics...


most striking, i thought, was how well and how quickly Thompson seems to have appropriated the tone of Prince Valiant -- AND Foster's LETTERING STYLE! -- for this strip (albeit with speech balloons). Valiant was a huge and immediate hit, but Foster stuck to a grid layout during the early months of the page, which began in Feb. 1937.


the first Red Men in CBDB was in King #14, with a cover date of May 1937 ...!!??!! that first installment might be somewhat different.


Foster and Thompson were also reading Raymond's Flash Gordon, which had a similarly mythic tone, so maybe there was something in the air and both cartoonists were developing these works independently...


but Thompson, wow! he already had it going on in 1938.

[Yoc]

Hi Chris,
I've split this off the Wanted List topic as we're getting more into Thompson, etc.

Thanks for your insights.  I've never gotten much into the old adventure strips.  I know they were incredibly influential on the comics but other than Thimble Theatre and the odd other strip I've not read any.

-Yoc

[JonTheScanner]

Jim (JVJ) tried to be very careful in not supplying non-PD books to scanners.  If he's reproducing some of FB #16 on his web site, I'd guess he's pretty sure it's PD.