Comment made at: Medal Of Honor Comics 001 (Curtis)(Fiche)I discovered some interesting background on this feature and the author, Arthur S. Curtis. It turns out that in mid-1960 Curtis testified before a Senate subcommittee supporting a proposed copyright bill. Curtis identified himself as owner and operator of A. S. Curtis Feature Syndicate. Before starting the syndicate he'd been an instructor in English, History, and Government at the U.S. Naval Academy. In the course of his testimony Curtis refers to this strip, which he says ran in Sunday newspapers for "several years." He names Mike Arens as his artist and co-creator. H. C. Keifer isn't mentioned. Interested in increasing his circulation, Curtis produced an "Outstanding Soldiers" feature for the Army which "ran in 500 papers a week for 13 weeks in 1948." This was the beginning of a long series of lawsuits Curtis filed against the U.S. Government. Curtis owned the feature's copyright. The Naval Reserve (he says) lifted some of his material and published it at taxpayer expense without paying him. According to Curtis, the Government argued that while copyright protected the owner from being copied by individuals and companies, the Government was permitted to reprint any copyrighted material it pleased without permission or compensation.
Curtis says that during the Korean War more of his stories were pirated by the Government. This made Curtis so angry he obtained two law degrees so he could fight it in court! Curtis demanded the U.S. pay him 11.5 million 1950s dollars in lost revenue. The case went as far as the Supreme Court, which blew him off. In this 1960 hearing Curtis is arguing for a bill that would require the U. S. Government to compensate copyright holders for material they reprinted. I don't know how it all turned out.
