Publishers and Characters NOT to be uploaded to DCM

[aussie500]

We hope members are checking here before uploading any scans.
There are many we cannot use on the site.  We only allow public domain comics on the site.
We do NOT allow ANY comics published after December, 1959.

Please do not upload modern reprints of ANY Golden Age comics, as they would not be PD even if their original contents are PD.

Comics from the publishers listed below are NOT suitable for the site as they are not public domain.

- Archie Comics (note MLJ is ok)
- D.C./All-American
- David McKay
- Disney
- EC Comics/Mad Magazine
- Gilberton
- King Features
- Mainline comics
- Marvel/Timely/Atlas
- Mighty Mouse and other Paul Terry licensed characters
- Red Ryder
- Street & Smith (The Shadow, Doc Savage)
- Tarzan
- Classic strips of Terry and The Pirates & Joe Palooka (the Harvey and Charlton comics are Ok though)
- United Feature Syndicate

Edgar Rice Burroughs has also renewed all his Tarzan Copyrights and a fair few others, so nothing by Mr. Burroughs is suitable for the site either. Some comics might only contain a text story by ERB, but it will still be protected by copyright. In some instances, such as Green Hornet Comics, if only one story is not PD we could strip it out and upload the rest of the scan making note of the missing parts and why, but please still scan the entire comic.

Some publishers have licensed comics that are still not PD those comics will be mentioned in their respective publisher sections as not being PD, so please check before uploading to see what the comments are for that title.

Some of the licensed titles that are still NOT PD are Al Capp titles, Buck Rogers, Felix the Cat or any other Felix titles, Flash Gordon, Gabby Hayes, The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, Little Lulu, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Roy Rogers, The Shadow, Stuntman, Terry Toons, Tarzan and most of the Dell Gene Autry comics. Dell also did a lot of other licensed comics so be sure to check if any Dells you want to upload are OK.

Newspaper strips reprinted in comics are an extra big headache to the site as John C explains here in a topic of it's own - Please Click Here to see his explanation.

Lots of sites provide exclusive material or material they sell, and some will add a watermark to their scans so they can identify them. Please DO NOT upload any such watermarked scans, or edit their mark out, we will not use them.

We freely share with all what we have and do not claim ownership of the scans we host, many were originally from other sources in the first place before they were gathered here.

If you have a scan or a comic not covered above or on the site that you want to share please take some time and check on it's PD status yourself by following or tutorial on the topic here - JohnC's 'How To Check Public Domain Status Tutorial' <- Click to read

If after that you still are in doubt please post a message here in the forum and we will let you know if we can share your comic.

Thanks again for reading this.
 

[Geo (RIP)]

Here are some more to not upload to the site please:

Anything by Mainline a Simon & Kirby's own publishing company.
United Feature Syndicate books.
More Fun Comics by National Periodicals Publications (DC books).
Boy's Ranch a Simon & Kirby book.


More will be added.

Geo

[Ugly]

In my younger days (early 1970s) I was rather the Harvey fanatic and have collected many comics along the way.  I used to trade them with friends etc. Great stuff.  I have an archive of many comics just wasting away in my basement including several #1 issues.  Since you made statements about not uploading/posting anything with a standing copyright - how can I tell?
 

[Yoc]

Hi Ugly,
We would be interested to hear what you had.
JohnC created a topic on that topic in the FAQ section here -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2452.0.html

PS, remember if you see a published date inside your comic of post 1959 we also cannot use them on the site.

[dombo]

Hello.

I see that comics from Street and Smith (The Shadow, Doc Savage) can not be uploaded. But what about the Supersnipe Comics from the same publisher dated 1942-1945 ?
I have v1 6-12, v2 1-12, v3 1-12, v4 1-12, v5 1 in digital format.

[movielover]

Dombo,

Those are publishers from which nothing is allowed. Supersnipe is under copyright protection and not allowed at DCM.

[dombo]

Ok thanks, i will look further for something that i possibly have to share here.

[Yoc]

Check the FAQ section dombo and if you spot a title that doesn't exist anywhere on the site please feel free to check with us on the forum before you upload anything.

Thanks for checking with us first on S&S.

[Ger Apeldoorn]

I see there is no restriction for Prize Comics? I have large runs of JTTG, Headline and PCW and would like to try my hand at adding them.

[Yoc]

Hi Ger,
Great to see you here, fellow member of DocV's T-A group.

Most PRIZE books are allowed with some exceptions we try to list in their section-
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=241

We can't allow -
Black Magic 29-33,
Fighting American
Young Love after Dec 1959 (or any title after that date)

Please read the FAQ on how to upload HERE or send me a Private Message (little word balloon under my name on the left) and I can send you of FTP login info if you prefer that method of uploading.

Looking forward to seeing more Prize Westerns and Headlines!
-Yoc

[RedMask]

Hi,

New member, long-time comic collector...  ( => nearly 30 years now!)

Like to add one more category that probably SHOULD NOT be uploaded at all ---

any comic restoration by Marvel or DC, whether it's currently copyrighted material with active characters (still in licensed use) or comics that are technically PD but use copyrighted/trademarked characters.

This includes Masterworks, Archives series, and other reprint series like DC Comics Library Presents.

None of us should presume that DC's restorations of Quality Comics like Plastic Man would be uploadable...  Yes, the original comics may be PD but don't presume that this gives you license to copy and upload the Archives restorations.
Uh-uh.  Technically, when they (the current character owners) do a new release that's restored (recoloring, reinking, relettering, etc.) that could be counted as a new copyrighted edition...

Yes, the original stories are in PD-land and we can have distributing those but be smart and DON'T presume that PD extends to new/restored editions of said-comics.

Yes, DC/Marvel may not be able to do much about an ORIGINAL scan/photographed comic but don't be putting up restorations and risking the wrath of company lawyers, either!

***********

Putting up Spirit comics from Police Comics may be somewhat questionable, too.

I believe Will Eisner maintained the copyright on this character and may have still had the copyrights to the original newspaper strips through the end of his life.  How this affects the Police Comics reprints, I don't know.

The Quality Spirit editions might be in legal limbo-land, maybe not...  Eisner did license the character to Quality (I think).  He maintained his ownership of the Spirit character long after he sold out interests in most of his other creations (ex: Blackhawks).

Again, maybe the original editions do not fall under a "be-careful rule" but for gods' sakes DON'T post the Archives' reprint restorations!
Yes, DC did the full-color/full-run reprints BUT the character is still owned by Will Eisner's Estate and is LICENSED to DC.  I presume the restored materials for the Archives run are probably owned by the Eisner Estate, too, the same as the Marvel Star Wars comics are Lucasfilm property.

Repeat: DC does NOT own The Spirit.

I'm pretty sure Eisner's estate is vigilant and probably would sue if they came across an abuse of the copyright...


I don't mean to be a downer on my first day here,

But I just wanted to add some thoughts and observations that could save a lot of people and this digital repository some pain in the future...

GeorgeC



P.S. -- Now that this commentary is out of the way, can't wait to download and sample some good Golden Age adventures!

Huge fan of both Plastic Man and Captain Marvel in addition to The Spirit.

As for still copyright-protected comics are concerned, I prefer Golden Age Batman to Superman but like the JSA, original GL, and Flash as well.
Golden Age Wonder Woman is weird to me but most of the JSA character stories are at least interesting to me.

Golden Age Superman -- don't like those older comics so much but I love the Fleischer animated shorts, the radio series, and the few newspaper strip reprints that DC/Kitchen Sink Press did a few years back.  Batman comics I've felt were more interesting in the 1940s and early 1950s than the Action Ace.

As far as Golden Age Marvel/Timely is concerned, I've really only enjoyed Captain America so much...  Frankly I haven't read a lot of the other Golden Age Marvel comics (just too expensive to buy all the reprints) but from what I've sampled at least the early Cap stories (Simon-Kirby run) in his own series seemed crafted a bit more professionally than most of the early Torch/Sub-Mariner stories.  Can't say much about the other Timely characters -- I think the more memorable characters have lasted to this day in print!

[John C]

George, reprints go without saying, though it's dicey and we mostly reject them on principle and aesthetics, rather than legal grounding.  While the UK does actually have a copyright class for reproduction, the US has generally denied protection to anything that merely involves labor.  And a good argument can be made that restoring a comic at most involves tracing lines and matching colors.  No creativity, no protection.

That hasn't ever been tested in court, to my knowledge (not that I'm a lawyer or anything), and not that we WANT the reprints (which often look shoddy), but strictly going by the letter of the law, a decision could go either way.  The real problem with reprints is that we can't guarantee that it's ONLY a reprint without access to the original.  Adjust the language or the shapes of the panels, and now there's a stronger argument for creativity.

As for the Spirit, nobody has yet to find any copyrights on the material.  If you think we should be looking somewhere else, though, rather than the usual, "Eisner was a good businessman so he must have secured copyrights" hypothesis, we'll be glad to investigate.

[Ugly]

>Hi Ugly,
>We would be interested to hear what you had.
>
>PS, remember if you see a published date inside your comic of post 1959 we also cannot use them on the site.

OK that answers that. Richie Rich and Timmy Time was dated September 1977.  I really really liked that comic and made an effort to scan it as my first attempt at a comic.
But you're stating it's too recent despite it being an oddity.  The only other one I tried scanning was Sad Sack #4 from March 1950.  It's most likely the oldest comic I have.
A 36 page issue came out to about 95 megs when made into a .cbr file.    Because I have a low end printer/scanner it meant doing one page at a time, rotating the even numbered pages so they were all right side up.  But I used a 1200 dpi setting. What do most people use when they scan comics?
 

[Yoc]

I don't believe Sad Sack is in the public domain Ugly.  Sorry.

Most scan between 150 and 300 dpi.  We have an upper total file size limit of about 170mb.
Please read the FAQ and the topic on How to Upload to DCM here -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1882.0.html

When in doubt about scanning something try checking the site if any other issues are already here or asking about it in the forum here first.  We might save you time if your goal is sharing on DCM.

Take care,
-Yoc

[Ger Apeldoorn]

Hi Ger,
Great to see you here, fellow member of DocV's T-A group.

Most PRIZE books are allowed with some exceptions we try to list in their section-
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=241

Well, I will try and upload as many prize books as necessary. This will take a while, so I will claim them one by one. I addition to Headlines and JTTG's, I have loads of Young Love and Young Romance, Western Love 2/5 (doubles, which I may send to Tilli), Real West Romances (doubles again), Prize Comics Western, Wonderland and more...