Green Lama Featuring the Art of Mac Raboy Dark Horse Cbz

Column Editor: Jerry Spiller  (Art Institute of Charleston)

I want to introduce you to a dangerously wonderful thing: the Digital Comic Museum (DCM) at http://digitalcomicmuseum.com.^one  It's clearly wonderful, because it'south full of scans of old comics from yesteryear that are in the public domain.  Dangerous?  Because someone had to practise the painstaking research to ensure that these works really are in the public domain. The archivists know what I'yard talking about.

Effigy I:  Fiction House's horror comic Ghost featured stunning encompass art by Maurice Whitman.  Image: Public domain via DCM.5

DCM is a pretty grassroots effort.  The header on every page of the site proclaims "We are the best site for downloading Complimentary public domain Golden Age Comics.  All files here accept been researched by our staff and users to make sure they are copyright free and in the public domain." DCM's FAQ explains² that they make careful checks using UPenn'south Catalog of Copyright Entries ³ earlier publishing entries for user submitted scans.

DCM too lists in its FAQ titles and publications that are not acceptable for upload as they are non in the public domain.^four  These include obvious choices such as DC, including its captivated rival All American Comics, as well as Curiosity, including its previous incarnations every bit Timely and Atlas.  Similarly, and just as obviously off limits, are mainstays like Archie Comics, Mad Magazine, and anything endemic by King Features or Universal Features.  Likewise not to be plumbed are the many archetype horror stories of EC Comics, some of whose titles like Tales from the Catacomb and Weird Fantasy are currently available in reprints from Dark Horse under the "EC Archives" moniker (a few different publishers take had a cleft at the EC vaults over the years, with varying levels of quality in scans and recoloring work).

What y'all will observe on DCM is more than than enough to hold your interest.  This is a treasure trove for researchers and fans alike.  Some of the DCM athenaeum are strips of pre-1923 origin similar Little Nemo in Slumberland and Gasoline Alley.  The bulk of the fabric is from the Golden Historic period of the belatedly 1930s through the 1950s, however, and seems to country in the public domain via lack of copyright renewal.  This isn't surprising given the frenzied pace of creation in what was and so a very imperceptible medium, and the subsequent anarchy of publisher name and ownership changes, mergers, and closings.  The interests of the period, when superhero comics were only in their ascendancy, mean there is representation for genres similar war, romance, Westerns, and detective books from publishers like Charlton, Dell, Hillman Periodicals, St. John, and Ziff-Davis.

Publications of the U.S. government are, of course, in the public domain. DCM has some good scans in this category every bit well, including many bug of the at present legendary Army rag PS Magazine: Preventative Maintenance Monthly, created in 1951 and for many years by the legendary Volition Eisner.  Sadly, the uploads for this title start with issue 85 from 1960. 1951-1959 issues are non currently represented, nor is the magazine's predecessor Army Motors.  More than complete runs of PS Mag, from 1951 to 1971, are available from VCU Libraries Digital Collections.^vi

You take to appreciate the time and gumption put in past the DCM staff to articulate these pieces of history for upload.  Here's but one legal quagmire I wouldn't want to pace into.  And since I am not a lawyer, the following is a quick gloss of the rights to i very interesting pulp hero, crime-fighting Buddhist "The Green Lama," every bit I understand them.  The character was created past pulp writer Kendell Foster Crossen, writing at the time nether the pen name Richard Foster (he had a lot of pseudonyms).  This green-cowled "man who defeats decease" appeared outset in 1940 in a serially published novel in Double Detective Mag, later reprinted by Altus Press.  Although the original publisher of these stories, the Frank Munsey Company, went belly upwardly, Crossen kept the copyrights when they did.  Whether Crossen simply retained ownership all along or had signed the rights over to Munsey with an agreement that they would return to him I'chiliad unclear.

Figure ii:  Cover to Green Lama No. 2,
Feb 1945, art by Mac Raboy.
Image: Public domain via DCM.seven

The Green Lama comics put out by Prize Comics in 1940-1943 and Sparks Publications in 1944-1946 were derivative works that were authorized at the time; in fact, Crossen himself wrote them.  The copyrights to the comics were not renewed.  Marketing new derivative works based on those stories would violate the original copyright.  Those rights are withal held by Crossen'due south daughter Kendra Crossen Burroughs, herself an writer whose works include an annotated edition of the Bhagavad Gita (along with translator Shri Purohit Swami) as well continuations of the adventures of some other of her begetter'south lurid detective creations, Manning Draco.  The Greenish Lama is trademarked by Argosy Communications in agreement with the Crossen estate.  There accept been authorized and unauthorized publications featuring the Green Lama in pulps and comics over the years.  But the 1940s comics practise appear to be in the public domain. DCM is not marketing anything new in offering up the original scans of the comics, then it would non seem to be in violation of Crossen'southward copyright here.

Needless to say, society benefits from a robust public domain.  Without it the Greenish Lama and friends would not have been able to take on Frankenstein'south Monster in 1943.

Yous must register to be able to both upload to and download from DCM.  The registration procedure features no fewer than iii bot checks.  Comics available for download are compressed into CBR, CBZ, or CBT formats (variations on RAR, ZIP, and TAR files, respectively), so readers volition demand a digital comics reader like Comix or CBViewer to read the files.⁸

Readers can donate to help DCM cover their server costs and other operating expenses.  This reader plans to practice and then.

Endnotes

1. Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June five, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com
2. "Can I safely use Anything on DCM in my own business? Do I need your permission?," Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June vii, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2759.msg28845/topicseen.html#msg28845
3. UPenn Libraries. "The Online Books Page."  The Itemize of Copyright Entries.  Accessed June vii, 2015. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/
4. "Publishers and Characters NOT to be uploaded to DCM," Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June 7, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1806.0.html
5. "The Digital Comic Museum – Gratis and Public Domain Comic Books > Ghost Comics 002 (1952) c2c" Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June ix, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=1864
6. "PS Magazine, the Preventive Maintenance Monthly." PS Magazine, the Preventive Maintenance Monthly.  Accessed June 9, 2015. http://dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/psm
7. "The Digital Comic Museum – Gratis and Public Domain Comic Books > Green Lama 002 [no ifc,ibc,cf]," Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June 9, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=23007
8. "How do I view .cbr or .cbz files? (FAQ)," Digital Comic Museum. Accessed June nine, 2015. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1808.0.html

petersonhempring.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.charleston-hub.com/2015/09/v27-4-decoder-ring-the-digital-comic-museum/

Share this post