As I've been saying for a couple of months, I'm knee deep in my new project over at Public Domain Super Heroes.
I'm having a blast. I'm writing (surprise, surprise!), researching, web-building, creating merchandise and all of it in that strange and wonderful domain, the public one.
But what's public domain anyhow? Simply put, it's what happens when copyright runs out.
Every book, every movie, tv show or piece of music is given an automatic copyright that belongs to whoever created the work. It lasts for different lengths of time in different countries, but for simplicity's sake, it's 95 years from publication. That's the standard in the United States and the one I'm using for my project. That rule came into existence in the 1970s and replaced a more complex and complicated set of rules that resulted in some copyrights lapsing and bringing certain characters into the public domain long before those 95 years had passed.
For instance, Robert E. Howard wrote a story called "The Shadow of the Vulture" which was published in 1934 in a little magazine called "The Magic Carpet Magazine." In that story, he created a character called "Red Sonya." At the time, the copyright rule required artists or copyright holders to renew their claims 28 years after publication. Since Howard died in 1936 and "The Magic Carpet Magazine" folded sometime in the 30s, no one renewed the copyright in 1962, so "Red Sonya" and the story itself are now in the public domain. She has no relation to the character "Red Sonja" who was created by Marvel Comics in the 1970s and is, in fact, quite different despite the similar names.
In Canada, there are different rules that mean that certain properties are in the public domain here before they enter it in the U.S., but it's simpler just to use the U.S. rules since my books are being printed there. If I want to stay in business, I need to stay on the right side of U.S. law, so publication plus 95 years it is, unless a lapsed copyright is in play.
And this means?
Over at my site, I've created a list of properties I'm interested in writing about. It's larger than I'm likely going to ever get to use, but I like options. I've divided it into sections, starting with a large one that covers all the currently public domain characters I am interested in folding into my universe, including characters published over 95 years ago and those characters whose copyrights are known to have lapsed due to failure to renew before the rule changes in the 1970s.
Now that I've collected my list, I realize it's very large and needs a little managing. Currently, I have 212 characters and stories listed. It spans characters and publications from as early as 1818 to as recently as 1955.
1818? Why?
Well, that's when Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published and to my mind, that's when the real 'science fiction' genre began. To me, a science fiction story MUST have a plot that is driven or supported by a piece or pieces of scientific apparatus or theory that is BEYOND our current abilities or the abilities of the age in which the story is set. In my opinion, Shelley was the first to do this.
My writing is broken into 4 "Houses" for marketing purposes. Entropy (science fiction), Dread (horror), Crom (swords & sorcery) and Justice (super heroes). With the advent of true science fiction in the form of Frankenstein, there's a reasonable 'start' for my stable of 'public domain' characters. It's arguable that horror, super-heroes and swords & sorcery (fantasy) writing have been with us since the advent of writing, but science fiction is a genre with a pretty definite starting point.
So why 1955 as the last year of my list?
Two reasons. One theoretical, one practical.
For the comic book industry, 1955 was a decidedly low point. Sales had cratered, super heroes were being usurped by western and war themed books, comic book companies were folding right and left. The following year, DC Comics reintroduced a familiar character in a brand new form in an attempt to revive the flagging sales and kicked off a whole new age for the medium.
When The Flash was re-costumed and given a new identity, comics entered "The Silver Age". What had come before was eventually known as The Golden Age and to me, that's as good a place to cap my new universe as there could be. I plan to use characters from the beginning of science fiction story telling and use characters who follow in that tradition up to the end of that comic book Golden Age.
The other consideration is a practical one. Characters created in 1955 will enter the public domain in 2051. By then, I'll be 82. If I'm still around, I'll still be writing (assuming my faculties don't leak out of my ears between now and then) but I will not be opening up a new age for Public Domain Super Heroes at that point. If Public Domain Super Heroes still exists by then, the fact is, someone else will be running the show.
And why am I telling you all this?
Well, over the next few months, I'll be blogging about the various characters I'm working with or intending to work with. I'll be starting with an article about the pre-1900 characters I'm interested in using. Then another about the characters created between 1900 and 1929, then an article...well, you get the idea.
Articles may cover decades, a couple of years or even just a single year, depending on the numbers of characters created in each year. I find this stuff endlessly fascinating and I hope you will too.
The articles will give you a sense of how some of my stories connect, why they connect and how I intend to grow this universe over the next decade or more. I plan a novella a month (or more!) to add to the project, so who knows, maybe I will actually get all 212 characters into the universe eventually!
For the moment, I have 10 of those 212 in one or more of my current novellas. In January, more characters will join them and I hope you'll check back regularly to find out just who those characters are!
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