posted May 04, 2003 04:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dylanfan:
Does this have a chance in hell of getting printed?

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posted May 04, 2003 04:39 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by whoswhoz:
Since DC doesn't have the rights?

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posted May 04, 2003 08:32 PM            

The Charlton Dan Garrett Blue Beetle (that alone is tricky):

BLUE BEETLE 18-21 (Feb 55-Aug 55)
formerly THE THING! and then becomes Mr MUSCLE with #22.
Many of these stories (the entire 1st issue) were reprints from the Fox series. New material was added in later issues. Giordano did covers

BLUE BEETLE 1-5 (June 64-Mar/Apr 65)
This is where he faced The Mummy, Mr Thunderbolt, Mantis-Man, The Red Knight. It's stated he's an Archeologist,

BLUE BEETLE 50-54 (July 65-Feb/Mar 66)
(formerly Unusual Tales, then becomes Ghostly Tales)
Mr Crabb, Mentor the Magnificent, Mantis-Man again, Eye of Horus

Joe Gill wrote most of these, the last issue by Roy Thomas.
None of these were by Ditko.

(Not counting the 18-21 run) The other 10 issues are 20 pages each, which would make a nice sized single volume.
___________________________________________________

Ted Kord material:

Captain Atom 83-86 (Nov-66-June 67) 7 pages each
Ditko plot and pencils, Mike Friedrich script
7 page backups that introduced him

Blue Beetle 1-5 (June 67- Dec 67, with a big lag for #5, Nov 68)
Plotted and inked by Ditko, scripted by Glanzman
18 pages Beetle, 7 pages The Question (with #5 being a crossover)

If you add to that MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE #1 (The solo Question issue) you get approx 186 pages.

Later material released:
CHARLTON PORTFOLIO 9, 1974
Blue Beetle story Ditko/Skeates (18 pgs)

CHARLTON BULLSEYE #5 (July-Sept 76)
The Question, by Stern and Toth (8 pgs)

CHARLTON BULLSEYE #1 (June 81)
Blue Beetle & The Question, by Benjamin Smith and Dan Reed) (22pgs)

posted May 04, 2003 11:39 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Drumore01:
Okay, hold on to your scarabs, this gets tricky...

The Charlton Dan Garrett Blue Beetle (that alone is tricky):

BLUE BEETLE 18-21 (Feb 55-Aug 55)
formerly THE THING! and then becomes Mr MUSCLE with #22.
Many of these stories (the entire 1st issue) were reprints from the Fox series. New material was added in later issues. Giordano did covers

BLUE BEETLE 1-5 (June 64-Mar/Apr 65)
This is where he faced The Mummy, Mr Thunderbolt, Mantis-Man, The Red Knight. It's stated he's an Archeologist,

BLUE BEETLE 50-54 (July 65-Feb/Mar 66)
(formerly Unusual Tales, then becomes Ghostly Tales)
Mr Crabb, Mentor the Magnificent, Mantis-Man again, Eye of Horus

Joe Gill wrote most of these, the last issue by Roy Thomas.
None of these were by Ditko.

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posted May 05, 2003 07:43 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Svensson:
Because the Golden Age character bears practically no resemblence to the modern character that DC owns. It's like saying that because DC owns Captain Marvel, that they own the rights to that Robot who yells SPLIT! Which reminds me, how much Charlton Blue Beetle stuff was done pre-Ditko?

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posted May 05, 2003 08:41 AM               

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Originally posted by Owen Cardiff Darcy:
[B] DC could have sued the publishers of the "SPLIT" Captain Marvel for copyright infringement if it had been worth the trouble.

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At the time DC didn't own Captain Marvel, and as the M. F. Enterprises character predates Marvel's Captain Marvel by two years they couldn't have sued either. Fawcett could have sued but as they weren't in the comics biz anylonger and didn't seem to have an interest in comics at all any longer, they didn't... I only bring this up because it might be importan in regards to Fox Publishing

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Anyway, I had thought that Fox sold Blue Beetle to Charlton, who later sold the character to DC, which means DC would own the Blue Beetle in ALL his incarnations.

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I'm not exactly sure that its ever been particularly clear what rights transfered to Charlton. I'd think - like you - that Charlton reprinting and then starting a new Blue Beetle character certainly makes it seem like they have full rights to BB.

posted May 05, 2003 09:01 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Amentep:
At the time DC didn't own Captain Marvel, and as the M. F. Enterprises character predates Marvel's Captain Marvel by two years they couldn't have sued either. Fawcett could have sued but as they weren't in the comics biz anylonger and didn't seem to have an interest in comics at all any longer, they didn't... I only bring this up because it might be importan in regards to Fox Publishing.

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Okay then, Fawcett should have sued. Whoever owned Captain Marvel at the time had a copyright infringement case, if they had chosen to pursue it.

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I'm not exactly sure that its ever been particularly clear what rights transfered to Charlton. I'd think - like you - that Charlton reprinting and then starting a new Blue Beetle character certainly makes it seem like they have full rights to BB.

But I also know that they licensed a lot of characters [including publishing an Ibis the Invincible story] and its entirely possible that they only licensed Blue Beetle and then somewhere after that essentially took over the rights to the character if whatever was left of Fox Publishing couldn't manage a law suit or didn't care about one a la Fawcett and the 60s Captain Marvels.

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posted May 05, 2003 10:17 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Owen Cardiff Darcy:
What matters is that Charlton [b]somehow acquired ownership Blue Beetle, whom they later sold to DC, which means DC now owns Blue Beetle.[/B]

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I do agree with you that DC should have the rights since Charlton seems to have defacto claimed them from Fox, although IIRC this along with Phantom Lady was a bone of contention between DC and AC comics; I think they argued that both characters should be considered public domain characters.

posted May 05, 2003 12:26 PM            

Trademarks must maintain a certain amount of activity, or they lapse. Fawcett failed to maintain the Captain Marvel trademark after 1953, and it bacame available for anyone to use. Indeed, Marvel jumped on it and registered it for their use, which is why why everything DC publishes has "Shazam!" on it. Marvel now owns the trademark.

A copyright is much more protective, and doesn't need anything like activity to keep it current. Thus, these companies that picked up the Captain Marvel trademark couldn't reprint old Cap stories, since Fawcett still owned the copyright. They could have published new Cap stories, but since Fawcett had spent so many years in court with DC, it was just inviting themselves to a lawsuit, for infingining on the Superman copyright! Legally, though, with the lapsed trademark, they could have produced such stories, with Billy, Cp, Shazam, and all the rest, without regard to Fawcett's interest. What DC bought from Fawcett was the inventory of old Cap stories, and any claim to the characters.

Regarding Blue Beetle, Charlton may have only had the trademark transferred from Fox, without any permanent transfer of copyrights. So they could produce new material, but only limited reprints of the old material. Or, they failed to renew the copyrights on the old material, and much of entered the public domain. IIRC, the old copyright term was 28 years, with another 28 year renewal. So Blue Beetle stories would start entering the public domain around 1967. The law wasn't revised until 1976 or 1977, so the first 9 or 10 years of the Fox Blue Beetle could be in the public domain.