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[Powder Solvang]

I have a 16 page Smilin' Jack comic with newsprint covers. There's no interior advertising and the back cover touts "a free comic each week" with Popped Wheat.
Is this fair game for uploading?

[Yoc]

So you have a year on it Powder?
It looks PD to me but better let JC see what he thinks.

-Yoc

[rez]

I think Powder works faster than that.

So you have a year on it Powder?
It looks PD to me but better let JC see what he thinks.

-Yoc

[Yoc]

Oh I hope Powder does scan it - I'm just saying I trust JC to give the all clear more than I.
A year would go a long way to helping in the search.

-Yoc

[Powder Solvang]

The indicia say, "SMILIN JACK-Published by Sig Feuchtwanger, New York, N.Y., by arranement with Famous Artists Syndicate, Chicago, Ill. Copr., 1938 by Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc. Reg. U.S. Pat. Office. Printed in U.S.A."

[John C]

It looks fine to me, subject to the usual caveats.  I can't find evidence of the book's renewal, and I don't see anything regarding the strip itself, though the latter is usually harder to track.

And yes, when possible, a copyright year makes life a heck of a lot easier.  Without it, I don't know where in the catalogs to start looking.

[Powder Solvang]

Some additional info from the promotional comics section in Overstreet:
Smilin' Jack
Dell Publishing Co.
Popped Wheat Giveaway (1947)-1938 strip reprints; 16 pages in full color

I haven't found anything in the comic to ID it as a Dell. If it is in fact a Dell what would be its status?

[Aussie500]

Would make no difference if it was a Dell, its printed in 1947 or before and is a reprint from the original 1938 strips which seem to be PD, Dell probably did publish it, but for the Popped Wheat manufacturer. Sometimes there was no publisher details on freebies provided by non comic related sources.

[Yoc]

That would be a 'Yes' Powder.  Scan away.

[OtherEric]

Oh, to ask a totally different question that this thread reminded me of:  Would Peter Wheat be PD?  And does anybody have any issues if it is?  (The ONLY thing I know about it is it features Kelly art.)

[JonTheScanner]

I would LOVE to see Peter Wheat. 

I suspect it is PD.  It's hard to imagine their renewing the copyright.  One Peter Wheat was reprinted in an Eclipse comic.  Walt Kelly's Springtime Tales, probably.

[Powder Solvang]

Consider it done, Yoc! 

[narfstar]

Now up in a new Popped Wheat Giveaway category in Dell

[OtherEric]

I would LOVE to see Peter Wheat. 

I suspect it is PD.  It's hard to imagine their renewing the copyright.  One Peter Wheat was reprinted in an Eclipse comic.  Walt Kelly's Springtime Tales, probably.

Well, consider this an official "can somebody check on the PD status" request; I've got low grade copies of four of the Kelly issues on the way to me.  Even the GCD only has a few covers up.  Anybody with more info is encouraged to fill us in; any clarification on the difference between "Peter Wheat" and "Peter Wheat News" would be welcome.  (Overstreet lists them as two overlapping titles, the GCD is unsure.)

[JonTheScanner]

Peter Wheat and Peter Wheat News were two different titles -- overlapping in time as you say.  Some place I have an issue of Fort Mudge Most telling about it.  I'll see if I can find it.

[John C]

Well, consider this an official "can somebody check on the PD status" request;

I'd prefer to check individual issues, on the off chance that Ockerbloom and his team missed something when compiling his index.  However, I don't see a "first renewal" listed, nor is there anything in the online database.  So the odds are greatly in favor of both books being in the public domain.

[OtherEric]

Well, I'm getting four issues of "Adventures of Peter Wheat", rather than Peter Wheat News.  The issues are 19, 20, 23, and 28.

[JonTheScanner]

My recollection is Advs of PW are much better than PW News.  Advs are pure Kelly comic book art.   

[Yoc]

Never seen any of these Eric so I'm quite curious to see one.
Looking forward to scans some day.

[OtherEric]

Well, looking at the covers on GCD, it looks like a lot of fun.  It also seems to be VERY scarce, I think the four issues I found may have been the only Kelly issues currently findable for sale on the internet, period.  I wouldn't mind seeing the post-Kelly issues, either.  They're by Al Hubbard, who is a quite underrated artist.  He's no Kelly, of course.  But he did a long run on Mary Jane and Sniffles, which is one of my absolute favorite GA series.

Oh, some copyright information from the Cover of issue 15, which I found online:

There is a line at the bottom of the cover that reads, as best as I can make it out:

COPR . 1949 BAKERS ASSOCIATES, INC.  PRINTED IN U.S.A.  NO 15

I'm no expert, but based on what little I know that may not even have been a correct registration in the first place, assuming they don't have more information elsewhere.

[John C]

COPR . 1949 BAKERS ASSOCIATES, INC.  PRINTED IN U.S.A.  NO 15
I'm no expert, but based on what little I know that may not even have been a correct registration in the first place, assuming they don't have more information elsewhere.

Copr. is an outdated form, but I believe it was valid at the time, and it identifies a single entity, Bakers.  It'd probably hold up.

Edit:  It's valid by the rules.  See "Visually Perceptible Copies" at:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.html

Anyway, I don't see any Adventures of Peter Wheat periodical renewals during the relevant years (the 1949 date was a good starting point), so they're almost certainly fine.  The only glitch is if they weren't registered as periodicals.  If they're books, then the renewals are in that horrifying sorted-by-renewal-number section, and there's no chance of finding them.