Hi, is Leo Lion public domain?
Hi Isabell,
Welcome to CB+. Yes, take Australian panther's advice and look up Leo The Lion, and any characters inside that book, and see if anyone is using them now, or recently, and if anything points to them still being under copyrights, or trademark use. I think it is unlikely that their rights are in use. I have seen no evidence of recent projects using them. Victor Fox of Fox Features is long gone. The only use of any of Fox Features' funny animal comic book characters. that I know of, after his firm closed down operations in 1951, was L.B. Cole's Star Publications purchasing the rights to some of them in late 1951, and publishing them through 1954, in their "Frisky Animals" series, and "Holiday Comics", and "Fun Comics" series, from late 1951 through 1954, and that publisher ended their operations in late 1954. The rights to those "Animal Crackers" series funny animal characters original owned by the partnership of Fox Features and Hero Books, Inc. MAY or MAY NOT have been among the package bought by Star Publications. But Star never used them in any publications. So those rights likely lapsed by the late 1950s. Robert Farrell's Farrell Comics, Inc. and Ajax Publications, Inc. owned the rights to those ex-Fox characters from 1954-1958. But, during that time no "Animal Crackers" characters were reprinted in any of their publications. So, their rights likely weren't renewed, after lapsing during the early 1960s. The reprinting of Fox's "Animal Crackers #31", by IW Comics in 1958 (the book you saw containing those characters), printed them illegally, with publisher, Israel Waldman never having secured those rights. The same is true for his publication of the contents of Fox's unpublished "Animal Crackers #32", whose printing plates he had also acquired. The same is true for illegal re-printings and first printings of those 2 books by Green Publishing in 1957, and Norlen Magazines in 1959.
As far as I know, The Animal Crackers characters and stories were never printed again, and their characters (Drooley Lion, Satchel ("Satch") Crocodile, Spunky/Flunky Monkey, and Rufus (Dog)) were never used again. So, unless you find anything written about their rights existing currently, or evidence of their current use, or a project featuring them in the works, you can use them.
