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[ClaireLucas]

Hi guys,
I'm hoping someone here can help- I work for a children's publisher and we're producing a book on the history of comics.  We'd like to use an image of the Famous Funnies issue 1, but aren't sure if its PD or not?

We've sourced an image- but obviously won't be able to use it if it is still copyrighted- my understanding is that Eastern Color Printing are out of business-  so I don't know who to approach?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[narfstar]

If it is available on this site then it is pd.  No bootleg books here.  We have later issues here so the earlier would be fine.

[John C]

That's not necessarily the case, actually.  Aussie has spoken with a couple of copyright holders to allow their work to appear here (with disclaimer and credit), though I can't think of any examples.  And also, though Aussie usually refuses a book from a series with even one copyright, renewal or a lack of renewal on one issue doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the renewals for any other issue in the series.

The copyright on an issue also might not cover the copyright for the specific image, if it was copyrighted separately.

That all said, I'm fairly sure (for reasons deeply buried in the previous paragraph...) that the entire series is public domain and I seriously doubt Eastern Color copyrighted any of the covers.

(As a backup, check with your company's lawyer and see if he thinks it would qualify as Fair Use.  In a book about comic history, you should be able to plausibly use any image you like, as long as it's not too many or too complete a duplicate.)

[OtherEric]

I know that, for the most part, we don't have Famous Funnies here because of the Buck Rogers reprints.  The Famous Funnies themselves are PD but the material they reprint may not be.  That's why a lot of the Dell material is prohibited, as well.

[Aussie500]

Hi guys,
I'm hoping someone here can help- I work for a children's publisher and we're producing a book on the history of comics.  We'd like to use an image of the Famous Funnies issue 1, but aren't sure if its PD or not?

We've sourced an image- but obviously won't be able to use it if it is still copyrighted- my understanding is that Eastern Color Printing are out of business-  so I don't know who to approach?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Eastern Colour Printing were still a company l believe till 2002 although they got out of comics years ago and were mainly involved with advertising. Unfortunately we are unable to help with legal or commercial use questions. l believe Jon Mayes was the cover artist so you could try contacting him if he is still alive, l would think being public domain it would be fine to use so long as you included the original copyright information with the cover.