#public domain character

[opencharacters]

[ID: image of a black and white comic with a young boy with an army hat shaking the paw of a black and white beagle dog. The text says "Brown's the name...Charlie Brown...Always glad to greet a fellow constituent!" in all caps END ID]

Today's Public Domain Characters: Charlie Brown and Rover

Charlie Brown was originally a character in the comic Li'l Folks which did not have a proper copyright notice upon publication.

Therefore is not only Charlie Brown public domain but also the neighborhood dog Rover.

[ID: black and white drawing of a beagle on the front step with black parts on its ears and a black spot on the back but otherwise completely white END ID]

Rover is a beagle and is basically the prototype for Snoopy.

Snoopy is not public domain however as he did not appear until the Peanuts comics themselves

Charlie Brown is trademarked by Peanuts Holding so keep that in mind

More info here

[yourbelovedissy]

CODENAME: BLOODROSE A young woman with pale blue eyes, vitiligo, and deep red hair with bright red and magenta highlights. Her right arm and right leg are cybernetic prostheses. She wears a black and gold necklace, along with a cybernetic brace above her waistline.

A character I designed as an adoptable, but nobody bought her So I'm releasing her into the wild! (Oh and keep your eyes peeled bc I'll be posting more soonly <3)

I waive all rights to this character and design, and release them under the CC0 license. No rights reserved.

[cosmicsponge2004]

Jake Neutron inspired Public Domain Oswald Design

Go watch his video NOW!!!

[samelbuenaonda]

A poison dragon character called Poipon

[tngmpersonal]

There should be a drawing meme where you get a scene that depicts one interpretation of a public domain character, and redraw the scene using a different interpretation of the character. For example, take this one scene of Death/The Grim Reaper and Dracula from Billy & Mandy...

...And redraw them as their Castlevania incarnations.

Or take any scene of Red from Hoodwinked and replace her with someone like Ruby Rose or B.B. Hood (yes, I know neither of them are public domain, but they are still clearly based on Little Red Riding Hood, who is public domain).

[weonlyneedfour]

"Slow down, Pamonha! What's gotten into you, haven't we been shot at by bad guys enough times by now? Well, it's not MY problem you're made of meat and I'm not! The recipe keeps catching on fire cause I can't focus! I am NOT letting them show me up at that stupid cookout, if I can't finish this potion in time, I'm putting YOU in it, got it? Hi-yaah!"

Emilia the Ragdoll

Character created by: Monteiro Lobato Home series: Sitio do Pica Pau Amarelo

Title: Freedom or Death. The Countess of Three Little Stars. The Most Selfish Creature Alive.  Alter Ego: Marchioness. Yakety Ann.  Nationality: Brazilian. Occupation: Space pirate (currently) (not actually a job). The self-appointed brains of whatever group she joins (also not actually a job). Self-employed equestrian dancer, trapeze artist, "cloth fairy", "name giver", "idea inventor", "telescopic looker", Saci hunter, "letter sender", writer of memoirs, chief editor of the Yellow Woodpecker Scream newspaper, and many others (...okay well some of these are actual jobs, kinda). Group affiliation: None. The Encerrabodes Family (formerly). Base of Operations: The Solar System. Yellow Woodpecker Ranch, in Brazil (formerly). Likes: Her pet dog Pamonha. Her former pet rhinoceros Quindim. Collecting artifacts. Talking. Dislikes: Losing. Sitting in silence. Having to stitch herself back together (that's what you're supposed to order the losers around you into doing) Skill: Storytelling. Bossing others around. Chaos.

Powers: Ragdoll brought to life by a talking pill given to her by Doctor Snail (who is not a real doctor, but he is a real snail). Has survived the destruction of her physical form many times and constantly stitches and refills her body back together. Able to curl into a ball and move at high speeds, wrestle beings several times her size, and summon items out of hammerspace.  Displays incongruent biological reactions such as vulnerability to cold, insect bites and terrible smells, suggesting a hybrid existence. Has spent several years / decades in an inanimate state akin to her pre-sentience existence, indicating that the effects of the pill are either temporary or inconsistent. Carries with her a supply of a mysterious pixie powder that enables her to travel through space. Teleportation is not instant and her reserves are limited. 

Once upon a time, there was a strange ranch by the Brazilian countryside where strange adventures befell the family who lived there. In that family at Yellow Woodpecker Ranch, there was a girl named Lúcia, who was gifted a ragdoll by the housemaid Auntie Nastácia, who originally crafted the clumsy little witch out of an old skirt and macela leaves. Lúcia grew tired of talking to a doll that wouldn't answer back, and in one of her adventures, took her to an enchanted kingdom, where she was given a talking pill. With an outlet at last, Emilia began her new life by loudly complaining and cursing about the horrid taste of the pill, and she has never stopped complaining about things in the decades since. 

In no time at all, Emilia made herself into a fiercely independent, opinionated troublemaker. Fearless, stubborn, tempestuous, intolerant of injustice and driven by self-serving curiosity, always quick to insult or argue or speak her mind at length, the raggedy anarchist eagerly takes off on any adventure or goal she sets her mind on, and from 1920 to the 1940s she adventured alongside Lúcia and her family as well as on her own, often getting into trouble and fighting to defend her home and friends from many, many villains.

She's fenced scorpions and fought martian hordes, defeated the world's strongest sailor by tricking him into eating mold, and traveled to the stars on her own and rescued a holy birdman from the Milky Way (after debating whether or not to cut off his wings to see what happened). She's spat in the faces of King Arthur and Hercules, and once held the world hostage with a shrinking spell in an attempt to force the President of the United States to end all war forever. Emilia is a volatile and incorrigibly immature trickster, unburdened with human complications such as organ failure, death, and having to ever accept being wrong in an argument. 

Emilia is currently a living relic of a time that doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did. As Yellow Woodpecker Ranch is nothing more than a children's fantasy series from the early 1900s, whatever freakish anomaly led to Emilia leaving the pages did not carry over to the supporting cast she used to be a part of. She's spent many years in oscillating inactivity where she reverts to inanimate doll form again, and has only sporadically been seen interacting with the local and international caped community over the century. She was last spotted years ago transversing the dunes of Mars with Six-Gun Gorilla and held up in the court of the Clown Kings of Venus months prior, which indicates that she has spent most of her time since traveling across the solar system, using her dwindling reserves of pixie powder, making the most of her sporadic returns to conscience.

It is as of yet unknown whether she's working on any kind of long-term plan, or whether she's merely trying to live and outrun the oblivion that's covered the rest of her family, merely pursuing her destructive and childish carefree whims as long as they'll take her. But then again, those whims have made her quite a force to be reckoned with over the past century. And if this one thinks it'll succeed where thousands failed in finally snuffing out the little firecracker, it's got another thing coming.

[skookworks]

02.22.2024

[rjalker]

[ID: A version of the yes/no meme format showing two screenshots of Mickey Mouse from the 1928 animation Steamboat Willie. For the "no" section, he looks at the ground dejectedly. For the "yes" example," he leaps into the air with joy. The no section reads, in quotation marks, "You can only use the version of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie!", followed by, in parentheses, "(Extremely misleading, making it seem like the Public Domain demands stagnation and kills creativity)". The yes section reads, in quotation marks, "You can redesign Mickey Mouse in any style or outfit you like as long as it's not a version still owned by Disney's copyright", followed by in parentheses, "(Actually explains the rule, lets people unleash their creativity.)". End ID.]

You can buy this design from my threadless store if you want to help a trans disabled artist pay rent AND spread correct info about the Public Domain at the same time :)

If you save this meme template to use, please also save the image description above as a word document or in a notes app! When you post your version of the meme, just edit the relevant sections :)

[describe-things]

Here's something Disney desperately does not want anyone to know:

When you create your own original design for Mickey Mouse now that he's Public Domain, you now own that version of Mickey Mouse.

This is the same reason that Disney owns their versions of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Briar Rose, and more, even though these characters came from the Public Domain.

If you make an original design for Mickey Mouse, it belongs to you. You own the copyright. Disney cannot use that design for profit unless they get your permission and/or pay you. The exact same way you can't use Disney's version of Cinderella for profit.

Copyright goes both ways, despite what the billionaires who run megacorporations want you to think. They rely on you thinking of them as all powerful and unstoppable. But the rules do in fact apply to them too. They are not all-powerful. They're not invincible. They're greedy, lying bastards who rely on your hopeless fear.

Have hope, be bold, go forth and create with joy.

Edit because I remembered another example:

This is also why you're not supposed to show writers your fanfiction for their series! Even though you are writing fanfiction, and the characters belong to their creator, what you have written belongs to you! Writers do not want to accidentally steal from you by incorporating your fanfiction into the official material, because that does genuinely open them up to lawsuits! They're taking your ideas and profiting off them!

[ethanbryant1997]

Hello. I made a Discord server for the public domain community. Check it out if you're interested/curious.

[pocket-deer-art]

I like the rabbit more than the mouse

[opencharacters]

Today's Public Domain Character: Garfield

[ID: image of a chubby cartoon cat with large cheeks END ID]

Now, some caveats no the current iteration of Garfield is not public domain, that belongs to Paws Inc (subsidiary of Nickolodeon). However much like with Mickey Mouse the first iteration of Garfield is public domain, shown above.

As you may remember, youtuber Quinton Reviews uncovered a comic strip that predates Garfield called Jon about Jon's life but Garfield was also a character in it.

The scans show that in 1976 these strips were published without copyright notice which prior to 1978 was required for a work to be copyrighted in the United States.

[ID: Comic strip from January 8, 1976. Jon introduces himself and his cat Garfield twice. Jon looks puzzled trying to describe the strip, and Garfield humorously suggests "try turkey" and "feed me. END ID]

Now Garfield is also a trademark so I wouldn't go call your Garfield comic that if you intend to sell it, but you can use Garfield either as he appears here or ya know, make it a jumping off point to redesign him as we've seen people redesign Mickey Mouse.

[yourbelovedissy]

CODENAME: SONDER A girl with golden eyes and short, poofy blonde hair. She wears a teal bow tie, a teal hairband with white stripes, and a glittery blue vest with a matching waistcoat. In the center of her long-sleeve undershirt is an ornate emblem in the shape of a bell. She sports a bundle of blank cards at her hip, held together with a metal ring.

Another old adoptable being thrown to the wild I get magical girl vibes from her design... but theoretically she could be anything

I waive all rights to this character and design, and release them under the CC0 license. No rights reserved.

[paper-starz]

In celebration of steamboat Willie coming into public domain, I made some totally original characters: Will and Petey!

Will is the captain of the S.S WILLIE (he named it after himself)! He’s pretty infamous for being petty, grumpy, and generally rude to almost everyone that he meets. He also has barely any social whatsoever, other than talking to his brother.

Petey on the other hand is the newest (and only other) crew mate! He loves his job and takes it very seriously, so much so that it usually gets him into a bunch of trouble (and Will has to get him out of it)

What kinda trouble you may ask?

Oh, you know… just your usual.

Sea monsters.

Pirates.

Angry customers.

[samelbuenaonda]

A ice dragon character called Frosty

[prismcreative]

He is joined by another.