Diamond's Scoop blog has a picture of a 1933 advertisement for the pulp "Doc Savage" that predates "Superman" by 5 years. The catch? The ad clearly refers to Doc as "Superman."
I can has more lawsuits?
Who owns the rights to Doc Savage nowadays, anyway?
I believe it's Anthony Tollin at Nostalgia Ventures who has Doc Savage right now. They do those lovely double-novel pulp facsimile reprints with the added introductory essays. Each month there's a Doc and a Shadow. I believe the plan is to get the whole run of the original pulp stories back in print.
ReplyDeleteNice package. Recommended.
I'm in two minds about asking this, 'cause I'm not sure whether you're simply making a throwaway joke or not. But in case you're not, who would be suing whom? Trademark ownership is not retroactive.
ReplyDeleteYes, Tony Tollin has the rights to reprint both the Shadow and Doc Savage stories but I believe that the rights still reside with Conde Nast which is always VERY vigilant in following up any unauthorized abuse.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was Conde Nast too...Which would be ironic, given the fact that DC comic books was had the license to do two Conde Nast properties in the eighties - The Shadow and Doc Savage. I read the Chaykin Shadow revamp, and I'm tempted to splurge on the Helfer/Sienkwiez/Baker run.
ReplyDeleteThis ad is old news. I'm told they only used the name Superman once. It's not important.
ReplyDeleteThe Nostalgia Ventures books are really well done.
ReplyDeleteThe Shadow and Doc Savage (among others) were highly influential on the first comic book creators. Savage had a Fortress of Solitude. He operated out of a NYC skyscraper (a la the FF). He was called "The Man of Bronze" (okay, bronze and steel are different).
Point being, if the folks who held the copyrights for all of the old pulp characters started suing people, all of current pop culture would implode.
Also, if anyone's curious, Sam Raimi is working on a Shadow movie, and WB uber-producer Michael Uslan let slip news of an upcoming Doc Savage movie at ComicCon.
"I can has another lawsuit"???
ReplyDeleteIt would be a trademark issue, and if the copyright holder hasn't done anything by now about possible infringement, they would no doubt lose the trademark to DC who HAS protected their trademark over the years.
ReplyDeleteYou know, they're even both named "Clark." ;-)
ReplyDelete