Countdown To Public Domain Day 2025
Every New Year's Day is Public Domain day, when many works of art fall out of copyright. Last time the biggest news was Mickey Mouse, next January the United States welcomes Popeye to intellectual freedom. Popeye debuted in 1929 in the Thimble Theatre comics, and was the inspiration of E.C. Segar. Segar died in 1938 which means that Popeye has been public domain in the rest of the world for some years now. Though finally Americans get to join in the fun.
Of course, even in the United States a surprisingly large amount of Popeye material had fallen into the public domain before, including my personal favourite Popeye cartoon Popeye for President! (see above). But with his first appearance falling into the public domain in America, this will give fan artists and other creators freer reign to remix and incorporate him in their own works.
I won't pretend Popeye is a favourite of mine, but he does hold a place in my heart. As a child, TV channels would play his public domain cartoons in the mornings, and as a son of a sailor I've had a soft spot for the guy and his squinty smile, he was certainly more relatable and less distant than Horatio Hornblower. And I do in fact enjoy me Spinach. Oh, and living in the UK we got to enjoy some perks of Segar's legacy, more on that below.
A fun fact about Popeye, his `Goil` Olive Oyl is already public domain in the USA too, she predates the sailor with a penchant for Spinach by one whole ten years. Olive Oyl was one of the original cast members when the strips were first run in 1919.
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| Scene from Thimble Theatre, 1925 |
Yanks will sadly have to wait two more years for the Hamburger mooching J. Wellington Wimpy "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a burger today", to fall into the public domain, as his first appearance was in 1931. Which makes sense, he is after all a reflection on the Great Depression.
Speaking depression Wimpy, in the UK there was once a popular burger restaurant chain named after Wimpy. That's right, Popeye as a brand was once so popular that a supporting character's name could shift burgers and build an international food company. The original Wimpy's were American, but its biggest markets were the UK, South Africa (during Apartheid) and Ireland. In fact, for a time Wimpy was so enmeshed in the UK economy that the Provisional IRA bombed one of their restaurants as part of their campaign to wreck the British economy and spread general panic. One bomb disposal officer was killed while trying to disarm the explosive.
I'm not old enough to remember its golden period, nor have I ever had a Wimpy burger, since I've never lived in a town where they still had their last remaining branches. But it is remembered by older people, who lament its loss when the restaurant is brought up in conversation. It was still around in a limited fashion when I was a lad though, I can remember seeing adverts on TV, and Popeye themed wind-up toys that were given away in its kids meals during a doomed attempt to survive competition with McDonald's, another fast food chain that has a history with the Provisional IRA now that I think about it. Looking back, I don't think naming a burger restaurant after a man named Wimpy and was famous for not actually paying for those burgers he snaffled was a great idea. But, then again, I'm no marketing genius.
