Popeye and Tintin enter public domain in US in 2025, but the spinach is still copyrighted

The sailor and boy detective can be reproduced without permission from 2025, but some details, like Tintin’s red hair, are still copyrighted

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An inflatable Popeye at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on November 26, 1959. Popeye enters the public domain in 2025. Photo: AP

Published: 4:15am, 26 Dec 2024Updated: 4:33am, 26 Dec 2024

Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on January 1.

That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.

The crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of this year, when Mickey Mouse entered the public domain. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon’s public domain presence expands.

“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons – he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Centre for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University in the US state of North Carolina.

The first appearance of Popeye was in the Thimble Theater newspaper comic strip in 1929. Photo: Instagram/@aren_tumastens

“There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!” Jenkins adds.

Here’s a closer look at this year’s crop.