A Question Regarding The MLJ Heroes

How Come The Original Golden Age MLJ Heroes Are In The Public Domain?

I read in PREVIEW Magazine that Red Circle Comics owned these chars, and that they were licensed by DC recently, then lost it to RCC.

Shield is now the son of the original for ex.

MLJ and Red Circle Comics are basically the same as Archie Comics. Archie put out the Red Circle line of superhero comics in the 70's and yes, they do own the Red Circle comics and characters, which they license. However, many of the Red Circle heroes were based on the old MLJ characters, which fell into the public domain because Archie never renewed the copyrights on them.

Order of Events:

1940: Shield appears in Pep Comics by MLJ. It is under copyright.
1965: A new Shield appears in the Mighty Crusaders. It is under copyright.
1967: Archie is obligated to renew the copyright on Pep Comics, but fails to do so. It is no longer under copyright, but the Mighty Crusaders still is.
1970's: Archie launches Red Circle Comics. Shield appear in various titles, including the new Mighty Crusaders. The new titles are under copyright.
2007: DC licenses the characters so they can use any aspect of the characters.

It was actually kinda dumb for DC to license the Shield, since the original version of Shield is public domain, due to Pep Comics not being renewed in time. However, there may be a number of reasons why they did that. First of all, professional courtesy. They don't want to make enemies of another major publisher. Second, Archie still actively seeks to exploit their old characters, and for DC it may simply have been worth it, to not worry about getting sued, if, for example, they accidentally created a storyline very similar to one that was already done in Red Circle Comics. So, they just license it, so they can fully exploit the characters without any worries and without alienating another major power in comics.

argosail wrote:

MLJ and Red Circle Comics are basically the same as Archie Comics. Archie put out the Red Circle line of superhero comics in the 70's and yes, they do own the Red Circle comics and characters, which they license. However, many of the Red Circle heroes were based on the old MLJ characters, which fell into the public domain because Archie never renewed the copyrights on them.

Order of Events:

1940: Shield appears in Pep Comics by MLJ. It is under copyright.
1965: A new Shield appears in the Mighty Crusaders. It is under copyright.
1967: Archie is obligated to renew the copyright on Pep Comics, but fails to do so. It is no longer under copyright, but the Mighty Crusaders still is.
1970's: Archie launches Red Circle Comics. Shield appear in various titles, including the new Mighty Crusaders. The new titles are under copyright.
2007: DC licenses the characters so they can use any aspect of the characters.

It was actually kinda dumb for DC to license the Shield, since the original version of Shield is public domain, due to Pep Comics not being renewed in time. However, there may be a number of reasons why they did that. First of all, professional courtesy. They don't want to make enemies of another major publisher. Second, Archie still actively seeks to exploit their old characters, and for DC it may simply have been worth it, to not worry about getting sued, if, for example, they accidentally created a storyline very similar to one that was already done in Red Circle Comics. So, they just license it, so they can fully exploit the characters without any worries and without alienating another major power in comics.

Wow,awesome,however,can the original golden age public domain versions still be used?

I really like the Shield, and it says in Wiki (the other one) that the first and second are PD. Is this still true?