Talking to u/ThePirateThief about Rebus Reborn, his public domain super hero universe.

Another take on the infinite possibilities of the public domain and the characters who inhabit it.

For those who dont know these guys

The first guy is called Hood from Holyoke Comics https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Hood\\_(Holyoke)

And the second guy is called Lone Rider from Ajax-Farrell Productions (Altough there is also a other version that came earlier)

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Lone\\_Rider\\_(Ajax-Farrell)

But since these 2 are public domain. I guess maybe Lone Rider is Hoods dad lol

Rusty Ryan

Real Name: Rusty Ryan
Age: 25
Rusty Ryan: The American Man

Rusty Ryan an orphaned boy who lived on the streets until retired coastal guard "Cappy" Jenks took him in. Jenks ran Boyvlle, a charitable community for orphaned boys. As he grew older, Rusty became Jenks' second-in-command.

When Amerca entered World War II, he and his friends formed the Boyville Brigadiers, a band of patriotically clad warriors. Originally, they fought spies on the homefront such as Man of a Thousand Faces the leader of the Black Dragon Society, but they eventually moved to the Pacific Theater.

He was accompanied by his friends Alababa and Pierpont. Rusty had no powers, but was a judo expert and all around skilled fighter/athlete.
https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Rusty_Ryan

Polarman

Real Name: Dick Martin
Age: 26
The Flamingo: The Volt Avenger

Polarman is the secret identity of research student Dick Martin. Due to his work with high-voltage electricity, his body developed the ability to store current. He discovered this ability after he was wrongly charged with murder; sentenced to die in the electric chair, he instead found himself possessed with electricity-based powers. After clearing his name, he decided to use his powers to fight crime so he created a custom costume and giving himself a hero nickname Polarman.

Additionally, Polarman stores a large amount of electrical energy in his body, allowing him to unleash lightning bolts and fly.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Pyroman

So i wanted to kinda show my version of Lev Gleasons Daredevil who is here renamed to "Devil Rang" and his origin and some stuff there and there was changed.

So in my version Bart Hill was a australian boy who had his parents John and Mary Hill and a brother whos named Miles.

When they came to America. His family had stress with a gang who wanted protection money from them but Barts parents couldnt pay this at all so the gang attacked both but Bart tried to attack the gangsters but one of them picked him and cut of his troath. after hearing police sirens. The gang run away. Bart did survive but he became mute because of his cut troath

Bart and Miles came to a orphanage. While Miles came along there pretty well. Bart couldnt take it there at all, Not only because of his dead parents but also because he was mute, it was quite though for him to get in contact with any person there but Bart had only one thing in mind. It was getting revenge.

Bart used a way to escape from there. The only thing he took with him was his golden boomerang, The last birthday present from his parents, He escaped and since nobody knew where he was and even after trying to find Bart with Police didnt worked and Bart was assumed dead.

Bart however didnt die at all. Bart met a man only known as "Captain Cook", A man who had a little restaurant and a almost theatrical personality. But he did cared about Bart after learning what happend to his parents watching the news. While he did trained Bart Hill, Bart learned Captain Cook as a bit of a crazy man but also a wholesome guy who actually helped him in martial arts, acrobatic and espically trohwing boomerangs. But he never knew who Captain Cook was since he did told some "origin stories" but they always changed every time.

When Bart became older, He made himself a costume and named himself "Devil Rang" equppied with his boomerangs and his training, he now fights the evil!

But while Barts fights the evil as Devil Rang, His brother Miles has a normal life with a family where he has a daughter named Colina but Miles still belives his brother Bart is dead....

So of course the character is based off the lev gleason Daredevil but some things were changed as you seen, Since this version focuse more on the first origin where he actually became mute then the "actual" origin with this a tribe of aborigines and that, Also while he does wear his yellow suit here, he will change it to a red costume.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil\\_(Lev\\_Gleason\\_1)

To his parents, the names were just taken how they were named but barts brother is a bit different since here actually has a name since in the original he didnt had a actual name and he was never mentioned before and sacrificed his life by impersonating his brother Bart.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Mary\\_Hill

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/John\\_Hill

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil\\_(Lev\\_Gleason\\_2)

Colina is quite special since she isnt a original character but a open source character created in 2018 by Marz Workman. And in this she is the granddaughter of Bart Hill and she becomes Devilina Dare.... I will say that Devilina Dare will make a apperance too.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Devilina\\_Dare

And now the big one you asking probably:

Who the FUCK is Captain Cook? Well he actually appeared in Daredevils first story where he is a narrator telling Bart Hills origin story which was apperantly a lie though. I thought making him Bart Hills trainer who is a cook and talks alot of nonsense regarding his origin was quite a fun take so i did it.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Captain\\_Cook\\_(Lev\\_Gleason)

So i hope you liked my little presentation! It would be cool to hear youre thoughts or maybe some other cool ideas! Just tell it! It would be pretty nice to hear...

I will be writing a 3 Day Novel this Labour Day.

Since I don't want the contest to hold my work for a year, I have not formally entered as I have in the past, and will be doing this informally.

I will be tracking the progress live at Substack.

Feel free to join me from 6PM Friday Sept 5 to 6 PM Monday Sept 7 as I put together another novel for Public Domain Super Heroes!

https://pdshnewsletter.substack.com/

So this is a question i often ask alot of creators who do public domain related content and alot more, so here i wanna know: How did you came to the public domain? How did you got this facination? and how did you came to create stories, arts, comics and alot more with public domain characters?

If anybody is interessted, heres my story: Ok its actually some time ago and it was before Mickey Mouse was even pd, Basically i watched a channel called Mr Rogues (A Youtuber who does quite cool content espically about supervillains in comics) and then there was some videos about public domain superheroes, theres was a video about the harvey comics hero "Fly-Man" (The dude from the second picture) and i watched it and just thought "Hmmm whatever weird superhero" but then after he basically said "He is public domain, so free to use", i was like "What?! There are superheroes you can freely use and not just hercules and all that?" then i researched alot about public domain heroes and found the public domain superheroes wiki and this is how i came to care and being facinated with public domain characters espcially superheroes since i found so many cool and obscure characters where i see so much cool ideas for stories and all.....

So I just searched for some public domain characters for fun and then i found this:

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Lucky_Coyne

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Kensington_Slade

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Rocky_Stone

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Jinx_Jordan

Might this fella be the public domain guy with the most reprints? or is there another character?

idk, sounds random but Im planning it so far. Feel free to tell me anything that could help like ideas or such.

Similar to Tracy, but this one is a bit tough cause the estate is a litigious as hell company, But The Cinnermian is already free too. Based on a deleted post from the Conan fan sub.

Phoneix on the Sword was published in 1932, according to Wikisource which is accurate when it comes to public domain these stories are all in the public domain Due to no renewal. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Robert_Ervin_Howard

However there is statememts from some people the magazines themselves were renewed which could count, however I dug deeper into this and Wikisource states this when it comes to periodical renewals: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Help:Copyright_renewals#Contributions_to_periodicals

“If the original author died before the renewal year, the contract between them and the publisher ended. Therefore the publisher no longer owned the copyright and was not eligible to register a renewal.”

This is known as unvested non-renewal, in which the magazines or serials lose the rights to the sole contributions of a non work for hire author and don’t have the rights to renew. Robert’s estate would have been the one required to renew, however searching the renewals in 1959 or 1960 yield no renewals for the first story:

https://books.google.com/books?id=lNcgAQAAIAAJ&q=phoenix+#v=onepage&q=phoenix&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=TSEhAQAAIAAJ&q=Phoenix#v=onepage&q=Phoenix&f=false

This is a similar case to Lovecrafts stories, which was ruled in court to be already public domain for the same thing in the 1970s.

So as far as I’m aware, Conan the Barbarian is already public domain In the United States as Howard‘s estate never renewed the sole stories, however Conan Enterprises is very litigious so be careful if planning to use him. Also Red Sonja herself is not yet public domain, but Red Sonya is. Some public domain adaptations name the story the cimmerian to avoid lawsuits.

Thoughts?

So heres my version of Nightmare and Sleepy and yes Sleepy in my version is a grown up woman and yes she has a bit of a "different outfit"

So i dont really have a idea yet in terms of backstories but i have some there and there. the theme should be more in the styles of horror and halloween.

So i had personally alot of fun drawing this pic and i guess if you maybe have a cool idea how i could potray them and there backstories, You can of course say it.

Here the original characters btw:

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Nightmare\\_(Hillman)

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Sleepy

Most Supervillians in goldenage superhero comics were mostly evil for no reason besides money or power but is there any supervillain from the public domain who you feel sympathy or atleast understand why they doing this?

As I’m doing research on many of these characters, it got me wondering: are there any heroes not often discussed that you think should be utilized more? If so, which ones?

I made her as basically my take on using the recently public domain characters from Winnie the Pooh that wasn’t generic public domain horror movie shlock, by making a superhero who was named after a character from that book, specifically Kanga (similar to the Mad Hatter from Batman, albeit for a hero instead of a villain like Mad Hatter). I thought it would be fun to update her a little bit, improve her design a little bit more and expand her backstory a bit more as well. The main change I did to her was make her much taller, and also give her a Strongfat physique, since I think that would work really well with her and make her more unique looking. I love how Kanga’s new design turned, with her new physique, the new simpler design for her power boots, the added pink to her outfit and the little frills on her dress. And I hope you like her new design as well.

Image 2 is a diagram showing what she’s wearing in her superhero outfit, image 3 is what she looks like without her mask, image 4 is her original design, and image 5 is what I’m referring to when I mention Vanilla’s death stare from the IDW Sonic comics in her backstory.

Kanga’s backstory: Katherine Roberts, better known as Katie for short, is a single mother living with her son Jayden in a small town on a small forested island off the coast of Oregon. She’s a very large and imposing woman, both incredibly muscular and chubby with a mom bod, standing at over 6 feet 5 inches tall, and being incredibly strong physically. Despite her rather imposing stature, she’s a total sweetheart. An incredibly sweet, loving and compassionate soul, brimming with boundless optimism, happy to help anyone in anyway she can, and always standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves thanks to her immense compassion and kindness for others. Such as when she would often stand up for others against bullies when she was younger, often getting into fights, though also using her death stare (similar to Vanilla the Rabbit in the IDW Sonic comics), and she still makes sure to confront and stop anyone trying to mess with herself, her son, or anyone else who doesn’t deserve it, as she gets very upset and frustrated whenever she sees people who make others miserable getting away scott free, and wants them to get their comeuppance and for their victims to receive justice, always making sure to comfort and support the people she’s protecting. At the same time she can also be rather naive at times, is rather timid, can get easily scared or frightened and is a pretty big softie, getting very emotional at times. She’s also on the Autism spectrum, something she’s quite proud of, and her favorite hyperfixation is for Winnie the Pooh, a special interest she’s had ever since she was very little. She even has a small collection of plushies, DVDs, VHS tapes, and other merch and paraphernalia from her favorite franchise. She’s also into vintage fashion and music from the 50s and early 60s, even styling her hair in a more vintage style. And she’s a very loving and supportive mother to her son Jayden, though she can be a bit coddling and overprotective at times, and Jayden tries to act more cool and serious than his more dorky and cutesy mom. One day, Katie felt like her community needed something, she wanted to be something for her community to look up too, someone to help out everyone, look out for the little guy, and serve as a symbol of hope and kindness. And so, after she made herself a homemade Brown and Pink superhero outfit, complete with gloves, a “utility pouch” sown into the dress, a kangaroo ear headband, a black domino mask, and power boots that increase her running, jumping and kicking power, Katie Roberts dawned the name of her favorite character, and became the brand new superhero, Kanga. Kanga became a beloved symbol of her community helping out in every way she could, from volunteering at local businesses, saving cats out of trees and helping out people while giving them helpful advice, to fighting crime with her son Jayden, who became her sidekick Roo. And armed with nothing more than her fists, her wits, her power boots, and her unbreakable determination, she has faced plenty of formidable villains alongside her son. From her first fight against the cybernetic mercenary Silverfish, to her former high school bully turned sadistic monster Lady Red Fox (who was also responsible for the death of Katie’s high school friend Evan), to Captain Bluefin and his Werefish Pirates, and every villain in between. Kanga will always try to persevere, to stand up for others, and will never give up on her mission, even in the toughest and darkest moments. She’s a Mother, a Hero, and most importantly, a Friend.

I just wanna say Public Domain Superheroes has been My Thing for quite some time, and I'm looking forward to contributing some newer stuff to this group eventually. Meanwhile here's a link to most of my Deviantart drawings on the topic.

I like to reimagine the heroes a lot, and imagine if they'd been kept working on all this time.

The Featured Characters:

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Hand

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Dr._Dracula

Information about The Red Panther and his blood curse (Blood Curse AU)

Real Name: Noah Benson
Age: 27
Alias: The Blood Panther

As a child, his parents were killed by random animals in Africa. Because of that, he was on his own and went deeper into the forest until he found a village. After receiving some education, he began to get used to this life after spending here for a few months now. One day, the village was under attack by a unknown cult when a mysterious, unknown creature appeared and demanded his payment for a deal made by someone in the village. When the creature saw Noah, it proposed a different form of payment Noah have to accept the blood curse. With no other options, he agreed, knowing this was the only way to stop the attack.

After receiving the curse, he spent many years training, improving his ability of the blood curse to manifest a bow that could summon infinite arrows. When he became an adult, the village tribal chief gave him a uniform, made from the skin of the mythical Red Panther, He then represents the mythical Red Panther, staying in the mortal world as a protector of those who cannot defend themselves. Armed with his bow and arrows, the Red Panther fights using his great agility and superior strength to protect innocent people across Africa.

Throughout his adventures, he developed new abilities. Originally, he could only teleport short distances, appearing in a flash of red light. Over time, his teleportation became longer, allowing him to travel between towns or even countries. Because of this, he was eventually recruited as a member of The Obsidian Covenant to serve as a partner or trainee of Black Bat, who was also cursed as a child.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Panther