CBR: FIRST LOOK: "Mighty Samson"

[CBR News]

Dark Horse has given CBR News an exclusive first look at the latest Gold Key character to be revived under the pen of Jim Shooter - the Mighty Samson! Featuring Steve Olliffe on art, the series debuts December 1.


Full article here.

[Gryphon]

This looks fantastic


but when will the dark horse solicitations for december be released?

[XFactorFan]

OK ... I'm confused ... this is just a question born out of curiosity, though.

Samson, I assume, at some point, entered the public domain--because for the last couple years he has been used as a character in Dynamite Entertainment's ongoing Project Superpowers (I say ongoing because the main book has consisted of two mini- and maxi- series, "Chapter One" and "Chapter Two", but it is essentially an ongoing series).

Apparently, when one company begins to utilize a public domain character in its work, that character remains in the public domain, even though (I assume) said company has now created an intellectual property right to the work it has produced using said character?

The ability of multiple publishers to utilize the same characters creates all sorts of continuity and intellectual property ownership questions, doesn't it? Wouldn't subsequent artists need to be diligent about reading the work of other writers and artists working more or less concurrently in order possible copyright infringement claims?

[Ex_]

God, I WANT to be excited, but Solar and Magnus aren't that good..

but when will the dark horse solicitations for december be released?

Probably next week..have any other solicits come out yet?

[hondobrode]

I've liked Solar but Magnus isn't clicking. This looks good though.

[emb021]

OK ... I'm confused ... this is just a question born out of curiosity, though.

Samson, I assume, at some point, entered the public domain--because for the last couple years he has been used as a character in Dynamite Entertainment's ongoing Project Superpowers (I say ongoing because the main book has consisted of two mini- and maxi- series, "Chapter One" and "Chapter Two", but it is essentially an ongoing series).

Apparently, when one company begins to utilize a public domain character in its work, that character remains in the public domain, even though (I assume) said company has now created an intellectual property right to the work it has produced using said character?

The ability of multiple publishers to utilize the same characters creates all sorts of continuity and intellectual property ownership questions, doesn't it? Wouldn't subsequent artists need to be diligent about reading the work of other writers and artists working more or less concurrently in order possible copyright infringement claims?

Uh, Samson has ALWAYS been in the public domain. He's a character from the Bible. Same with characters like Hercules, Thor, etc.

Its just that different comic book companies can come up with their own TAKE on a character. Hence, DC's Hercules is different from Marvel's Hercules. But someone can't do DC's Hercules.

Gold Key's Mighty Samson is different from the Samson used in Project Superhero, which is based on a golden age superhero that also showed up in Image Comics' Second Issue Project.

[cole9098]

"Five-hundred years after the end of the world"

If the world ended, how can there be anything around 500 years later?

[XFactorFan]

@emb021: Thanks

[chrissama200]

I'm really looking forward to Mighty Samson. Although I'm still very fond of Magnus, Solar, and Turok, I've seen them in the modern age before. Mighty Samson is kind of an unknown to me and I'm very excited to see Shooter's take on him.

[Professor Moriarty]

i'm really looking forward to it.

he looks like conan the barbarian.

[md62]

Wow. This looks great!

[Ed Love]

I like Oliffe's artwork, but since this is a re-imagining, why "Mighty Samson"? Once you go that route (and making him not even visually like Gold Key character), this could just as easily be DC's "Hercules Unbound".

I liked Magnus better than Solar myself. Mainly because it doesn't take as many liberties with the original. Shooter's first issue feels like it follows right on the heels of the original story. Shooter's Solar bores me with the God-complex of the character.

[Stephane Garrelie]

It looks great and i'm very happy to see Pat Olliffe is the artist.

[Strannik]

OK ... I'm confused ... this is just a question born out of curiosity, though.

Samson, I assume, at some point, entered the public domain--because for the last couple years he has been used as a character in Dynamite Entertainment's ongoing Project Superpowers (I say ongoing because the main book has consisted of two mini- and maxi- series, "Chapter One" and "Chapter Two", but it is essentially an ongoing series).

Apparently, when one company begins to utilize a public domain character in its work, that character remains in the public domain, even though (I assume) said company has now created an intellectual property right to the work it has produced using said character?

The ability of multiple publishers to utilize the same characters creates all sorts of continuity and intellectual property ownership questions, doesn't it? Wouldn't subsequent artists need to be diligent about reading the work of other writers and artists working more or less concurrently in order possible copyright infringement claims?

This is a different version of Samson. The public domain version was created in 1940s and published by Fox Feature Syndicate. This version was created in the 60s and published by Gold Key Comics. This version had enough district elements to be copyrighted as a distinct intellectual property, and he remained in copyright since.

To answer your question, though, Marvel, DC, Image, Boom and so many other companies have all published stories featuring Dracula. Each version had enough distinct elements to avoid legal problems.

So long as you don't directly copy, say, Marvel's version of Dracula, you can publish your own version without worrying about copyright violation.

[Strannik]

I like Oliffe's artwork, but since this is a re-imagining, why "Mighty Samson"? Once you go that route (and making him not even visually like Gold Key character), this could just as easily be DC's "Hercules Unbound".

Shooter's version is a strong guy on a post-Apocalyptic Earth. Even if the design is different, it's still similar enough to the Gold Key version to be considered a derivative. So, yes, the name does matter.