"LOS ANGELES -- Betty Boop and "Blondie" are joining Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain. The first appearances of the classic cartoon and comic characters are among the pieces of intellectual property whose 95-year U.S. copyright maximum has been reached, putting them in the public domain on Jan. 1. That means creators can use and repurpose them without permission or payment."
"Betty Boop began as a dog. Seriously. When she first appears in the 1930 short "Dizzy Dishes," one of four of her cartoons entering the public domain, she's already totally recognizable as the Jazz Age flapper later memorialized in countless tattoos, T-shirts and bumper stickers. She has her baby face, short hair with groomed curls, flashy eyelashes and miniature mouth. But she's also got dangling poodle ears and a tiny black nose. Those would soon morph into dangling earrings and a tiny white nose."
On Jan. 1, 2026, first appearances of classic characters reached the 95-year U.S. copyright maximum and entered the public domain, allowing creators to use them without permission or payment. The 2026 cohort includes Betty Boop's 1930 debut and early Blondie material among cartoons and comics becoming freely reusable. Annual additions have occurred since 2019 after a 20-year pause caused by congressional copyright extensions. The newly public works reflect cultural and economic conditions between the two world wars and the depths of the Great Depression. Betty Boop's initial 1930 depiction in "Dizzy Dishes" showed canine features that later evolved into the iconic flapper image.
Read at 6abc Philadelphia
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