As the calendar flipped to 2025 this week, another year’s worth of copyrighted works became available for new creators to adapt, mash up, remix or just display in whatever way they like. From Popeye to books by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, works from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924 have entered the public domain. It’s a particularly good year for new public domain films.
The character of Popeye first appeared in a 1929 comic called “Gobs of Work” that was part of the Thimble Theatre strip. Though the character did not use his trademark spinach to build his strength in the original comic, the vegetable does appear in a 1931 strip whose copyright has lapsed, allowing remixers to add that attribute to anything they might do with the character.
There’s also some complexity when it comes to music. Sound recordings from 1924 are now in the public domain, while 1929 marks the new public domain window for musical compositions. George Gershwin’s 1924 recording of his “Rhapsody in Blue” is now in the public domain, as is 1929’s “An American in Paris,” also written by Gershwin.
