I’ve been researching whether Gorgo and Konga are public domain and I think they might be based on how the debuted in novel and comic form prior to the release of their respective films.
Evidence
The comic books I believe are public domain due to a lack of proper copyright notice in the initial issues, at least from people have said (they have notices it’s just that I don’t know enough to say so), and if they are considered proper then the lack of renewal still puts the printed material in the public domain (at least things that would be renewed prior to 1992)
Both had novels that released in 1960 prior to their films debuting in 1961. Both novels were registered under monarch books, a label used by Charlton who published the comics. Neither novel appears to have been renewed from 1978 onward with only the films having their copyrights renewed
Now there’s two major hurdles to these characters potentially being public domain
Whether the derivative nature of the print media means the films take priority in establishing the copyright of the story and characters, in spite of not being the characters public debut
And whether the scripts are still copywritten. I haven’t found any evidence that the scripts themselves are copyrighted, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t and brings things into a legal grey area
So, if anyone who is more well versed in copyright law than me, especially a lawyer, please feel free to clear things up. Honestly it would be cool knowing that some giant monsters are public domain and usable by others
Although if these two aren’t public domain there’s at least Charlton’s legally distinct version of Repitlicus called Reptisaurus, since I beleive those comics never got their copyright renewed
