A Sunday Short Stack
Skip to comments
From The Bayeux Tapestry in the 11th Century to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, plus Felix’s Bag of Magic Tricks – seems we’re in a war zone today.
Part war propaganda, part comic strip
From NPR:
LONDON — The earliest-known depiction of the 1066 Battle of Hastings — which began the Norman Conquest, changing England’s ethnic mix and history forever — is coming home for the first time in 900 or so years.
The Bayeux Tapestry looks like a 224-foot medieval comic strip with scenes from that iconic 1066 battle, when William, Duke of Normandy — better known as William the Conqueror — led an army from France that invaded England, killed its king, Harold, with an arrow to the eye, and installed William on his throne. The tapestry is often called the world’s first war propaganda, woven in wool on linen.
It has also been referred to as the first comic strip. Or here. Or here.
The tapestry will be exhibited at the British Museum in London from September 2026 to July 2027, in the context of a special exhibition; meanwhile the French museum that currently houses it will be renovated. The news of the loan was released during the first of three days of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the UK, which is also aimed at celebrating the alliance between the two countries.
Who Actually Owns Buck Rogers?
The world rang in the year 2000 with great aplomb. With the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, it seemed that science fiction would soon become fact. People often commented that this was the time for all the Buck Rogers tropes to come to life – jet packs, ray guns, space ships, space travel, flying cars – even if it wasn’t part of the lexicon, it was accepted as such.
On the ownership side of things, the Nowlan family noticed something important. As the year 2000 unfolded, they noticed that the Dille Family Trust had failed to renew the Buck Rogers trademarks. They were also gearing up to file termination notices for the copyrights to early strips and stories. The Dille Family appeared oblivious to this activity, but they soon woke up when hit with a double whammy.
On 5 April 2001, the Dille Family Trust applied for a new Buck Rogers trademark. For them, it was business as usual. What they didn’t anticipate was on 29 October 2001, the Nowlan family filed notices of copyright termination for Buck Rogers 25th Century A.D. newspaper strips numbered 1303 to 1578.
Daniel Best takes a deep dive into the legal maneuverings of the Nowlan and Dille families over the past quarter century in their fight to control the intellectual property of Buck Rogers.
Spoiler alert!
Who owns Buck Rogers? That’d the grandchildren of Philip Francis Nowlan, the man who wrote the original story, Armageddon 2419 and had it published on 5 July 1928 in Amazing Stories Volume 3, Number 5 (cover dated August).
As of 2025, the Nowlan Family Trust, via the Buck Rogers Company, LLC and Armageddon, LLC, are now the owners of the trademarks for Buck Rogers, Wilam Deering, Black Barney, Dr. Huer, Killer Kane, Armageddon 2419A.D. and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The marks are active and cover clothing, motion picture films, comic books, downloadable multimedia files, trading cards, books, newspaper strips and more.
That settled. Now on to Felix the Cat?
There was no cash in this magic bag.
The Australian descendants of one of the creators of Felix the Cat claim an upstate New York man cut them out of the business for decades and controlled the rights to the cartoon feline — setting them back $100 million.
Felix, the distinctive black and white cat with a big grin whose catchphrase is “Righty-O!,” was co-created by a team of cartoonists, including Patrick Sullivan, in Manhattan in 1919, nearly a decade before Mickey Mouse was born.
Three heirs of Sullivan claim Donald Oriolo, of Pine Island, NY — whose cartoonist dad Joseph helped bring Felix back to prominence in the 1980s and created Felix’s scientist pal Poindexter — failed to inform them of the character’s modern day resurgence and spent decades “siphoning off revenue and assets for his sole benefit.”
As Kathianne Boniello at The New York Post tells us this lawsuit isn’t over ownership but a cut of The Cat.
Felix the Cat’s earning power over the years was thought to be in the “billions,” according to a January report in Animation Magazine.
But there’s no legal catfight to be had, insisted Oriolo’s lawyer, who denied his client cheated anyone.
Comments 2
Comments are closed.