Classic figures bop into public domain (maybe

Voices MICHAEL HILTZIK COLUMNIST

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BETTY BOOP may continue to be trapped in copyright jail in the new year.

(DANIEL KNIGHTON Getty Images)

Here’s a quick quiz about some cultural icons on the verge of experiencing a kind of rebirth:

1, What was the original storyline of the Dagwood and Blondie comics?

2. What was Blondie’s maiden name?

3. In her original incarnation, what animal was Betty Boop?

Those characters all date from 1930, which means that on New Year's Day 2026 they lose their copyright protection — or at least some of it — and enter the public domain. That means that, creatively speaking, they're available for anyone to copy, share, slice and dice, reconfigure and recreate without payment to their former rights holders. But they've been sequestered for so long that their origins have been obscured, allowing the public to rediscover them anew.

Thanks to our convoluted copyright laws in the U.S., the wait has been 95 years.

These characters aren't the only artistic creations entering the public domain this year. As Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle of Duke Law School report in their indispensable annual report about public domain day, the list includes Dashiell Hammett’s fully realized book version of “The Maltese Falcon” (perhaps better known through the 1941 Humphrey Bogart movie); Nancy Drew; Dick and Jane, those icons of reading instruction through the 1970s; the Gershwin brothers’ song “I Got Rhythm”; the Marx Brothers’ second full-length film, “Animal Crackers”; and The Little Engine that Could.

Before we explore the consequences of the long wait for copyright expiration, here are the answers to the above quiz:

1. Dagwood Bumstead was the scion of a rich family that disowned him when he married Blondie, a flapper — forcing him to take an office job under the irascible J.C. Dithers.

2. Blondie’s maiden name was Boopadoop.

3. Betty Boop was a dog.