"Plagiarism, this is simply shameless plagiarism!"
"The Superman copyright has always been held by The Messenger Newspaper. Can't we file a lawsuit against World Daily News?"
"No, I asked a lawyer friend. World Daily News obviously prepared for this long ago. They modified many plotlines in the "Super Soldier" comic to some extent, making the whole comic look similar but difficult to definitively label as plagiarism..."
"Such an obvious image, with that 'U' on its chest, completely mimicking Superman's design. How can it not be judged as plagiarism?!"
"Apparently, the law doesn't define it that way. Just like the identical appearance of detectives in Detective Comics, World Daily News can argue that this is simply the image of a superhero. Don't forget, World Daily News has experience with The Yellow Kid comic in the past; they understand comic copyright issues better than we do."
The Yellow Kid comic.
It refers to the comic character who appeared in World Daily News's comic column back then, and was the most representative comic figure of the Yellow Journalism era. The protagonist was a child with only a few strands of hair and no teeth, wearing a long, oversized yellow shirt, which was a common image of children in New York's slums at the time.
In the comic, The Yellow Kid wandered everywhere, expressing his views, attracting a lot of attention for World Daily News at the time.
Later, The Yellow Kid was poached from its creator Outcault by William Randolph Hearst, the owner of New York News, which infuriated Pulitzer. He then re-hired painter George Luks to continue drawing The Yellow Kid for World Daily News and took Hearst to court.
When the competition between the two major newspapers was fiercest, The Yellow Kid comic was serialized on both their newspapers for a full year.
World Daily News and New York News were unyielding in their rivalry.
Even with the author's copyright so clear, The Yellow Kid comic character could still be split and serialized in two competing newspapers.
Not to mention, the "Super Soldier" currently running in World Daily News.
Furthermore, if Colin's side were to file a lawsuit, it would directly elevate "Super Soldier" to the same status as Superman, giving World Daily News an opportunity for massive hype.
"Are we just going to let this go?!"
Inside the Messenger Newspaper Office, facing World Daily News's blatant act of plagiarism.
Little John and the others appeared indignant.
Except for Francis and a few other employees who had only recently joined the newspaper office, carefully refraining from expressing too many opinions.
Little John, Harry, and the others had already engaged in heated discussions.
Their main target of condemnation was, naturally, the "Knock-off Superman" "Super Soldier" comic strip in the latest issue of World Daily News.
Inside the newspaper office, looking at the "Super Soldier" comic strip on the table, Little John found it particularly offensive, wishing he could just tear it right off the newspaper.
"Of course, we can't just let it go."
Colin wasn't too surprised by the appearance of the "Knock-off Superman."
In later generations, with the rise of superhero themes, similar knock-offs or imitations would only become more frequent.
In fact, as far as Colin knew, there was more than one superhero character modeled after Superman.
Even during the later period when superheroes flourished, such acts of plagiarism were rampant and unstoppable, let alone now, in the Great Depression era, when Superman had only just been born.
However, no matter how these comics imitated, they could never surpass the true Superman.
Of course, knowing that plagiarism is inevitable is one thing.
How to deal with it is another.
Just as Colin had told Newsboy Jimmy before, he certainly wouldn't be indifferent to World Daily News's act of plagiarism.
"Jack, do you know where I can buy a color printing rotary press?"
Thinking of this, Colin directly asked Jack Liebowitz.
Hearing Colin's question, Little John and the others, who had been hotly debating inside the newspaper office, seemed to fall silent.
Jack frowned, thought carefully for a moment, and then replied with some uncertainty, "I remember, I think there's a printing factory that has an idle color printing rotary press."
As he spoke, Jack looked up at Colin in front of him and tentatively asked, "Are you planning to...?"
Colin nodded, not denying Jack's guess.
"I think this is an opportunity to transform The Messenger Newspaper from black-and-white to a color newspaper."
The world's first color-printed newspaper was produced by World Daily News, right in front of them. Although the concept of color printing wasn't new, Joseph Pulitzer's World Daily News was the first to apply this concept to newspapers, the first to publish color-printed illustrations, and the first to establish dedicated color printing comic strip pages.
The Yellow Kid gained fame precisely because of color printing.
If The Messenger Newspaper wanted to compete against World Daily News, relying solely on the black-and-white Superman comic would clearly be somewhat challenging.
"But in that case, the newspaper office's costs would...?"
Hearing Colin wanted to convert The Messenger Newspaper to a color newspaper, Old John raised his concerns.
Compared to black-and-white newspapers, the cost of color newspapers was naturally different. Especially in this era, color printing technology was far from as mature as it would later become. For a single color illustration to be colored, it often required using the color printing machine multiple times consecutively, covering one color at a time.
This is also why characters in earlier comics often only appeared in one color.
"Cost is not an issue."
The strong sales of Messenger Comics and the production of Superman action figures were Colin's confidence in wanting to convert The Messenger Newspaper into a color newspaper.
At the same time, if Colin wanted to directly defeat World Daily News in the newspaper market, The Messenger Newspaper's transition to color was also crucial.
Otherwise, while World Daily News's "Knock-off Superman," "Super Soldier," was already appearing in color, the original Superman was still serialized in black-and-white in The Messenger Newspaper.
Even loyal readers of the Superman comic would eventually become bothered by this in the long run.
Some readers who hadn't seen Superman might even subconsciously consider "Super Soldier" in World Daily News to be the real Superman.
Neither of these situations was acceptable to Colin.
What's more, World Daily News's plagiarism not only affected Superman's image but also had a certain impact on his acquisition of [Faith].
After all, a "Knock-off Superman" wouldn't acquire [Faith] for him.
(end of chapter)