Golden Age Super-heroes in the Public Domain

Consider this a writing reference, an art reference and of course a jumping point into a history lesson.

First, let's start with a collection of images of Super-heroes in the Public Domain. They are from the golden age of comics and as such do look somewhat dated (fluffy pants, robots, jetpacks, ray guns, swashbucklers, grinning Adonises, etc.). However, they are an important piece of comic book, art, and writing history. Enjoy and of course if you so choose use them in your writing.

To my board Art is Amazing with these images and other artifices of visual creativity.

A jump to just the first image.

A number of these golden age heroes experienced a temporary revival when Alex Ross pulled them from their slumber for his Project Superpowers limited series. A revival of sorts in the modern era.

Another handful of these heroes also experienced a summoning to the present day by Alan Moore and Peter Hogan in a mini-series spun-off from Alan Moore's Tom Strong comic. The series is called Terra Obscura.

For a details reference, the following Wikia (yes I know, ads, clicks, heavy on the browser, my apologies) page has a rather complete collection of Public Domain characters for both comic books and comic strips as well as open source characters.

A searchable database for all your imagination inspiring material.

Now go enjoy the images, the history of characters, and start cranking out some words. :)