Created between 1901 and 1919

The 1900s and 1910s were a turning point: adventure fiction exploded outward from the page into true pop-culture icons. Lost worlds, jungle kings, lunar voyages, masked vigilantes, and planetary romance all took shape here — establishing the exact genres the Golden Age would build its superheroes on. This page lists the creations from 1900 to 1919 already in the U.S. public domain.

Already in the Public Domain (Created between 1900 and 1919)

The First Men In The Moon
First published in 1901, the novel, The First Men In The Moon by H.G. Wells is firmly in the public domain.
Image: Illustration facing page 54 of H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, 1st hardcover edition, published by George Newnes in 1901.

Tarzan
Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912 in the serialized novel, Tarzan of the Apes and first published in The All-Story magazine in August of that year, Tarzan is firmly in the public domain.
Image: Dust-jacket illustration for Tarzan and the Golden Lion, 1923. Artist unknown.

John Carter
Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912 in the serialized novel, A Princess of Mars and first published in The All-Story magazine, John Carter is firmly in the public domain.
Image: Cover of "The Mongo Machine" by James L. Richardson, 2025.

Professor Challenger
First published in 1912, the novel, The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, Professor Challenger is firmly in the public domain.
Image: Professor Challenger (sitting) as illustrated by Harry Rountree in Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Poison Belt in Strand Magazine, March, 1913.

Zorro
Created in 1919, and first appearaing in the novel, The Curse of Capestrano by Johnston McCulley, Zorro is firmly in the public domain.
Image: Still from the American adventure film The Mark of Zorro (1920) with Douglas Fairbanks, on page 95 of the October 16, 1920 Exhibitors Herald.

1900 to 1919: Context & Fun Facts

• The birth of the “modern hero” archetype.
  Tarzan, John Carter, and Zorro established three pillars still used today: the feral superhuman, the noble adventurer on an alien world, and the aristocratic masked avenger fighting injustice at home.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs becomes the first true multimedia phenomenon.
  In a single year (1912) Burroughs launched Tarzan and John Carter — stories that spawned comics, movies, radio shows, and merchandising empires decades before superheroes existed.
• Zorro lays the groundwork for Batman.
  Johnston McCulley’s masked swordsman, double identity, cave hideout, and symbol-based calling card directly influenced Detective Comics creators. Zorro is essentially Batman’s great-grandfather.
• H.G. Wells shifts sci-fi from the Earth to the cosmos
  The First Men in the Moon introduced anti-gravity travel and an alien society with complex politics — themes that would define pulp sci-fi and later Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and your entire House of Entropy.
• Professor Challenger = proto–Hank Pym/Tony Stark/Lex Luthor
  Conan Doyle’s bulldozer-brained scientist-adventurer set the mold for the brilliant, abrasive, “I’ll solve this with reckless genius” characters that would dominate pulps and comics.