Public Domain Superheroes Take the Screen in Miss Masque's Saturday Breakfast Cereal

Ricky Henry, a Night Flight contributor and a creative at Cincinnati's CBS affiliate, is trying to bring a crew of public domain and classic comic book superheroes to the stage and screen. Miss Masque's Saturday Breakfast Cereal is a pilot for a late night or early morning comedy talk show hosted by Miss Masque, a public domain superhero first published by Nedor Comics in 1946. While Miss Masque (and other characters featured in the show) was created less than the 95 years Americans now associate with copyright expiration, her situation is a little different from Winnie-The-Pooh or Steamboat Willie. 

In the case of public domain superheroes, they were created prior to the changes made to U.S. copyright law in the 1970s. Up until a certain point, copyright wasn't automatic, and rightsholders had to file a copyright renewal in order to keep them past 28 years. In the case of hundreds of early superheroes, those rights were never renewed, usually because publishers were founded to cash in on the superhero craze of the early 1940s, but folded before the 28-year window was up.

"I think #1, it helps get you going a little faster. I've come up with original characters before, and I've done short subjects," Henry told ComicBook.com. "For Night Flight, I did a thing called Space Foxes, which was sort of my homage to Dirty Pair. Original characters are always fun, but this was a way to kickstart it, and to give me something to go off of, where I don't have to reinvent the wheel with costume design. Black Terror's costume was pretty straightforward, but I kind of leaned into the old Captain Marvel/Shazam! serial look, with the military-looking general coat. So that allowed me a chance to play in that sandbox, and if you know you know....And there's been a little bit of a resurgence, too. Fresh Monkey Fiction did those action figures -- you can go buy a Bulletgirl or a Black Terror figure, or a Phantom Lady, characters like that. They're creeping back in a little bit, but it's a neat little nod. If you know, you know, and if you don't, that's cool, too. They look cool, and they have kind of a neat aesthetic. Also, ultimately, if we're going to be showing public domain content, why not have a public domain host?"

Henry has been working in TV since he was 16 years old, when he got a chance to work with other kids in his class on a public access show. Later on, he found his way into the industry, and in recent years, has even done a little work with Night Flight's streaming service, giving him a full-circle feeling since he grew up on the original Night Flight.

"Growing up, I spent my allowance on the sturdiest antennas I could find at KMart, trying to catch Louisville, Kentucky or Dayton, Ohio channels from my spot near Cincinnati," Henry said in a statement. "It was around that time that I fell in love with the syndicated version of Night Flight, [Mystery Science Theater 3000], and of course, binged a ton of afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons! I've managed to carve out a decent career in TV, you could say."

Ahead of pitching Miss Masque's Saturday Breakfast Cereal to a network, Henry plans to host a live show at Los Angeles's PACK Theater on Friday.

"I've produced a couple of one-off specials, like a live Halloween movie marathon in the spirit of Elvira or Vampira, and even cooked up a few shorts (Space Foxes) that aired briefly on IFC during Night Flight's revival in 2018," Henry explained. "Since then, and maybe it's turning 40 or a mild midlife crisis, I've had this burning desire to give one last hard push toward my ultimate dream-a true Saturday morning cartoon revival, complete with host segments and skits à la Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Space Ghost Coast to Coast... with a dash of Elvira's magic thrown in for good measure!"

Here's the official write-up of the event, from Event Brite, where you can get tickets:

The Basements Tapes is the name of the event at The Pack Theater (home ofThe Last Podcast crew) – hosting ULTIMATE NOSTALGIA NIGHT at 10PM on Friday, February 16. 

Tickets are $15, and fans can meet and get photos and autographs with WWE and AEW alumni Leva Bates. You can check out the Facebook page for Henry's Electric Tapes for more details.

The event at the Pack is showing the first 2 episodes of Miss Masque's Saturday Breakfast Cereal as well as Space Foxes, which stars Bates. Space Foxes is a short film that is a throwback to 1990's CD-rom games like Night Trap and Wing Commander. Henry and Bates will host a Q&A after the shows.