The Rifleman (comics series)

The Rifleman comics series was a 20-issue comic series released from November 1959 to October 1964. Each issue was 32-36 pages, in full color, and featured several stories with illustrated versions of Lucas McCain, Mark McCain and Marshal Torrance.
The first 12 issues were published by Dell Comicshttps://www.comics.org/series/16573/, while issues 13-20 were published by Western Publishing under the Gold Key brandhttps://www.comics.org/series/16592/. The covers featured full-color photographs of Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford as their characters. They sold for $0.10, $0.12, and $0.15.
Like the show, the comics were episodic in nature - each story was its own isolated storyline, and could be enjoyed without having read the prior issues. Most issues contained 2 to 3 longer illustrated stories from 4 to 12 pages in length. In addition, some issues also contained single-page text pieces, and also single-page filler comic strips.
==Copyright status==
The first 18 issues of the series are in the public domain, as they never had their copyright renewed. However, some 1-page filler texts and 4-page filler comic strips that did not feature any Rifleman characters in issues 11-20 are still copyrighted (Western Publishing did not hold the copyright to The Rifleman franchise and could only renew the copyright in stories in which no Rifleman characters appeared).
The last 2 issues are still protected under copyright law as they were registered for copyright in 1964 and are subject to different protection terms; these issues will not enter public domain until the year 2059.The Rifleman Dell Comics Treasury, ISBN 978-0-9854781-8-6
==References==