Though this scanned or digitally photographed image is subject to copyright by King Features Syndicate, its use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
It representatively illustrates an educational article about a once popular, once widely-appreciated comic strip artist of the past; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of art by the subject of the article, and relates to matters specifically covered in the critical commentary. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic, which directly concerns a visual artist and his art.
It is of much lower resolution than and only about one-half of the original. Any potential copies made from it would be of very inferior quality unsuitable for any commercial purpose. The image is not used here for profit, and its use on Wikipedia does not compete with the copyright holder, and such use does not decrease the value of the copyright to its holder.
It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the article subject, because the whole body of work under discussion is copyrighted.
Fair useFair use of copyrighted material in the context of Austin Briggs//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Austinbriggs.jpgtrue
This image is from a comic strip, webcomic or from the cover or interior of a comic book. The copyright for this image is most likely owned by either the publisher of the comic or the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced the comic in question. It is believed that
the use of low-resolution images of the cover of a comic book to illustrate:
the issue of the comic book in question;
the periodical comic book series of which this issue is a part; or
the copyrighted comic book character(s) or group(s) on the cover of the issue in question;
or the use of low-resolution images of a single panel from a comic strip or an interior page of a comic book to illustrate:
the scene or storyline depicted, or
the copyrighted character(s) or group(s) depicted on the excerpted panel in question;
where no free alternative exists or can be created,