The surface viscoelasticity of poly(1-alkylene-co-maleic acid) (PXcMA) with side chains varying from C4 to C16 was investigated at the air/water interface using the technique of surface light scattering (SLS). In the dilute surface mass density regime, the side chain length of the 1-alkylene has been shown to produce a wide range of surface viscoelastic films, from an elasticity-dominant film to a viscosity-dominant film. On the other hand, in the semidilute surface mass density regime, the film viscoelasticity is scarcely affected by the side chain length. Rather, the viscoelastic parameters are shown to scale with the inverse of surface mass density, i.e., area per monomer A. An inference is drawn that interactions between the hydrophilic polymer head of maleic acid moiety and the interface dominate in this regime. The loss tangent value varies with the side chain length in the dilute regime, whereas it no longer depends on the side chain length in the semidilute regime, where it collapses onto a limiting scaling behavior hitherto unknown: tan delta similar to A(-10) similar to Pi(2).