I still get the occasional enquiry about a post over seven years ago on 'After You've Gone' that explored the rather elusive history of the Pop Pic Library comic book. Since then, with the help of some eagle-eyed readers of this rather occasional blog, I've managed to add some titles to my ongoing and incomplete checklist.
Pop Pic Library was an oddity from the heyday of the 1960s pop-boom. It was a series of 68 page black and white comic books whose titles were all named after 7" chart-smashing hits by the key bands and crooners of the era. But apart from an uncredited colour photo of the artist on the back cover, everything within totally deviated from the actual lyrics of the songs themselves. Even the names of the band members, the songwriters, the producers and the record labels were omitted.
The very first title was 'The Last Time' by The Rolling Stones - a single that was released in February 1965, so this dates the pocked-sized series to have commenced around then. The 18 x 12 cms sized comics were published by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co and printed in Redhill, Surrey - and according to the blurb that appeared below the last panel on the final pages, two titles were published on the 15th of each month. Pop Pic Library was distributed in the UK, and were also shipped out to "Australasia, South Africa, Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi". The interior art was not credited, but sometimes the covers were - No.4 was by Josep Maria Miralles, a Spanish artist who drew many romance titles for the UK market during this time.
I wonder whether the bands themselves ever caught sight of these little rogue comic books that re-imagined bizarre sequential art versions of their hit songs for the price of one shilling?
Examples of Pop Pic Library rarely surface these days, particularly the higher number issues, and there's not much information out there about just how many titles were published, or the size of the circulation for the digest-sized comic books. So far, it appears that the series ran to 1968 as the last number that I've come across is No.72, Congratulations by Cliff Richard, a Chart Topping hit which was released in the March of that year.
Here is my updated checklist of 65 known titles - and I look forward to hearing from those who can help to fill in the gaps...
Pop Pic Library - a partial checklist:
No.1 The Last Time - The Rolling Stones
No.2 A World of our Own - The Seekers
No.3 I’m Alive – The Hollies
No.4 Set Me Free - The Kinks
No.5 Heart Full of Soul - The Yardbirds
No.6 The One in the Middle - Manfred Mann
No.7 We’ve Got to Get out of this Place - The Animals
No.8 You’ve got your Troubles - The Fortunes
No.9 I’m Down - The Beatles
No.10 Like We Used To Be - Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames
No.11 Whatcha Gonna Do About It - The Small Faces
No.12 Hark - Unit 4 Plus 2
No.13 Yesterday Man - Chris Andrews
No.14 Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones
No.15 We Can Work it Out - The Beatles
No.16 Don’t Bring me Your Heartaches - Paul & Barry Ryan
No.17 A Must to Avoid - Herman's Hermits
No.18 Keep on Running - Spencer Davis Group
No.19 You Were On My Mind - Crispian St. Peters
No.20 As Tears Go By - The Rolling Stones
No.21 A Groovy Kind of Love - The Mindbenders
No.22 Inside Looking Out - The Animals
No.23 I Can't Let Go - The Hollies
No.24 The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore - The Walker Brothers
No.25 I Put a Spell on You - Alan Price Set
No.26 Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann
No.27 Not Responsible - Tom Jones
No.28 Sorrow - The Merseys
No.29 Bus Stop - The Hollies
No.30 Paperback Writer - The Beatles
No.31 Get Away - Georgie Fame
No.32 Out of Time - Chris Farlowe
No.33 All or Nothing - The Small Faces
No.34 Got To Get You Into My Life - Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers
No.35 I'm a Boy - The Who
No.36 Bend It! - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
No.37 High Time - Paul Jones
No.38 I Can’t Control Myself - The Troggs
No.39 Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group
No.40 Help me Girl - Eric Burdon & the Animals
No.41 In the Country - Cliff Richard
No.42 Sunshine Superman - Donovan
No.43 Got To Get You Into My Life - Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers
No.44 Let's Spend the Night Together - The Rolling Stones
No.45 On a Carousel - The Hollies
No.46 Penny Lane - The Beatles
No.47 There's a Kind of Hush - Herman's Hermits
No.49 Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings - Tom Jones
No.50 Dedicated to the One I Love - The Mama's and the Papa's
No.52 Silence is Golden - The Tremeloes
No.54 Okay! - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch
No.55 There Goes My Everything - Engelbert Humperdinck
No.56 All You Need is Love - The Beatles
No.57 Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
No.58 I'll Never Fall In Love Again - Tom Jones
No.59 Hole in My Shoe - Traffic
No.60 Flowers in the Rain - The Move
No.61 The Last Waltz - Engelbert Humperdinck
No.62 I Can See for Miles - The Who
No.63 Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles
No.64 Let the Heartaches Begin - Long John Baldry
No 66 Daydream Believer - The Monkees
No.68 Thank U Very Much - The Scaffold
No.69 As You Are - The Tremeloes
No.72 Congratulations - Cliff Richard
Two more titles, though as yet unconfirmed are:
ReplyDeleteNo.44 Let's Spend the Night Together - The Rolling Stones
No.61 The Last Waltz - Engelbert Humperdinck
I have the original aluminium offset lithographic plates for the covers of No 57 . " Pleasant Valley Sunday " by The Monkees and 58 " I'll Never Fall in Love Again " by Tom Jones
ReplyDeleteIf interested in seeing some images , please email me on david@shibusa-gallery.co.uk
ReplyDeleteHi David, thank you for sharing with me the title of PPL #57 - and more remarkably, that original plates still exist. I will get in touch. Cheers!
ReplyDelete