Help - 1920s 'The Popular' from Amalgamated Press

[booksandcomics]

Does anyone know anything about 'The Popular'? Searching on google has come up trumps. Does anyone know when this was first published and when it ceased publication?

Cheers,

Adam

[paw broon]

The Popular started out in 1912 as The Penny Popular. The title changed to The Popular in 1920, with a price change to a penny halfpenny, finishing in 1931 when the paper became Ranger. I knew a wee bit about the paper as I have a couple of issues but the info. is freely available on Friardale. Have a look:-
http://www.friardale.co.uk/Popular/Popular.htm

[colcool007]

Nice going Paw. I always forget about Friardale as a good site for those earlier comics.

[felneymike]

I think the penny-halfpenny re-launch was 1919, rather than 1920. I have the first few issues of that re-launch "bound", but in very bad condition!

I don't know about the later issues, but the ones I have have three short stories, featuring popular AP characters (Billy Bunter, Sexton Blake etc). I think at least some of these stories were reprints (possibly abridged, or just with smaller print and fewer illustrations!). An early issue from the penny-halfpenny relaunch featured an incredible occurrence - Billy Bunter's postal order actually arrived!

[Phoenix]

According to my records the final issue of the penny version of The Penny Popular was 286 on March 30th 1918. The penny ha'penny replacement didn't actually appear until the following January 25th, but it was still called The Penny Popular. The change of name to The Popular took place on August 28th 1920 but the price rise was to 2d.

[Phoenix]

The change of name to The Popular took place on August 28th 1920 but the price rise was to 2d.

I've just looked at the Friardale site that Paw provided the link to, and read the relevant sections of the Collectors' Digest article by Eric Fayne. Eric makes the point that the price rise to 2d took place with issue 161 of The Popular, when its page count increased to 28. The information that I was relying on in Robert Kirkpatrick's From The Penny Dreadful To The Ha'penny Dreadfuller is a bit misleading, as he says that The Popular is the continuation of The Penny Popular, following price increase. The price increase he is referring to can therefore only be the one in 1919 with the second coming of The Penny Popular after a hiatus of nearly ten months.

[paw broon]

Well done, Phoenix. If it's of any interest, my rough workings were done by checking the cover illos for the price change.