[Andrew999]

A heartwarming tale and such wonderful artwork - many ensemble pieces that could grace a gallery.

How sad it is that there don't appear to be similar picture libraries available today for creators to show their wares (and yet they still exist in Italy - so why not the UK?)

Link to the book: Schoolgirls' Picture Library 004 - Vera at Mystery Manor

[paw broon]

Italy has always had a history of and respect for comics.  The pocket library format was also popular in France, where remnants of the form still exist, I think; The Netherlands; Spain. Bear in mind that The Italian market in the '60's had a huge amount of very violent, no holds barred pockets -  Kriminal; Diabolik; Sadik; Fantasm, Spettrus; Satanik and more, before the government censored them.  There was also a huge porn comics industry which might still exist.  Many of these books were reprinted in Spanish and the market was flooded with them in Spain after Franco.  I've picked up some issues of Infernal; Naja and Cobra (French versions of Sadik); Mister-X etc in France. But British comics still has Commando and the DCT pocket libraries.
I love the format.

[Andrew999]

I speak Italian, having learned it at school, and for many years - from about 1995-2005 - I read half a dozen or so fumetti a month. The exchange rate made them cheap enough to import at that point direct from Sergio Bonelli in Milan - Legs Weaver, Dylan Dog, Martin Mystere, Julia (a particular favourite), the off-the-wall Napoleon, the richly gothic Dampyr and many others. Apart from perhaps Dylan and a couple of early Martin Mystere produced in the US, I've often wondered why these weren't produced in English editions. Very little in the way of marginal cost and a vast English-speaking market to attack.

Thanks for the reminder about DC Thomson's picture library series. I know that they produced loads of schoolgirl-type picture libraries in the 60s particularly - and I wonder why these have never been batched together for sale in maxi-pack editions for Christmas and so on?