Thorpe & Porter and Top Sellers were both imprints of publisher Williams. Between 1971 and 1977, Top Sellers published Pocket Chiller Library, running to 137 issues, but there are plenty of questions circulating online about the title’s origins and exactly what it featured – reprint European strips or commissioned material from British creators?
Some issues included second stories and we have included these, too. Special thanks to Adrian Griffiths for a huge amount of extra information!
• Read our main feature about Pocket Chiller Library here to find out more
• Checklists: Issues 1 – 49 | Issues 50 – 100 | Issues 101 – 137
Please note: From Issue 86, onwards, the entire remaining run of issues were reprints, so all issues after that are duplicates, some with different covers, and different titles, but the same internal stories. Some of these are even reprints of comics from the two earlier series, Nightmare Suspense Library and Tales of Terror Picture Library – which leads to the situation of one story (“Waxworks/ Terror in Wax) actually being published three times. Again, the story titles were often changed.
Checklist Issues 1 – 50
Additional information welcome!
1 – The Body
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
A story about a man bringing his wife back from the dead.
Second Story: The Curse
2 – The Jewels
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
A story about grave robbing
Second Story: The Corpse
Notes: The cover illustrations for Issues One and Two of Pocket Chiller Library seem to have got mixed up in the production process. Issue One, “The Body”, is a story about a man bringing his wife back from the dead. Whereas, Issue Two, “The Jewels”, is about grave robbing. Had the illustrations been the other way around, they would have correctly matched the stories – especially as the cover of “The Jewels” depicts an actual scene in “The Body”!
3 – The Monster of Rillington Place
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
The true story of the murderer, John Reginald Christie
4 – Killer Doll
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second Story – The Body Snatchers
5 – The Vampire of Dusseldorf
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
The true story of serial killer Peter Kurten. Very unpleasant for a comic book…
6 – The Evil Eye
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second Story – The Cats
7 – Hell on Earth
Cover: Fernando Fernandez (Signed on cover)
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story – Diagnosis
8 – The Pirate Brothers
Cover: Fernando Fernandez (Signed on cover)
Interior Art: Information Welcome
9 – The Ghost
Cover: Fernando Fernandez (Signed on cover)
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second Story – The Brain
10 – Space Virus
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story – The Visitor
11 – To Kill for Kicks
Cover: Fernando Fernandez (Signed on cover)
Interior Art: Information Welcome
This story is told in the same way as the other true stories in the early issues, but so far, we can’t find any online reference to the murderers featured, Stills and Koles.
Later reprinted as No. 136, “To Kill for Kicks”
12 – The Beast
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story – Corpse Without a Head
13 – The Nightmare
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story – The Medium.
“The Medium” is actually the first story in the comic, and “The Nightmare” is second
14 – Doctor Satan
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
The true story of French serial Killer Marcel Petiot
Later reprinted as No. 137, “Doctor Satan”
15 – The Potholers
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second Story – The Cameo
16 – Public Enemy Number One
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
The true story of US gangster John Dillinger. (Which hardly qualifies as “chiller” material!)
17 – The Mummy
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story: The Doctor
18 – The Butcher from Hanover
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
The true story of German serial killer, Fritz Haarmann
19 – Billy the Kid
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
True story of Billy the Kid. Not really chiller material – and really boring!
20 – The Statue
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story – The Vampire
21 – Images of Death
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Pocket Chiller Library 21 reprints Tales of Terror Picture Library No. 13 “The Waxworks” – and uses the same cover illustration.
Later reprinted as Pocket Chiller Library No. 83, Terror in Wax
22 – Body Snatcher
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
This is a reprint of Nightmare Suspense Picture Library no. 11, “Possession”, but with a different cover. In turn, the cover illustration is repurposed from Nightmare Suspense Picture Library No. 12, “The Summer House”, which is a story about a woman haunted by bloody hand prints. So this illustration would have been made for that story, and it makes no sense as the cover of “The Body Snatcher”. What a mess!
23 – Followers of Satan
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
24 – Hands of Evil
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Another mess. The story is a reprint of Nightmare Suspense Picture Library No. 9, “The Medium”, but with a different cover. The cover illustration is repurposed from a Tales of Suspense Picture Library issue – No. 7, “The Black Death”, which is a story about a radioactive monster that melts people.
So this illustration fits that story, but it makes no sense as the cover of “Hands of Evil”!
25 – The Bloody Flowers
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Second story: The Hanged Man
26 – Hypnosis / The Spider’s Web
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Two different versions of this edition have been spotted. The confusion may have been caused by the use of “The Spider’s Web” on the interior strip, but “Hypnosis” on the cover.
Second story: The Spider’s Web, which features a giant spider. The cover illustration is about this story, rather than “Hypnosis”.
This seems the last issue to have two separate stories, and from the next issue, a new series logo was used.
With thanks to downthetubes reader “Gary” for the cover and images
27 – The Secret in the Cellar
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 86, as “Harridan of Doom”
28 – The Hunchback
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Reprinted in No. 87 as “Gibbet of the Damned”
29 – Obsession
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted in No. 88 as “Blade of Death”
30 – Werewolf
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 89, “Creature of the Night”
31 – The Vampire of Loban
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 90, “Blood of Venom”
32 – The Monster Maker / Cry of the Wolfman
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 91, “Reign of the Beast Men”
33 – The Lake
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. reprinted as No. 92, “Evil Waters”
34 -Brides of Death
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 93, “The Brides of Death”
35 – The Mutant
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 94, “Half Human”
36 – The Dead Don’t Always Sleep
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 95, “Decayed Dead”
37 – The Cry of the Wolfman
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 96, “Man Beast”
38 – The Children of the Damned
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 97, “Insane With Terror”
39 – Daughter of Darkness
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 98, “Condemned Woman”
40 – Fear Has a Thousand Eyes
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 99, “The Curse of Zilhaus”
41 – Nightmare Curse
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 100, “Powers of Darkness”
42 – The Dark Fiend
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 101, “Brink of the Grave”
43 – The Dead are Awake and Walking
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Dave Gibbons
Later reprinted in No. 102, as “Unholy Fiends”
44 – The Unquiet Grave
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as 44 No. 103, “Pit of Hell”
45 – Fury
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 104, “Fear…”
46 – The Mummies
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 105, “Beyond Death”
47 – The Cupboard
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 106, “Left to Die”
48 – Dark Heritage
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 107, “Indescribable Terror”
49 – The Finger
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as No. 108, “Never Again”
50 -The Snake Woman
Cover: Information Welcome
Interior Art: Information Welcome
Later reprinted as reprinted as No. 109, “Evil Fangs”
• Pocket Chiller Library – Main Feature
• Checklists: Issues 1 – 49 | Issues 50 – 100 | Issues 101 – 137
Note that from Issue 86 onwards, the title went reprint
Additional information welcome! This feature and listing last updated 17th December 2021
For those of you trying to puzzle out the history of the many British pocket library titles and publishers, Steve Holland notes that just to add to the confusion, a lot of pocket libraries were packaged abroad and sold around Europe (France, Germany, Spain, etc.), so there is still a lot of questions about whether some pocket libraries were reprints – or were actually published here in the UK first!
WEB LINKS
• Grand Comics Database – Pocket Chiller Library Listing and Covers
• Nightmare Suspense Picture Library – Listing and Covers
With thanks to Dave Gibbons, Adrian Griffiths, Steve Holland, Rik Hoskin, Chris O’Leary, Douglas Noble, the much-missed Colin Noble, Steve Pini, David Roach, the indispensable Richard Sheaf, Dez Skinn and Jon Smit – and thanks also to the WordPictureWord Group for sending me down this rabbit hole!
- About the Author
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics
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Some of the early covers were signed by Fernando Fernandez as his signature is clearly seen, e.g. #7 and #9.
Thanks Gary! Hadn’t spotted that
I never bought these but I remember seeing them on spinner racks in newsagents. If it wasn’t Marvel horror or House of Hammer I wasn’t interested but I wish I’d bought some now.
Some of the earlier issues must have been pre-1966, as Australia began using decimal currency (Dollars and Cents) from 14 February of that year, and the first few issues show 1/6 for Australian buyers….