The Penny Popular launched on 12th Oct 1912. It was an unusual venture as there was no original material, stories were all reprints of earlier AP publications. The first issue featured stories from St Jim's, Sexton Blake and Pete of Jack, Sam and Pete fame. This format continued for about four years then Sexton Blake and Pete were dropped in favour of Greyfriars and Rookwood. From issue 237 the Popular advertised itself as "the All-School story Paper".

The Penny Popular closed for a short time in 1918 due to the paper shortage, the second series being launched on 25th Jan 1919. You can see a scan of the first issue of the new series here and issue 204 here.

The 'Penny Popular' became the 'Popular' with issue 85 of the new series.

The Popular finally ceased publication in 1931, being reborn as the Ranger.

An detailed article on the history of the Popular by Eric Fayne was published in the Collectors Digest, you can read it here.

Greyfriars in the Penny Popular.

The early Greyfriars stories were reprints of earlier stories but were badly abridged and disjointed and proved disappointing. In 1919 the Popular announced that it was discontinuing the reprint policy and all Greyfriars material would be original. Hamilton was unavailable so the new stories were all written by Samways. However Samways was unable to keep up with his workload so the reprints returned within a couple of years. The reprints continued until 1931 when the Popular was reborn as the Ranger.

An article by Bill Lofts on the Magnet in the Popular can be found here.

St Jim's in the Penny Popular.

The St Jim's stories started with issue 1 but, like the Magnet, they were badly abridged and disjointed. In 1919 the reprints stopped and new stories were specially written, mostly by John Nix Pentelow. The reprints returned within a few years and continued until Christmas 1929 when the last St Jim's tale appeared in the Popular. In 1931 the Popular was reborn as the Ranger.

An article by Bill Lofts on the Gem in the Popular can be found here.

Rookwood in the Penny Popular

In 1917 the Editor was getting complaints from Rookwood fans who could remember the original tales from the 'Boys' Friend', as the saga only began in 1915. Some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to take Hamilton's Cliveden tales from the 'Boys' Herald' of 1907 and 1908 but convert them to Rookwood! It didn't really work as the characters were completely different. Also Hamilton's style changed tremendously from 1907 to 1915. It didn't help that they also drastically edited the length too.

Thanks to Michael Bailey you can read scans of issues 237 and 239 and judge for yourself!

The Rio Kid in the Popular

Hamilton was asked to write a new story for the Popular and on the 21st Jan 1928 the Rio Kid was born under the new pen name Ralph Redway. To quote Eric Fayne "Nothing better ever appeared in the Popular or any other paper for that matter. The Rio Kid stories were grand. Completely convincing, geographically correct to the last detail, original in plot and full of thrills these wild west tales had unforgettable charm". For the 1952 Collectors Digest annual Eric Fayne wrote an article on the roamings of the Rio Kid. Charles Hamilton wrote to the CD to say it was the best article he had ever read. The article was reprinted in the CD annual some 35 years later and you can read it here.

The Rio Kid also made an appearance in the Popular, Ranger, Modern Boy, Billy Bunter's Own, Tom Merry's Own and Boys Friend Library.

Thanks to the generosity of a number of collectors all of the Rio Kid tales are available for download from the links below. The stories are complete but some front pages are missing. If you can help out in providing front page scans then please let me know.

The Rio Kid Issues 469-474

The Rio Kid's Revenge Issues 475-478

The Capture of the Rio Kid issues 479-482

The Rio Kid's Goldmine issues 483-490

The Rio Kid in Love issues 491-493

The Sparshott Feud issues 494-496

The Scapegoat issues 497-500

The Escobar Mine issues 501-504

Rounding Up the Rustlers issues 505-509

Trailing Back to Texas issues 510-513

The Vengeance of Chief Many Ponies issues 514-517

The Cattle Thieves issues 518-519

Shanghaied Issues 520-521

The Rio Kid on the Run issues 522-525

The Rio Kid Wins Through issues 526-527

The Unknown Raider issues 528-533

The Rio Kid in Mexico issues 534-551 (102 pages, 15mb)

Cactus Pete's Capture issues 552-553

Cornering the Kid issues 554-555

The Puncher of Blue Bird Ranch issues 556-557

Rio Kid - Rancher issues 558-566

The Rio Kid's Christmas issues 567-570

The Marshal of Kicking Mule issues 571-576

Rio Kid at the Bar One Ranch issues 577-583

The Peril Trail issues 584-587

The Rio Kid - Sheriff issues 600-612

The Popolaki Patrol in the Popular

The Popolaki Patrol appeared in the Popular in 1930 sandwiched between the last two series of the Rio Kid. The series is hardly remembered now and even looking through the Collectors Digest there has been little mention of it over the years. Eric Fayne briefly touched on Popolaki in his 'Lets be controversial' column, you can read it here.

The stories were reprinted in the Boys Friend Library issue 334 (first series).

Thanks to Nandu the stories are now available for download. Click the links below to download the issues individually, if you prefer to have all the stories in one file (88mb) then click here.

Popolaki Patrol 0588 The Popolaki Patrol

Popolaki Patrol 0589 The Slaying of Simba

Popolaki Patrol 0590 At Grips with a Gorilla

Popolaki Patrol 0591 The Lost Hunters

Popolaki Patrol 0592 The Slave Hunter of the Congo