Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Would you spend several hundred pounds to build an encyclopaedia of pop? Or to learn how to microwave food, or knit a hat? A surprising number of people have. Today in pulp I look at that perennial favourite - the partwork magazine!

Tweet 2 comes free with this instalment...

Partworks are magazines that build up into a complete reference set on a particular topic. Most partworks focus on self-improvement, history or completing a model or figurine collection whilst learning all about it.

Partworks are hugely popular across Europe. Italy, Spain, France and the UK are the main markets, although sales figures are shrouded in secrecy. Most partworks launched in January with little pre-announcement, in case competitors launch rival titles to spike their sales.

A partwork magazine has to really take off in the first 14 days of sale, as few people will start collecting one after issue two. Up to two years of market research, focus groups and trial issues can take place before a partwork is released, to ensure it will immediately sell.

The overall costs for collecting a full set of partwork issues can be huge. So why do so many people spend so much on them when a book on the subject would be far cheaper? Well it's the satisfaction of lovingly building up a collection over time; it’s a weekly collectable treat.

There have been several hundred partwork series published over the last fifty years, so let's look back at a few notable ones...

The Radio One Story Of Pop was a fortnightly partwork released in 1973. Accompanied by a weekly radio programme of the same name it built up into an encyclopaedia of pop music you could preserve in a series of handsome binders on your G-Plan bookshelf.

Early issues of The Story Of Pop boasted some exceptional original cover art, though by 1974 the magazine had gone back to stock photography. Don’t ask how much a full set with binders will cost you nowadays – it’s quite a bit!

Story Teller (Marshall Cavendish, 1982) was an audio-visual treat: wonderfully illustrated children’s stories that came with a cassette of Richard Briers, Shiela Hancock or other Jackanory luminaries reading the story; when you heard the ‘ping’ you had to turn the page.

However Marshall Cavendish weren’t stupid: Story Teller stories often ran across multiple issues, so woe betide the parent who didn’t have a regular order in with the newsagent! These now go for quite a bit on eBay, but digital versions are available online.

The Home Computer Course (Orbis Publishing, 1983) explained the confusing range of microcomputers available in the early 1980s to mums and dads. A mix of product review, programming advice and peripheral know-it-all, it was succeeded by The Home Computer Advanced Course in 1984.

The Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time (Orbis Publishing, 1980) was a mammoth 153 issue exploration of everything weird, occult or suspicious.

Issue 1 came with this genuinely terrifying flexidisc of electronic communications with the dead:

Discovery (Marshall Cavendish, 1988) was a partwork school encyclopaedia that would make your kids care about history through a mix of model making, audio casettes and massive pictures. Launched just before CD-ROMs became popular it was like Encarta 95 without the screen glare.

Murder Casebook (Marshall Cavendish, 1989) was another mammoth partwork: 153 weekly instalments of famous murders. Unlike other partworks you could just collect the issues you were interested in, as each covered a different killer. It was a handy crime writer’s sourcebook.

Dinosaurs (Orbis publications, 1993) was probably the best selling partwork ever – over 1.5 million issues by some accounts. It’s also the longest-lived: reissued in 1995 the content still turns up in other publications. Dinosaur facts never really date.

Will partworks ever die out? Not as long as there are people who like collecting things. A few pounds each week for the pleasure of a handsome leatherette-bound collection on your bookshelf is a joy for many. Let’s see what January brings this year.

More stories another time...