In 1945, shortly after World War II, they became a publisher of lurid and sensationalist paperback books; one series was known as "Thrilling Love."
World Distributors may be best known for the hardback annuals they published based on popular film, television, animation, and comics properties.
The annuals generally contained comics (often reprints from American titles) mixed with illustrated text stories, word games, and puzzles.
World Distributors shipped unsold copies to overseas markets such as New Zealand and Australia, where they still had the current year's date despite the time taken for transport.
Other notable annuals published featured The Adventures of Champion, Gobots, Thunderbirds, Top Cat, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Gary Glitter, and UK television properties like Basil Brush, Dad's Army, Just William, Blake's 7, TV Tornado, Terry Nation's Dalek, and Thomas the Tank Engine.
To augment the "Illustrated World Library" line, in 1966 the Pembertons launched the "World Adventure Library" line of titles, featuring action heroes like Batman, Superman, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, the Phantom, and Tarzan; as well as comic book versions of Bonanza and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Also in 1966 World Distributors acquired a number of ongoing titles from Famepress, a UK publisher which began operating in 1960.
[3] In 1991 they moved to new offices in Handforth, Cheshire, still operating as World International and publishing annuals in much lesser volume.