Brothers Sidney, John and Alfred Pemberton, formerly sellers of second-hand books in Manchester, England, set up World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd. just after World War II. Their principal product was hardback children's annuals, typically published in the autumn but displaying the following year's cover date (so purchasers buying them as Christmas presents could be assured that they would not appear "out of date" when unwrapped, and nor would unsold stock shipped abroad). The majority of their annuals were related to TV shows such as Doctor Who, The Daleks, K9, The Avengers, Blake's 7, Terrahawks, Star Trek, Space 1999 and Tarzan, cartoons such as Laffalympics or sports, but they also published a number of annuals reprinting or based on American comics material such as Superman Storybook Annual, Marvel Story Book Annual, Spider-Man Annual, Avengers Annual (Marvel UK), Batman Annuals, Fantastic Four Annuals and The Phantom. World were also, for a time, the official distributor of American comics in the UK, an arrangement which ended in the early 1980's. The company was renamed World International Ltd. in 1981, but had ceased trading by 2001.
