Today in the PopCult Gift Guide we’re going to revisit a few cool items from the previous six years worth of Gift Guides from your humble Popculteer. We’re just a week away from the big day, so it you have to order any of these, expect to pay for premium shipping if you want to get them in time.

First up we have the artwork of someone that you can buy locally.  Kerry Beary works in a retro-cool, sleek style that recalls the pop-art and advertising art of the 1960s.  Her work can be found at the Purple Moon, and I’m told they have a fresh batch of brand-new works for you to choose from.

In 2007, I wrote: “This is the perfect wall decoration for your space-age bachelor pad or atomic age household. Ms. Beary’s art is retro to the max, revisting mid-20th-century styles that recall a time when innocence and sophistication met for dinner and later went out for a drink and who knows what.

“Beary’s flair for capturing the spirit of the martini age is dead-on.  You’ll feel transported back to the time when TV was just starting to invade the country and the biggest threat to national security was Sputnik.  The Purple Moon has a variety of very affordable prints and a few original paintings, all at your disposal for that last-minute gift that will leave a lasting impression.”

In 2006, I recommended two new hardcover collections of classic comic strips. here’s what I wrote:

The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy Volume One, published by IDW, presents the first comic strips featuring Dick Tracy, as written and drawn by his creator, Chester Gould.  These are masterpieces of twisted fantasy police adventures, with gruesome villains and sharp detective work.  One of the greatest comic strips of all time.  This is the first of a series of books that will compile all the work by the late Chester Gould.

Popeye: I Yam What I Yam!, published by Fantagraphics, collects the early adventures of Popeye, from the comic strip Thimble Theater.  Popeye went on to become one of the most recognizable comic strip characters of all time, but here you can see him in his rawest, most primal form.  Elzie Segar’s gritty comics captured the imagination of millions, and paved the way for the successful series of animated cartoons starring the Spinach-eating sailor man.  This is also the first of a series of volumes that will collect the entire run of Segar’s Popeye stories.

Both of these series have continued.  Dick Tracy is up to volume 10, with the eleventh edition coming early next year, while there are five volumes of Fantagraphics Popeye books in print.

In 2005 I offered up the then-recent reissue of George Harrison’s “Concert For Bangla Desh, which is still availabe as an audio CD set and as a DVD.  It still makes a great gift, but if the person for whom you are buying already has it, and they really like the parts with Indian Sitar master, Ravi Shankar, then you might want to spring for a new collection of Harrison’s collaborations with Shankar.

“Collaborations” is a 3-CD/1 DVD boxed set that collects three albums that the two beloved musicians created between 1974 and 1997, plus a DVD of a previously-unrealesed Indian Music Festival from the Royal Albert Hall in 1974.  There’s also a 56-page hardcover book and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

You can snag it from Amazon, but be prepared to pay extra for shipping, if you want it this week.

Finally, we’ve recommended a lot of great books by local authors in the PopCut Gift Guide over the years, but I’m sure we’ve missed a lot, too. For a great last-minute gift, you can pop into Taylor Books, and check out their local author section.  You might luck out and find something signed by the author.

Check back tomorrow for our final day of the 2010 PopCult Gift Guide. Here’s a hint: Sunday is video day here in PopCult.