The poems, illustrated humorously by Gilbert, proved immensely popular and were reprinted in book form as the "Bab Ballads". He would later return to many of these as source material for his plays and comic operas. Gilbert and his colleagues from "Fun", including Tom Robertson, Tom Hood, Clement Scott and F. C. Burnand (who defected to "Punch" in 1862) frequented the Arundel Club, the Savage Club, and especially Evans's café, where they had a table in competition with the "Punch" 'Round table'.