The Argosy, Vol. 58

This issue of The Argosy carries no illustrated cover — only austere letterpress typography on white stock, reflecting the magazine's origins as Frank Munsey's general-fiction weekly before painted pulp covers became standard. Inside, T. W. Speight's serial The Grey Monk represents the gothic mystery fiction that filled early Argosy pages alongside adventure, romance, and travel tales. Founded in 1882 and reformatted onto cheap wood-pulp paper by 1896, The Argosy is widely credited as the first true pulp magazine. Its model — high-volume, low-price fiction across every popular genre — seeded the specialized pulps of the 1920s and 1930s that gave comic books their genres, their pace, and their hunger for the next installment.