A complete, restored issue of Penny Dreadfuls from 1892 — all 16 pages of cheap serialized Victorian sensation fiction — crime, horror, and lurid melodrama, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1892

Frank Reade Library, No. 15

1892 · Free to read

Frank Reade Library, No. 15 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Frank Reade Library, No. 15 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Frank Reade Library, No. 15 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

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Frank Reade Library, No. 15 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

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Frank Reade Library, No. 15 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue features "Frank Reade Jr.'s Electric Air Canoe; Or, The Search for the Valley of Diamonds," a science fiction adventure serial by "Noname." Frank Reade Jr., a young inventor, demonstrates his revolutionary electric flying machine to a reporter and announces his expedition to Brazil's remote Amazon tributaries. His objective is the legendary Valley of Diamonds, a perilous unexplored region where a previous expedition of 125 men suffered near-total annihilation, with only one survivor escaping with proof of vast diamond deposits. Accompanied by his assistants Barney and Pomp, Frank launches the Air Canoe. During flight, the crew rescues two men from a descending balloon—one temporarily crazed from altitude effects—using a rope ladder. The balloonist plunges toward a lake but both occupants survive and are recovered by the airship, establishing the adventure's opening crisis resolved through Frank's ingenuity and technological superiority.

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Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.