A complete, restored issue of Penny Dreadfuls from 1898 — 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 · 1898

Happy Days: Tom Taylor, The Boy Who Worried Blanco

1898 · Free to read

Happy Days: Tom Taylor, The Boy Who Worried Blanco — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

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About this issue

This August 1898 issue of Happy Days features "The Boy Who Worried Blanco; or, How He Won His Stars," a Spanish-American War tale by H. K. Shackleford. Eighteen-year-old Tom Taylor seeks confiscated property documents from Cuban governor-general Blanco, who refuses on grounds of war preparations. Taylor vows to return and "worry" him. Taylor subsequently organizes over a hundred Cuban insurgents in Jacksonville with his own funds, procures a steamer with rifles and equipment, and lands secretly on Cuba's coast. Elected captain by his men, he establishes a base at La Palma village. A mysterious Cuban woman warns him that a new recruit, Antonio Rodriguez, is a Spanish spy for Weyler and Blanco. Though fellow soldiers vouch for Rodriguez's character, Taylor resolves cautious surveillance. The narrative combines personal vengeance with military adventure in the nascent war.

In this issue

“Tom Taylor, The Boy Who Worried Blanco; or, How He Won His Stars” by H. K. Shackleford · serial · p.1
“Dewey's Latin Boy: The Hero of the Fleet” by H. K. Shackleford · serial · p.4
“A Prayer for Native Land” · poem · p.4
“A Paper of His Own; Or, How Phil Bright Became an Editor” by C. Little · serial

Browse this issue page by page

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