A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1880 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1880

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157

1880 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 157 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

Mike Merry, the Harbor Police Boy: The Night-Hawkes of Philadelphia by Charles Morris features a crime narrative set in midnight Philadelphia. The story opens in a Kensington tavern where five men, led by the sharp-featured "Levi the Fox," meet secretly before proceeding to the Delaware wharves. A diminutive spy follows them, overhearing the word "Fleetwing" and reporting to a harbor police crew stationed on a barge. The spy signals the police with a whistle, and a young figure identified as Mike joins their boat. Meanwhile, Levi's group rows downstream toward a docked vessel where an intruder scales aboard and approaches a sleeping bearded man in a cabin, knife raised. The narrative shifts to introduce characters in a poor Philadelphia district. The serial combines detective work, waterfront crime, and apparent murder-plot elements, with distinctive period dialect and nautical setting details characteristic of adventure pulp fiction.

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