A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1884 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

Home › Exhibition › Pulp Fiction › Read

A complete issue · 16 pages · 1884

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343

1884 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

managed to miss something about | . Manhattan Mike, the Bowery Blood; or, 'Working-Up' a Difficult Case," a metropolitan detective tale by Edward L. Wheeler, serialized in this February 1884 issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly dime novel publication. The story introduces Manhattan Mike, a shrewd young Bowery detective operating outside official channels. After a chance conversation with Terry, a sympathetic saloon bartender, Mike receives word of a job at the Hotel Devonshire through Pat Reilly, a porter there. Using the assumed name M. Maverick, Mike meets with his eccentric client, Mr. Peleg Prancer, a Vermont miller recently arrived in New York. The volatile Prancer, characterized by backwoods speech and appearance, has traveled from Hartford seeking detective services for an undisclosed but urgent matter that has left him furious.

Browse this issue page by page

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