A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1885 — 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 · 1885

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 401

1885 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 401 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 401 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue from Beadle and Adams' weekly pulp series (March 31, 1885) contains the opening installment of "Little Shoo-Fly: A Tale of Grazing Life" by Philip S. Warne. The narrative begins at a ranch with the return of a young boy to his mammy, establishing a domestic scene before shifting to romantic drama. A character named Mars' Jim returns to the ranch and, learning from mammy that Miss Lina has been melancholy, ventures into a scenic glen where he discovers Lina writing his name in the sand—suggesting romantic attachment. The chapter concludes with the appearance of Mr. Caldor, another man at the ranch, who startles Lina while she writes and makes an aggressive romantic advance, grabbing her wrist before apologizing. The serial combines domestic comedy, frontier setting, and emerging romantic tension with a rival-suitor plot.

Browse this issue page by page

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