A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1886 — 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 · 1886

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490

1886 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 490 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams' Weekly (Vol. XIX, No. 98, published 1886) features "Broadway Billy, the Bootblack Bravo" by J.C. Cowdrick, author of detective-themed stories including "The Detective's Apprentice" and "Disco Dan." The narrative follows seventeen-year-old William "Broadway Billy" Weston, a bootblack on Broadway who witnesses a criminal plot between a known crook named "Sharkey Dan" Bingham and an unknown accomplice to commit murder. Shortly after, Billy encounters a runaway horse team on Broadway carrying a young woman, Miss Winnie Warrenson, daughter of wealthy merchant Hamilton Warrenson. Billy bravely throws himself before the maddened horses, catching the bridle and redirecting them, saving the young woman at great personal cost. Injured but heroic, he awakens in the Warrenson Fifth Avenue mansion, where Miss Warrenson tends to him, offering him better employment. Billy, proud of his honest work as a bootblack, declines her offer of a store position, declaring himself a businessman equal to any clerk.

Browse this issue page by page

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