A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1888 — 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 · 1888

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 588

1888 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 588 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 588 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

A young prospector crouches at the ocean floor, lantern in hand, searching the sandy bottom in this cover for "Jack O'Lantern: The Under-Sea Prospector." The accompanying serial, "The Friend Indeed," promised adventure in the tradition that made Beadle's Half Dime Library America's most popular cheap weekly from the 1860s through the 1890s. At a half-dime (five cents), these wood-pulp publications delivered escapist tales of pirates, prospectors, detectives, and frontier heroes to working-class readers. Their sensational cover illustrations—combining impossible scenarios, physical peril, and exotic settings—established visual conventions that would directly influence the comic books of the 1930s onward.

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