A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1889 — 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 · 1889

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 622

1889 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 622 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 622 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel series (No. 622, June 25, 1889) features "The Queer Air at Tombstone" by Lieutenant A. K. Sims, beginning a serial titled "Texas Tom-cat's Triad." The protagonist, known as the Texas Tom-cat—identifiable by his distinctive gray catskin cap—is summoned to Tombstone by lawyer Julian Pendergast to assist in an unspecified matter affecting an injured innocent party. En route, Tom-cat encounters a deformed Black man calling himself the Tarantula, who directs him to the mysterious Madame Dumar. This veiled fortune-teller, claiming powers of prophecy and supernatural vision, warns him against aiding Pendergast, showing him an apparent vision of his death in a pool's reflection. Dismissing her warnings in daylight, Tom-cat locates Pendergast's office, where he meets Miss Dell Devore, the lady requiring assistance. The narrative emphasizes Tom-cat's simultaneous bravery and bashfulness around women, setting up the mystery Pendergast needs solving.

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