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.

Home › Exhibition › Pulp Fiction › Read

A complete issue · 16 pages · 1889

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645

1889 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 645 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This serial by T. C. Harbaugh, author of the "Buckskin Detective" and "Dodger Dick" novels, opens in New York with Keen Kit, a resourceful seventeen-year-old street youth, enmeshed in the schemes of the "Prince of Gotham," the villain Oliver Owlet. The story centers on Owlet's criminal operations, coordinated through Old Penrod, a fortune-telling cobbler. Owlet retrieves documents from Penrod, offering payment for procuring additional papers—promising a thousand dollars while reserving greater profit for himself. Kit shadows Owlet through costume changes across the city, observing meetings with his accomplice Leon Layne. The narrative intersects with Floy, a working-class girl searching for her missing brother, whom the criminals hold leverage over. When Owlet and Kit encounter Floy surveilling the men, she demands her brother's location. Owlet threatens her with a sinister warning: silence means life, speech means death through an "octopus" criminal league. Kit assists Floy home, beginning to uncover her entanglement with Owlet's conspiracy.

Browse this issue page by page

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