A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1891 — 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 · 1891

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 715

1891 · Free to read

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About this issue

This April 7, 1891 weekly issue from Beadle and Adams features "Wide-Awake Len," a detective serial by T.C. Harbaugh, author of "Buckskin Detective" and "Boy Shadow" novels. The narrative follows sixteen-year-old Len Dalray, discharged without explanation from the Philadelphia counting house of Gummage & Blynn. Suspicious that his nocturnal observation of a closed carriage crossing Girard Avenue Bridge precipitated his firing, Len resolves to investigate. He consults a blind man—his employer—who suspects criminal conspiracy and suggests contacting Detective Captain Dick Ferrars if needed. Meanwhile, two thugs rob an elderly furniture dealer named Isaac Wendel of a pocketbook containing mysterious documents, delivering it to Gummage himself. The recovered wallet contains an enigmatic black arrowhead wrapped in oilcloth, suggesting a deeper criminal plot involving multiple parties in Philadelphia's commercial underworld.

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