A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1894 — 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 · 1894

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 867

1894 · Free to read

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About this issue

The Cowboy Smuggler Smash-up: A Romance of the Gold Ghouls of California by Col. Prentiss Ingraham continues a serial narrative of maritime and frontier adventure. The featured issue depicts multiple intersecting pursuits along the California coast: Marlo, a smuggler from Point Desolation, has stolen the schooner Sea Pearl and fled with it; Ralph Rollo ("Dead-Shot Ralph"), the adopted son of Chief Karl Kenton, pursues him in the Idle Wings; and Captain Karl himself follows in the sloop Racer. The revenue cutter Rush, commanded by Captain Edgar Yerger, joins the chase. A crucial revelation occurs when Yerger discovers that Karl Kenton is actually Kent Carleton, the brother-in-law he long believed guilty of forgery—Kenton's wife Valerie is Yerger's lost sister. The narrative climaxes in a violent storm that wrecks the Sea Pearl, killing most of its crew; Marlo alone survives, washing ashore exhausted. The story combines nautical action with melodramatic family reconciliation and adventure-serial plot mechanics.

Browse this issue page by page

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