A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1895 — 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 · 1895

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947

1895 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 947 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This cover for "The Bowery Wrestler; or, The Butcher-Boy's Backer" depicts a street confrontation in New York's working-class neighborhood. A shirtless young man grapples with another figure while well-dressed gentlemen in top hats observe the altercation. The wood-engraved illustration captures the penny dreadful's staple subject: urban street violence and class conflict. Beadle's Half Dime Library, published weekly at five cents, dominated the pulp market in the 1880s-90s, offering serialized stories of crime, boxing, and immigrant life. These cheap magazines reached working-class readers and established narrative formulas—scrappy underdogs, corrupt elites, violent resolution—that comics would later adopt and refine.

Browse this issue page by page

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