A complete issue · 32 pages · 1883
Beadle's Dime Library, No. 240
A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1883 — all 32 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.
A complete issue · 32 pages · 1883
This Beadle & Adams dime novel serial installment (May 30, 1888) features "A Cool Head; or, Orson Oxx in Peril," by Isaac Hawks, Ex-Detective. The story concerns detective Orson Oxx, a skilled athlete and fighter known as "the Man of Iron," who arrives in the small town of Ardville to investigate a series of arson crimes. Mistaken for an arsonist after chasing a lame fire-bug from the scene, Oxx is surrounded by an infuriated lynch mob demanding his death. He is saved by Brayton Russell, a sympathetic townsman whose mother died in one of the fires, who convinces the mob to conduct a fair examination. Oxx survives interrogation by Russell, town Justice Shadrach Yelland, and ex-sheriff "Sam Six-Eye," while Peter Twiggenbottom, a cowardly shoemaker-turned-amateur detective, provides dubious testimony. Oxx conceals his true professional business in Ardville while establishing his innocence.
Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.