A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1890 — all 32 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 · 32 pages · 1890

Beadle's Dime Library No. 620

1890 · Free to read

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About this issue

This issue features the opening of "The Great Detective's Shadow Guard" by Albert W. Aiken, author of Joe Phenix pulp serials. The story follows Joseph Phenix, a renowned Manhattan private detective now operating in Wall Street, who receives an anonymous letter with a hundred-dollar check signed by broker George F. Jones. The sender requests a disguised meeting at Broadway and Fiftieth Street at two o'clock. Phenix and his assistant Tony Western debate whether it's a trap—possibly chloroform-related kidnapping—or a legitimate consultation from a wealthy client seeking secrecy. After verification that the check is genuine, Phenix dons a rural-clergy disguise complete with wig and revolvers, then keeps the appointment. A shabby hack delivers the mysterious client: Abraham Engleburt, one of Wall Street's greatest "money-kings," reputedly worth twenty million dollars. Engleburt, appearing as a fox-faced gentleman in dark business suit, compliments Phenix's disguise and begins his confidential request, which remains unrevealed in this excerpt.

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