A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1885 — 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 · 1885

Beadle's Pocket Library No. 71

1885 · Free to read

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About this issue

This 1885 weekly publication serializes J. Alexander Patten's urban crime narrative. Sharp Sam, a friendless homeless boy seeking shelter from a torrential rainstorm in New York, accidentally enters a townhouse through a blown-open door and discovers a murdered woman. Arrested at the scene by a policeman suspicious of the "dangerous classes," Sam becomes the prime suspect. The actual murderer is revealed to be Henry Beekman, a wayward heir from an old New York family, who killed his miserly elderly aunt to rob her inheritance after being refused his share. Beekman's past includes family disgrace, self-imposed exile, and reckless behavior. He murders the aunt in cold blood during a confrontation over money, then flees into the storm. Sam is imprisoned in the Tombs awaiting trial for a crime he did not commit, devastated by his sudden loss of freedom and acute friendlessness.

Browse this issue page by page

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