A complete issue · 148 pages · 1955
Argosy (UK), January 1955
A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1955 — all 148 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.
A complete issue · 148 pages · 1955
This cover for Argosy advertises 'Entertaining Reading for Christmas' with stories by established fiction writers including Walter de la Mare, Paul Gallico, and W.R. Burnett. The illustration depicts a full-rigged sailing ship rendered in bold red and brown linework, paired with a compass rose below. By 1955, Argosy—originally a British adventure weekly—had evolved from its pulp-magazine roots into a general-interest fiction magazine. The nautical imagery reflects the publication's legacy of serializing adventure narratives, though by mid-century it competed alongside paperback originals and digest magazines for middle-class readers. The restrained typography and respectable bylines signal a shift toward literary legitimacy, even as the cover's decorative engravings evoke the visual language of earlier wood-pulp periodicals.
Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.