A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1877 — 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 · 1877

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1

1877 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 1 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This cover announces "Deadwood Dick, Prince of the Road," a tale of frontier outlawry by Edward L. Wheeler. The wood engraving shows a solitary figure crouched in a hollow tree, rifle at hand, watching mounted pursuers pass outside—a scene of fugitive survival that encapsulates the dime novel's obsession with outlaw heroes. At five cents, Beadle's Half Dime Library reached working-class readers with serialized adventures in crime, western adventure, and sensational crime. These pulp magazines, printed on cheap wood-pulp paper and sold by the thousands, created the template for action genres: the lone gunslinger, the chase narrative, the moral ambiguity of the criminal protagonist. Their lurid typography and dramatic engravings would directly influence the visual language of comic books to come.

Browse this issue page by page

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