A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1880 — 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 · 1880

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140

1880 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 140 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams' pulp weekly contains the opening installment of "Blue-Blazes; or, The Break o' Day Boys of Rocky Bar" by Frank Dumont. The narrative follows a masked outlaw chief operating in Idaho's silver regions who robs a stagecoach carrying an elderly passenger named Spencer Gibson, forcing him to surrender ten thousand dollars hidden in his boot sole. When the robber glimpses a sickly young woman passenger and recognizes her, he abandons the robbery and flees in distress. The woman, Edith, later confronts the outlaw—revealed as Fred, her faithless lover—outside a Boise City saloon. Consumptive and desperate, she declares her enduring love despite his desertion. When Fred refuses reconciliation, Edith shoots herself fatally, collapsing at his feet. The story blends frontier robbery, melodrama, and romantic betrayal.

Browse this issue page by page

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