A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1888 — 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 · 1888

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553

1888 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 553 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams' pulp weekly (No. 553, February 23, 1888) contains "Sharper than the Sharps," a detective serial by T. C. Harbaugh. The story features Dodger Dick, a young boy sleuth of New York, who photographs criminals in disguise using a camera concealed in a blacking kit. After capturing "Gotham Guy" (Guy Gardette) and his associate Broadway Bink on the Battery, Dick is hired by a man named Noggles to investigate a missing-person case involving Lucy Marigold, a woman who disappeared from city records three years prior. When Dick encounters Noggles on an elevated train and follows him home, Noggles dismisses him abruptly. Noggles then reveals to Gotham Guy that they plan to eliminate Dick as a threat, suspecting he may eventually discover their scheme connected to the "great Marigold fortune."

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