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. 554

1888 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

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Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This March 1888 issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel series features "Unraveling a Twisted Skein," by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The Western detective Richard M. Bristol (Deadwood Dick, Jr.), a U.S. Government Detective, meets Roger Vance, a wealthy petroleum broker, on a train to New York. Vance hires Dick to locate his eighteen-year-old daughter Violet, who disappeared after leaving Vassar College on December 6th. The professor confirms she boarded the 7:50 a.m. train with her trunk. Dick begins investigating, examining a photograph and learning from Violet's closest friend, Miss Leroy, that she was seen conversing with a suspicious gentleman—a foppish man with a waxed mustache, livid neck scar, and monocle—about a week before her departure. The narrative establishes the mystery's initial parameters as Dick prepares to pursue the case in New York City.

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