A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1891 — 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 · 1891

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 744

1891 · Free to read

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About this issue

This issue features "The Water Waif's Dead Past" by Jo Pierce (author of "Bob o' the Bowery" and "The Vagabond Detective"), serialized in two chapters. Chapter I introduces Night-Watch Dick, a fifteen-year-old New York street observer who witnesses a mysterious midnight scene at the North River pier. When a carriage disgorges three men and two reluctant women to a rowboat, Dick observes a woman being attacked and silenced. The boat capsizes; Dick rescues the drowning woman but finds her unconscious and, upon waking, completely amnesiac—unable to recall her name, home, or the events preceding. Chapter II follows Dick's return to the pier with a patrolman to investigate; they find only the overturned boat. Subsequently, Dick encounters street robbers assaulting a well-dressed elderly man, leaving him injured but not robbed. The man discovers something crucial missing from his breast pocket.

Browse this issue page by page

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