A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1892 — 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 · 1892

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800

1892 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 800 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This issue of the Beadle and Adams weekly (No. 800, November 22, 1892) features the opening installment of "The Romance of the Steel Hand Fraud" by J. C. Cowdrick, author of the "Broadway Billy" novels. The detective story concerns Broadway Billy and his two assistants, Happy Harry and Silent Seth, investigating a mysterious case involving a supernatural "Steel Hand." Miss Clementine Rudolff has hired them after encountering a ghostly steel hand in her locked room that leaves threatening notes and a dagger, then vanishes without trace. Billy plans to stake out the room that night to determine whether Miss Rudolff is delusional or genuinely threatened by an unknown adversary. A second warning note appears, instructing him to abandon the case. The narrative alternates between the banter of the detective team debating whether the phenomenon is genuine, spectral, or imaginary, and Rudolff's account of her strange experiences.

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