A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1893 — 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 · 1893

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844

1893 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 844 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

This Beadle and Adams dime novel installment (No. 844, Vol. II) features "Life Insurance Conspirators" by J. C. Cowdrick, author of Broadway Billy stories. Detective William Weston, nicknamed Broadway Billy, witnesses a murder during a catastrophic New York thunderstorm and electrical wire disaster. A bearded man deliberately kills a young man named Charles Pleyton using a live wire while chaos reigns. Billy is knocked unconscious pursuing the killer and awakens in a hospital. He later discovers that Pleyton was one of ten men enrolled in a mutual life insurance scheme worth approximately $150,000 to the final survivor. Two surviving members, Aaron Buckly and John Edwards, hire Billy to investigate whether foul play caused three recent member deaths, unaware that Pleyton—the fourth victim—was murdered.

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