Much of our 2012 programming revolves around birthdays. Both Tarzan and John Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ two most popular heroes, turn 100 this year. And Robert E. Howard’s Conan reaches eighty. We’re celebrating these important occasions with presentations devoted to these characters and their creators. But 2012 marks another important anniversary in pulp history.

This summer’s PulpFest will begin almost 75 years to the day after the September 1937 Astounding Stories hit newsstands across the nation. That issue was the first to benefit from the input of John W. Campbell, a pioneering science-fiction writer hired to assist F. Orlin Tremaine, who had been at the magazine’s helm since Street & Smith purchased it from publisher William Clayton in 1933. With Tremaine’s guidance, Astounding had become the preeminent SF pulp, but its best days were yet to come. Just a few months after joining the magazine’s staff, Campbell assumed full editorial control of the monthly and promptly instituted policies that ushered in what later became known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Within a few short years, John Campbell had assembled a stable of writers that included talented newcomers and reliable mainstays alike. His roster of contributors was unparalleled by any other magazine in the field, and the first six years of his tenure as editor saw the publication of such classic science-fiction stories as "Slan," "Who Goes There?", "Final Blackout," "Sixth Column," "Methuselah’s Children," "Beyond This Horizon," "Gather, Darkness!", three of E. E. Smith’s "Lensman" novels and the early installments of Isaac Asimov’s "Foundation" series.

PulpFest 2012 will honor this remarkably fecund period in Astounding’s long history with a unique presentation. Rather than entrust it to a single speaker or a panel of enthusiasts, our salute to Campbell and the magazine’s Golden Age will be conducted by Garyn G. Roberts, PhD., and Blood ‘n’ Thunder editor Ed Hulse. Both are well qualified to discuss Campbell’s influence and Astounding’s peak years: Roberts is a popular culture professor and the editor of The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2000), while Hulse has written extensively about Astounding’s Golden Age, most recently in The Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Collecting Pulps (2007).

Roberts and Hulse will take a Siskel-and-Ebert approach to their conversation, citing their favorite Astounding authors and stories while debating the merits of individual yarns that appeared in the magazine during the years under review. Their discussion will be accompanied by a slideshow of Astounding covers from September 1937 to November 1943. We’re not aware of any pulp-convention presentation that has employed this format, and we think it’ll be something special.

In two weeks, the pulp con season begins with the second edition of Pulp Ark. Running April 20th through the 22nd, it will be held in Batesville, Arkansas, nestled in the beautiful Ozark Mountains. Not only is Pulp Ark the only southern-based pulp convention, it is also the leading convention for the “new pulp” genre, a type of fiction grounded in the pulps of yore. A showing of Tarzan, Lord of the Louisiana Jungle, a documentary on the making of the 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes, will be part of the festivities as well as the presentation of the 2012 Pulp Ark Awards. Congratulations to all of the winners. Click on the Pulp Ark logo above to learn more details about this new pulp convention.

One week later, the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention will take place in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, IL. Celebrating Edgar Rice Burroughs and the 100th anniversary of Tarzan of the Apes, the convention will run from April 27th through the 29th and be held at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center. The convention will host an extensive film program, including an exclusive showing of the recent Disney film, John Carter, at a nearby theater. Another highlight of the con will be the pulp-related art show, sponsored by Dan Zimmer’s Illustration Magazine. Along with PulpFest, the Windy is a must for the pulp fan. Click on the logo above for additional information about this superb pulp convention.   (more…)

After 21 years, Pulpster editor Tony Davis plans to call it quits. He and designer Bill Lampkin will be pulling out all of the stops to make The Pulpster #21 one of the most memorable issues of their award winning magazine. All members of PulpFest 2012 will receive a complimentary copy of The Pulpster.

If you’d like to place an advertisement in this year’s Pulpster, there’s still time to do so. However, the May 31st deadline for reserving advertising space is fast approaching. Our rates are very reasonable: color back cover–$160; inside color covers–$125; inside black and white covers or full page–$65; half-page–$40; quarter page–$25. Print specifications, payment information, and more can be found on the Program Book page of our website. To inquire about space availability, please write to Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com. The Pulpster has a circulation of 450-500 copies. All advertising is sold on a first come, first served basis, with payment expected immediately after reserving a space.

Another way to advertise at PulpFest is to donate material for our giveaway table. Over the years, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Book Source Magazine, Girasol Collectables, Engle Publishing, and other organizations have donated a variety of publications that were given away free to PulpFest attendees. Your donation will be acknowledged on our website and at the convention. If you’d like to offer something for our giveaway table, please contact Barry Traylor at barry@pulpfest.com.

One hundred years ago in March of 1912, readers of Munsey’s The All-Story, were nearing the halfway point of a six-part serial entitled "Under the Moons of Mars," a story credited to Norman Bean. The work of a new fiction writer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the novel tells the tale of Captain Jack Carter of Virginia, and of his adventures on the planet Mars.

First advertised in the January 1912 issue of The All-Story as "a surprisingly vivid Interplanetary romance," the original pulp version of Burroughs novel began with an editor’s note:

At the time of his demise, John Carter was a man of uncertain age and vast experience, honorable and abounding with true fellowship. He stood a good two inches over six feet, was broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear-cut, his eyes steel gray, reflecting a strong and loyal character. He was a Southerner of the highest type. He had enlisted at the outbreak of the War, fought through the four years and had been honorably discharged. Then for more than a decade he was gone from the sight of his fellows. When he returned he had changed, there was a kind of wistful longing and hopeless misery in his eyes, and he would sit for hours at night, staring up into the starlit heavens.

Thus was the reader of a century ago drawn into the mystery of Captain Jack. In the pages that followed that brief editor’s note and for the five issues thereafter, the readers of The All-Story were told a most wondrous tale, of four-armed Tharks and red-skinned Heliumites, of fantastic airships and many-legged thoats, of  vast dead seas and long-abandoned cities, and of a lost princess and the man from another world who won her heart, all created by a gifted storyteller named Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Now, one-hundred years later, a new audience will be introduced to Captain Jack. In less than a week’s time, Disney’s John Carter will debut in theaters everywhere and another generation will thrill to Burroughs’ imaginings. PulpFest 2012 will be honoring the wonderful creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs beginning on August 9th at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Register now for the summer’s great pulp con!

The cover art above is by Clinton Pettee for the April 1912 issue of The All-Story. The scan is from Galactic Central.

PulpFest 2012 is now accepting registrations for our August convention. From our Registration page, you’ll be able to download our member and dealer registration forms, including ones that you can fill in and print from your own computer. You can pay for memberships and dealer tables through our Paypal Order page. You’ll also be able to book a room at the Hyatt Regency Columbus at the convention rate of $109 plus tax by visiting our special link to the hotel.

On our Programming page you’ll find our tentative schedule for the 2012 convention when we’ll be celebrating the centennial of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars and the 80th anniversary of Robert E. Howard’s Conan of Cimmeria. You can read more about MIke Resnick, our award-winning guest of honor by turning to the GOH–Mike Resnick page. If you’d like to relive the first three PulpFests, you’ll find reviews, our blogs from previous years, and more. We even have a primer on pulp history!

All this can be found by clicking the buttons along the left side of our home page. And don’t forget, now’s the time to make your nominations for the 2012 Rusty Hevelin Service Award. Please send the name of the person that you’d like to nominate and a short paragraph describing your reasons for your nomination to Mike Chomko, 2217 W. Fairview St., Allentown, PA  18104-6542 or to mike@pulpfest.com. The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2012.

We look forward to seeing you over the weekend of August 9-12.

PulpFest 2012 is very pleased to welcome award-winning science-fiction writer Mike Resnick as its guest of honor. Winner of five Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award, Mike first became involved in science fiction through the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. With this year being the hundredth anniversary of the start of Burroughs’ writing career, it is fitting that our guest of honor is an author who, early in his career, "wanted nothing more than to write books in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs."

Mike’s first published work of science fiction, The Forgotten Sea of Mars, was a sequel to Burroughs’ Llana of Gathol. After its release in 1965, Resnick transformed and expanded the story into The Goddess of Ganymede and its sequel Pursuit on Ganymede. Around the same time, Mike was also an associate editor for Camille Cazedessus’ ERB-dom.

Although Mike turned away from the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs soon after publishing his first three science-fiction novels, he still appreciates the author’s creations. In recent years, he has written introductions to The Tarzan Twins for Wildside Press and for The Land That Time Forgot and Philip Jose Farmer’s Tarzan Alive, both published by Bison Books. Currently, Mike is editing, with Bob Garcia, The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, an anthology of mostly original stories inspired by Burroughs and his creations. It will be published by Baen Books and will feature stories by Kevin J. Anderson, Joe Lansdale, Michael Moorcock, and others, as well as the first appearance of Resnick’s "The Forgotten Sea of Mars" in nearly fifty years.

For further information about our special guest, please turn to our guest of honor page under "Programming."

Designer and cartoonist Chris Kalb, known in pulp circles for his hero pulp websites, like The 86th Floor and The Spider Returns, and for his work for Age of Aces Books, has created another superb post card for this year’s PulpFest. These cards will be distributed through collectibles, book, and antique paper shows, a wide array of science fiction, comic book, gaming, mystery, and film conventions, and bookstores and comic shops. Keep an eye out for these colorful promotion items. Chris’ previous cards have become sought-after collector’s items.

Each year, PulpFest recognizes the efforts and ongoing involvement of one person in the improvement, elevation, and continuance of keeping the pulps alive and well for this generation and future generations. In the past, this person, elected by his or her peers, was presented with a framed art print known as The Munsey Award (pictured at left).

As a result of the recent death of one of the organizers and stalwarts of the hobby, PulpFest has decided that henceforth the Munsey will be called The Rusty Hevelin Service Award,  or, in short, The Rusty. Hopefully, this will be accepted as a tribute to a man who was influential in making  PulpFest and its predecessors as successful as they are today.

The first annual Rusty Hevelin Service Award will be presented at PulpFest 2012. Nominations for the award are now being accepted. All members of the pulp community, whether they plan to attend PulpFest 2012 or not, are welcome to nominate a deserving person for this year’s Rusty.

David Saunders, the son of the legendary pulp artist Norman Saunders, has created a limited-edition print to serve as The Rusty. David’s work, pictured above, is a refreshing homage to classic pulp art that honors the entire pulp community and their common love of the purple prose of the bloody pulps.

If you have someone in mind that you feel worthy to receive this year’s Rusty, please let us know. All members of the pulp community, excepting past winners of the Munsey or Lamont awards, are eligible for this prestigious prize. Please send the person’s name and a brief paragraph describing why you feel that person should be honored to Mike Chomko, 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542 or to mike@pulpfest.com. The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2012. The recipient of the Rusty will be selected by a panel of judges consisting of recognized experts in the field of pulp literature. The award will be presented on Saturday evening, August 11th during the convention’s evening programming.

The Mars and Tarzan centennials are not the only events that will make 2012 significant for PulpFest attendees: This year we also celebrate the 80th birthday of Conan the Cimmerian, the lusty barbarian who debuted in the December 1932 issue of the classic pulp magazine Weird Tales. Created by Robert E. Howard, Conan became a reader favorite and appeared in many stories over the next four years. 

Although Howard died a suicide in 1936, his most famous creation was later revived in hardcover collections published by Arkham House and Gnome Press. But it was the mid-Sixties Lancer paperbacks, with their striking Frank Frazetta covers, that enthralled baby-boom readers, led to Conan movies and comic books, and gave rise to a new generation of Howard scholars who have worked tirelessly to keep all their favorite author’s works in print. 

PulpFest will celebrate the Cimmerian’s eightieth birthday and honor Howard’s career with two very special programs. First, Rusty Burke will moderate a panel of REH experts who will discuss Conan, Howard’s other characters, and the author’s influence on the sword-and-sorcery genre. Rusty needs no introduction to devotees of “Two-Gun Bob.” He is the editor of the highly acclaimed Howard reprint series published in the US by Del Rey Books, the president of the Robert E. Howard Foundation, and a long-time participant in REHupa (The Robert E. Howard United Press Association). We will provide the names of other panelists as soon as they are confirmed. 

The second Conan-themed presentation will be made by another well-known Howard aficionado, Jim Keegan, who with his wife Ruth produces “The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob,” which appears in every issue of Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane published by Dark Horse Comics. The Keegans have also illustrated several of the Del Rey volumes (including Crimson Shadows and Grim Land: The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volumes One & Two) and are the proprietors of Jim & Ruth’s Two-Gun Blog. Jim will offer a look at the Cimmerian as depicted by various illustrators over the last eight decades. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard remain two of the most avidly collected pulp fictioneers, and we’re certain that this year’s PulpFest programs will win new fans for each. And that’s just the beginning. We’re already brainstorming ideas for other panels and presentations, so you can expect the same diverse mix of programming for which our convention has become famous. Check back often for additional news!

You can now book a room at the Hyatt Regency Columbus from the PulpFest home page. Immediately below the gray box where you can subscribe to our email list (which is highly recommended), you’ll find a list of our favorite links. Below our FarmerCon link, you’ll see "Book a Room." Click on "Hyatt Regency Columbus" and a new window will open on your monitor screen. This new window is a PulpFest specific window created by the Hyatt Regency where you’ll be able to make a reservation at the special convention rate of $109 per night.

You can also book a room at the Hyatt Regency Columbus by calling 1-888-421-1442 or 1-614-463-1234. Please be sure to mention PulpFest in order to get the special convention rate. See you in August!