Year after year, PulpFest is a paradise for the fan of pulp magazines, digests, vintage paperbacks, and other collectibles. The collector will also find first edition hardcovers, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, series books, dime novels, original artwork, Big Little Books, B-movies, serials and related paper collectibles, old-time-radio shows, and Golden and Silver Age comic books in our 15,800 square-foot dealers’ room.

For those who simply like to read pulp and genre fiction, you’ll find science-fiction books, mysteries, adventure fiction, and countless pulp reprints from publishers such as Adventure House, Altus Press, Girasol Collectables, Meteor House, and Sanctum Books. Fans of new pulp will have readings by their favorite authors on both Friday and Saturday, as well as offerings from Adventures in Bronze, Airship 27, and other purveyors of today’s pulp fiction.

Accommodating over 100 tables, our dealers’ room will be open to all comers from 10 AM to about 5 PM on August 8th and 9th and until 2 PM on Sunday, August 1oth (although buying and selling opportunities may be limited on our final day as many of our dealers will be packing up for their return trip home).

And don’t forget about our early-bird hours on Thursday evening, August 7th, from 6 PM to 10 PM. For an additional $30 over your regular membership fee, you’ll be able to purchase early-bird privileges for an extra four hours of shopping. Better still, to reward loyal attendees who help to defray the convention’s substantial costs by staying three nights at our host hotel, PulpFest is pleased to offer free early-bird privileges. That’s a very significant savings of $30!

Remember, “If you read or collect pulps, pulp reprints, books, vintage paperbacks, or slicks . . . PulpFest is the place to be.”

The first issue of Fiction House’s Planet Comics, dated January 1940, sported a front cover by Lou Fine. The comic book was a spin-off of Planet Stories, one of seven science-fiction pulps introduced in the genre’s Golden Year of 1939. PulpFest 2014 will be celebrating “75 years of fantastic fiction” at this year’s convention in Columbus, Ohio.

PulpFest will be returning to the beautiful Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio for the third straight year. In the heart of the active Arena District, the Hyatt Regency is just a few minutes’ walk from the trendy Short North Arts District. There are dozens of restaurants in the blocks surrounding the hotel. Ohio State University and various tourist attractions are also easily accessible.

Through July 11, 2014, the Hyatt Regency Columbus will be offering PulpFest members a nightly guest-room rate of $114 plus tax that includes a complimentary parking pass with in-out privileges and free wi-fi. Views of downtown Columbus or Ohio State’s scenic campus are found in each of the Hyatt’s spacious 338-square-foot guest accommodations.

Book your reservation now by clicking here to link to an electronic reservations interface customized for PulpFest attendees. Or call 1-888-421-1442 to book a room by telephone. Be sure to mention PulpFest 2014 to get the special convention rate. By staying at the Hyatt Regency, you’ll help to ensure the convention’s success.

Remember, to reward loyal attendees who support the convention by staying at the host hotel, PulpFest will provide an early-bird membership at no extra charge. That’s a $30 savings!

Frank R. Paul, often described as “The Father of Science-Fiction Illustration,” created the front cover art for the program book of the 1955 World Science Fiction Convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio. The 130th anniversary of the birth of this noted illustrator will be celebrated in April of this year. Additionally, Worldcon will be celebrating its diamond jubilee in 2014.  The first World Science Fiction Convention took place in New York City in July 1939.

Here in the Northeast, the only fishing that we’ve been doing for the last few months has been through a hole cut in the ice. Thankfully, there’s a thaw in our future and soon we’ll be digging out our tackle boxes and our rods and heading for the “old fishing hole,” hoping to catch us a big ‘un.  But that’s not the only place to catch fish. You’ll find some of our favorite spots below.

Check out the fishing at the 35th annual Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show. This one-day show on Sunday, March 6th, will feature appearances by over forty-five writers and illustrators including James Blaylock, Christa Faust, Gary Gianni, Tim Kirk, Richard Lupoff, Larry Niven, Tim Powers, and many others. It will be held in the Glendale Civic Auditorium in Glendale, California.

Unfortunately, the creek ran dry for the South’s leading pulp convention, Pulp Ark. This Arkansas-based event was noted for gathering together writers, artists, and fans of “new pulp” fiction. As such, it was home to the movement’s annual award ceremony. But all is not lost, thanks to MidSouthCon. Based in Memphis, Tennessee for over two decades, the convention will be handing out the New Pulp Awards on Sunday, March 23rd.

Grab your flashlight, catch some nightcrawlers, and head for Chicago’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Now in its 14th year, the Windy will be celebrating the 85th anniversary of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, one of the best-known detective characters to emerge from the pulps. Noted for its excellent auctions and pulp art exhibition, this Second City convention will be held at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center from April 25th – 27th.

Latch on to your oars and start rowing for Canada’s 18th annual Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library in Ontario. A small show featuring twenty-five dealers’ tables crammed with vintage pulps and paperbacks, pulp reprints, posters, and more, it is set for Saturday, May 10th. You can learn more about this entertaining event by visiting the Girasol Collectables website.

If you’d rather fish than cut bait, then Cinevent 46, scheduled for May 22nd -25th, is for you. In addition to 170 tables of movie-related collectibles such as posters, lobby cards, presskits, DVDs, and 16 mm films, Cinevent features an extensive schedule of classic sound and silent films and one of the country’s largest live auctions of vintage posters. It will be held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Cast your line at Adventure Fest, the latest edition of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship Convention. It will be held June 19th – 21st at the Doublewood Inn in Fargo, New Dakota and feature guest appearances by several of the creators of the Burroughs comic strips published by ERB, Inc.

Reel ‘em in later this spring at Classicon 45, one of the oldest pulp and paperback shows. Featuring 35 tables and thousands of collectible pulp magazines, paperbacks, vintage comic books, original artwork, and more, it is held twice a year in Lansing, Michigan. For further information, write to the Curious Book Shop at 304 East Grand River Avenue, East Lansing, Michigan 48823 or by email at cbsmail@curiousbooks.com.

See how the fish are biting on June 13th and 14th in Cross Plains, Texas at Robert E. Howard Days. This annual gathering of Two-Gun Bob’s fans is presented by Project Pride of Cross Plains and sponsored by the Robert E. Howard Foundation, with help from the members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. Patrice Louinet, one of the premier scholars in Howard studies, will be guest of honor.

What, you still haven’t caught your limit? Less than a week before summer’s great pulp con, the 2014 Burroughs Dum-Dum will be held at the LaSalle Hotel in Bryan, Texas from July 31st to August 2nd. Guests will be announced at a later date. For additional details, please write to Brad Vinson at bvinson@ag.tamu.edu.

Don’t let the big one get away! Bring it in, hook, line, and sinker, by attending the destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction and related materials, PulpFest 2014. Join us from August 7th – 10th at the Hyatt Regency Columbus for summer’s great pulp con, celebrating science fiction’s golden year of 1939 and 75 years of fantastic fiction, as well as the shudder pulps of 1934!

At the same time he was churning out covers for Popular Publications’ Horror Stories, Operator #5, The Spider, Terror Tales, and other pulps, John Newton Howitt, the subject of David Saunders‘ 2014 presentation, was also contributing cover paintings to slick magazines such as The Country Gentleman, Liberty, and The Saturday Evening Post. He also created covers  for outdoor sporting magazines such as the  painting that leads off our post, entitled “It’s Got to Be Old Wally,” used on the July 1937 issue of National Sportsman.

Robert Harris painted the cover for the October 1937 issue of Doc Savage Magazine, illustrating Lester Dent’s “Repel,” while Graves Gladney contributed the artwork for the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, illustrating A. E. Van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer.”

It has been suggested that, “The early bird catches the worm,” but come August, it will also be catching the pulp. That’s because early-bird shopping will be returning to the PulpFest dealers’ room on Thursday, August 7th, from 6 PM until 10 PM. For an additional $30 over your regular membership fee, you’ll be able to purchase early-bird privileges for an extra four hours of shopping.

But wait! There’s an even better deal! To reward loyal attendees who help to defray the convention’s substantial costs by staying three nights at our host hotel, PulpFest is pleased to offer free early-bird privileges. That’s a very significant savings of $30!

Only staff, dealers, and early-bird shoppers will be allowed into the dealers’ room during Thursday evening, August 7th, to reward them for their terrific support. So what are you waiting for? Book your room at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, save thirty bucks, and get in on the action! We’ll be waiting for you.

July 23rd of 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Virgil Finlay, one of the foremost illustrators of the pulp era. Best remembered for his exquisitely detailed pen-and-ink interior renderings, Finlay was also a respected cover artist, contributing work to Fantastic Novels, Super Science Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and Weird Tales, including the September 1939 number, pictured above.

PulpFest 2014 is organizing a group dinner on August 9th. Eating together on Saturday evening while batting the bull about this great hobby of ours has been a long-standing tradition at summer pulp cons. The Saturday night group dinner returns to this year’s PulpFest when we’ll be dining together, family style, at the nearby Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant, just a few minutes walk from the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

Priced at $30 per person—tax and gratuity included—the menu includes:

Mixed Green Salad – Caesar Salad – (Served with House Bread)

Fettuccine Alfredo – Spaghetti with Meat Sauce – Chicken Parmigianino

Chocolate Chip Cannoli

Unlimited Soft Drinks, Coffee & Tea

Payment is due when you place your dinner reservation. Please send your $30 check or money order to David J. Cullers, 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook, OH 45305 or use the “group dinner” button on our Paypal Order page. All payments must be received by Monday, August 4, 2014. We look forward to dining with you in August.

PulpFest is known for its great programming and the line-up that we’re planning for our 2014 convention is shaping up to be one of our best. As mentioned previously, we’ll be celebrating science fiction’s golden year of 1939 and seventy-five years of fantastic fiction, as well as eighty years of the shudder pulps, zeroing in on the weird-menace magazines of 1934.

As always, we’ll have a wide variety of panels and presentations, including a discussion of Famous Fantastic Mysteries featuring Blood ‘n’ Thunder editor Ed Hulse and author Nathan Madison; Meteor House publisher Mike Croteau’s review of Philip José Farmer’s early science fiction stories for the pulps and digests; art historian David Saunders‘  presentation on John Newton Howitt, one of the leading cover artists for the weird-menace pulps; and preeminent pulp authority and author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, Will Murray’s celebration of the diamond jubilee of The Avenger, the last of Street & Smith’s major pulp heroes to get his own magazine.

You’ll find information on these and much, much more by visiting our programming page for a look at the preliminary schedule for PulpFest 2014.

The great John Newton Howitt, whose life and artistic career will be profiled by David Saunders on Saturday, August 9th at PulpFest 2014, contributed the front cover art to the November 1934 issue of Popular Publications’ Terror Tales. Although the first weird-menace tales appeared in Dime Mystery in the fall of 1933, it was not until the debut of Terror Tales and later, Horror Stories and Spicy Mystery, that the genre began to flourish.

PulpFest needs your help. We’re looking for your ideas on how to improve your convention. So we’re conducting a poll to learn more about you and your interests and gathering opinions on some changes we’ll be instituting in 2014 and some options that we’re exploring. Whether or not you have attended PulpFest in the past or if you are planning to attend in 2014, we’d love to hear from you.

Regular members, dealer members, and even people who have never attended PulpFest can participate in our poll. As a way to thank everyone who responds, we’ll be offering three free memberships to PulpFest 2014, each valued at $30! All you have to do to enter is fill out our survey and provide your name and best contact information in the space provided on the form. Our three winners will be selected in a random drawing to be held on Friday, July 4th.

For your friends who don’t have Internet access, we’ll also be providing our poll with the newsletter and registration forms that will go out shortly to those on our mailing list. To be sure to receive one, please send your name and mailing address to Jack Cullers at 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook, OH 45305 or via email at jack@pulpfest.com. Be sure to tell your friends.

Ready to start the poll? Then click here and you’re on your way. Thanks very much for your help.

The incomparable Norman Saunders painted the front cover art to the April-May 1939 issue of Red Circle’s Marvel Science Stories. With its first issue released during the summer of 1938, Marvel was the first of the many new science-fiction magazines of the late 1930s and early 1940s. PulpFest will look toward Marvel Science Stories and other science-fiction pulp classics in this year’s celebration of “Science Fiction’s Golden Year of 1939.”

After a couple of weeks of grueling work by our communications department, the PulpFest website has been fully updated. Except for the pages referring to conventions past, each and every page was examined from top to bottom and improved using the ideas of both organizing committee members and you, our dedicated supporters. Thank you to everyone for your help and encouragement as we prepare for the 43rd annual summer pulp con. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency Columbus starting on Thursday evening, August 7th and running until mid-afternoon on Sunday, August 10th. So what are you waiting for? Click on the link above, reserve a room, and make your plans to attend PulpFest 2014!   (more…)

In the coming weeks, the PulpFest home page will be updated to prepare for this year’s convention at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, running from Thursday, August 7th through Sunday, August 10th. During this update, portions of the website will be temporarily shut down for their annual revamp. Don’t be concerned as the pages will return in a short while, ready to help you learn more about PulpFest 2014, ”Summer’s Great Pulp Con!”

As we approach the new year, the PulpFest organizing committee wishes everyone the happiest of holidays. Here’s hoping that after Santa finishes his pipe and libation, he rockets over to your house, slides down the chimney, and leaves a copy of your favorite pulp magazine tucked under the tree. We’ve heard his elves can restore brown paper to nearly pristine condition!

Although PulpFest‘s websites have been relatively quiet of late, the committee has been busy discussing programming options, adding some social events, and making adjustments to improve everyone’s convention experience. We’re planning to roll out a big update to all of our web pages during the month of January, including a look at our 2014 programming schedule. We’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of science fiction’s Golden Age and the 80th anniversary of the weird-menace genre.

After you’re done celebrating the winter holidays, please stop back at www.pulpfest.com as we gear up for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con.” Better still, sign up for our email updates via the gray “E-Mail List” box right here on our home page. And while you’re at it, why not “like” our facebook page as nearly 800 others have done. You can also follow PulpFest on Twitter.

We look forward to seeing you all at PulpFest 2014.

Horace Gold’s Galaxy Science Fiction debuted with its October 1950 issue. Although the fifties witnessed the demise of the pulp magazine, the science-fiction market actually blossomed during the decade. About forty new magazines–most in the digest format used by Galaxy–found their way to America’s newsstand during that ten-year period.

Beginning with its December 1951 issue, artist Ed Emshwiller began a series of Galaxy covers featuring a four-armed Santa Claus who traveled across the universe, delivering presents to good little girls and boys regardless of whether or not they sported an antennae on top their heads.