PulpFest 2013 Chairman Jack Cullers is very pleased to announce that free, in-room Wi-Fi will be provided to all members who will be staying at the Hyatt Regency Columbus during this year’s convention. So don’t lose any time. Book your room immediately at the special convention rate of $112 per night–which also includes one free parking pass–to be assured of “a room at the inn.” Taxes are not included.

To reward loyal attendees who support the convention by staying at the host hotel, PulpFest will also provide a ten-dollar rebate redeemable at the convention’s registration desk. Remember, you must place your reservation by July 5, 2013 to receive the special convention rate of $112 per night.

You can book a room online by clicking here, an electronic reservations interface customized for PulpFest attendees. Or call 1-888-421-1442 or 1-614-463-1234 to book a room by telephone. Be sure to mention PulpFest to get the special convention rate. By staying at the Hyatt Regency, you’ll help to ensure the convention’s success. Thanks.

Above is Frank R. Paul’s illustration for the 13th World Science Fiction Convention, Clevention, held in Cleveland, Ohio in 1955.

PulpFest is proud of the variety of presentations the convention offers to attendees. So we are very excited to announce that our tentative programming schedule is now available on the Programming page of our website. Our themes will revolve around Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933 and the centennial of Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu and the Yellow Peril Genre.

All scheduled programming will take place in the Fairfield Room located on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Click the link above or the “Programming” button along the left side of our home page for a preview of this year’s convention as well as instructions on how to stay informed about “Summer’s Great Pulp Con,” PulpFest 2013.

With April approaching, the pulp con season begins. First up will be the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show, followed by the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention beginning April 12th. PulpFest committee members Jack Cullers, Mike Chomko, and Ed Hulse (who will be releasing a new issue of Blood ‘n’ Thunder) will all be there with information about PulpFest 2013.

A couple of weeks after Windy City, the South’s leading “pulp culture” convention, Pulp Ark will take place in Springdale, Arkansas while Canada’s premier pulp event, the Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale, will be held May 11th in Toronto. About a week later, Morris, Illinois will host the 2013 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship Gathering while Columbus, Ohio will be home to Cinevent 45 over Memorial Day weekend.

June 7th and 8th are the dates for Robert E. Howard Days in the author’s home town of Cross Plains, Texas. Still to be announced is the date for the spring edition of Classicon, but the Derby City Comic Con will go off on June 29th in Louisville, Kentucky.

Of course, all of these events are a prelude for the best pulp event of all, the summertime destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction and related materials, PulpFest 2013. This year, we’ll be celebrating Doc Savage and the pulp heroes of 1933 and the centennial of the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu. Our guests will include Will Murray, author of twelve Doc Savage novels, including the just-released King Kong crossover, Skull Island; Lamont Award winner Don Hutchison, leading pulp anthologist and author of The Great Pulp Heroes and numerous articles about the pulps; Nathan Madison, author of Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comics, 1920-1960; William Patrick Maynard, the writer authorized to continue the Fu Manchu series; and pulp art expert David Saunders. There will also be a showing of the complete movie serial, The Spider’s Web, produced by Columbia Pictures in 1938.

PulpFest is now accepting registrations for this year’s convention, running July 25th-28th. From our registration page, you’ll be able to download our member and dealer registration forms. 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 $112 plus tax via our special link to the hotel.

We are also happy to once again supply a third table free of charge to dealers who stay at the Hyatt and rent two tables in our hucksters’ room. That’s three tables for the price of two, or six for the price of four. The massive size of the Regency Ballroom enables us to provide this extra exhibit space to loyal PulpFest dealers. Remember, this special offer is good only to dealers staying at the host hotel.

With about a quarter of the vast collection of pulp researcher Al Tonik tucked away in storage, PulpFest is delighted to report that the remainder of Albert’s superlative library of hardcovers, paperbacks, pulps, dime novels, comic books, fanzines, art books, and reference books will be sold during our Saturday night auction on July 27th. For additional details, including a link to the catalog, please visit the Tonik Auction page under our Auctions button.

All this and more can be found by clicking the buttons along the left side of our home page. And don’t forget, you can make your nominations for the 2013 Munsey and Rusty Hevelin Service Awards through the end of April. 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.

In the coming weeks, PulpFest will start previewing its highly respected programming on this site. So please visit often. We look forward to seeing you July 25th through July 28th.

This year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention will be saluting ninety years of science fiction and fantasy magazines including the August 1923 issue of Hugo Gernsback’s Science and Invention magazine, its “Scientific Fiction Number” which sported front cover art by Howard V. Brown. The scan is from the January 31, 2012 Tellers of Weird Tales.

Our editor and designer Bill Lampkin is already hard at work on the next issue of The Pulpster. Along with articles on the pulp heroes of 1933 and Fu Manchu and the yellow peril, Bill has a number of surprises up his sleeves. So expect a slam-bang issue from the new editor of our award-winning program book.  Every member of PulpFest 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 June 1st 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 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 Mike Chomko at mike@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 upon reserving a space. You can also submit your advertising copy to Mike and ask him about back issues.

Another way to advertise at PulpFest is to donate material for our giveaway tables. Over the years The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Book Source Magazine, Girasol Collectables, Radio Archives, Stark House Press, 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 Mike Chomko at mike@pulpfest.com.

The front cover of this year’s Pulpster uses Walter Baumhofer’s magnificent portrait of The Man of Bronze from the July 1935 issue of Doc Savage Magazine. Doc Savage is a registered trademark of Advance Publishers, Inc. d/b/a Conde Nast.

“Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.”

One-hundred years ago, the words above were published in the February 15, 1913 issue of Collier’s. “The Zayat Kiss” was the work of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, better known as Sax Rohmer, and introduced American readers to Dr. Fu-Manchu, an evil genius bent on world domination. Although Rohmer did not create the “yellow peril” story, his tales of “the devil doctor” were certainly the most influential of that story type.

During his life, Sax Rohmer penned four accounts concerning his creation of Dr. Fu-Manchu. Supposedly inspired by a “Mr. King,” a wealthy man of mystery said to control all the Chinese gambling, drug traffic, and Tongs of London, Rohmer claimed that Fu-Manchu arose from a chance encounter that he had one night in the Limehouse district of the city:

I took cover in the entrance to a narrow alleyway. The car pulled up less than ten yards from where I stood. A smart chauffeur switched on the inside light, jumped out, and opened the door for his passengers.

I saw a tall and very dignified man alight, Chinese, but different from any Chinese I had ever met. He wore a long, black topcoat and a queer astrakhan cap. He strode into the house. He was followed by an Arab girl, or she may have been an Egyptian. . . .

The chauffeur closed the car door, jumped to his seat, and backed out the way he had come in. The headlights faded in the mist . . . and Dr. Fu Manchu was born! (Sax Rohmer. “How Fu Manchu Was Born.” This Week, 09/29/57).

That night, alone in my room, I searched through my memories of the East. . . Daylight was not far away when at last I had created Fu Manchu, a genius of princely rank holding degrees of three European universities. . . . closing my eyes, I could both see and hear Dr. Fu Manchu. . . . “You have sought for and you have found me. . . . You have followed me through the forests of Burma. You have tracked me to my palace in Kiang Su. Because you have made, you think that you know me. Do you dream that your Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith can conquer me? That my mastery of the secret sects of the East can be met by the simple efficiency of the West? I shall prove a monster which neither you nor those you have created to assist you can hope to conquer. . . .  It is your boast that you have made me. It is mine that I shall live when you are smoke.” (Sax Rohmer in Meet the Detective, Cecil Madden, editor. New York: Telegraph Press, 1935).

Join PulpFest in July as we celebrate the centennial of Sax Rohmer’s enduring literary icon, Dr. Fu Manchu.

W. T. Benda’s masterful cover for the May 7, 1932 issue of Collier’s, illustrating Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu appears above, courtesy of The Page of Fu Manchu, the source for much of this article.

PulpFest annually recognizes the efforts of those who work to keep the pulps alive for this and future generations. Each year, someone is selected to receive The Munsey Award (pictured at left). Named after Frank A. Munsey, the man who published the first pulp magazine, nominations for the award are now being accepted. All members of the pulp community, whether they plan to attend PulpFest 2013 or not, are welcome to nominate a deserving person for this year’s award.

You can also nominate someone for the Rusty Hevelin Service Award. Initiated in 2012, this award is designed to recognize those persons who have worked long and hard for the pulp community with little thought for individual recognition. It is meant to reward especially good works, and is thus reserved for only those individuals who are most deserving.

If you have someone in mind that you feel worthy to receive either of these prestigious awards, please let us know. All members of the pulp community, excepting past winners of the Munsey, Hevelin, or Lamont Awards, are eligible. 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, 2013. The recipient of the Munsey and/or Rusty Hevelin Service Award will be selected by a panel of judges consisting of recognized experts in the pulp field. The award will be presented on July 27th, during the convention’s evening programming.

With spring comes baseball, pulp cons, and paperback shows. Leading off is the 34th annual Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show. This one-day show will feature appearances by over forty writers including James Blaylock, Dennis Etchison, William F. Nolan, and Harry Turtledove, all of them very happy to sign your books. It will take place on Sunday, April 7th, at the Valley Inn and Conference Center in Mission Hills, California.

The Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention is in the number two hole. Now in its 13th year, this Chicago-area event will be celebrating ninety years of science-fiction and fantasy magazines with salutes to Weird Tales and the “Scientific Fiction Number” of Hugo Gernsback’s Science and Invention. There will also be an auction featuring pulps from the Jerry Weist estate. The Windy will be held at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center from April 12th – 14th.

The three spot features the South’s leading “pulp culture” convention, Pulp Ark. A writers’ conference and pulp convention, it focuses on the methodology of pulp fiction, storytelling involving “action, adventure, larger-than-life heroes and villains, and a strong focus on both plot and characterization.” Featuring guest appearances by Joe Devito, Martin Powell, and Paul Bishop, Pulp Ark will take place April 26th – 28th at the Holiday Inn Springdale Hotel and Convention Center in Springdale, Arkansas.

Batting clean-up on May 11th is Canada’s premier pulp event, the 17th annual Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library in Toronto, Ontario. You can learn more about this small, pulp-specific show by writing to Girasol Collectables, 3501 Glen Erin Drive, Suite 1409, Mississauga, ON, Canada L5L 2E9 or via email at info@girasolcollectables.com.  (more…)

“There was death afoot in the darkness. It crept furtively along a steel girder. Hundreds of feet below yawned glass-and-brick walled cracks–New York streets. Down there, late workers scurried homeward. Most of them carried umbrellas, and did not glance upward.”

Eighty years ago, nearly to the day, those words were urging readers to buy Doc Savage Magazine, a brand new pulp that first appeared on America’s newsstands around the middle of February 1933. Sporting a front cover painted by that “King of the Pulps,” Walter M. Baumhofer, and published by Street & Smith, the new rough paper magazine promised “a thrilling saga of a scrappy outfit hunting a treasure and being hunted in turn.”

“The Man of Bronze,” credited to Kenneth Roberts, was the work of Lester Dent, a writer who had broken into the pulp market in 1929 with an aviation yarn published by Top-Notch Magazine. In the ensuing years, he had sold about three dozen stories to a variety of magazines including Air Stories, Detective-Dragnet Magazine, Scotland Yard, Sky Riders, War Birds, and Western Trails.

Impressed by Dent’s ability to combine an “extravagant plot, scenes and action with comparatively high credibility and reasonableness of motivation,” the author was invited to the offices of Street & Smith to join business manager Henry W. Ralston and Shadow Magazine editor John L. Nanovic in a brainstorming session to flesh out a new adventure series–Doc Savage.

Although Doc Savage Magazine was the third hero pulp to premier in 1933, it would certainly become the most popular of the single character magazines that debuted in that year, tailing only The Shadow in total issues published. The character would go on to not only inspire the original pulp readers, but also the fans of the Bantam reprints that appeared from 1964 through 1990 and the readers of today who regale to the original pulp tales collected by Sanctum Books and Will Murray’s new adventures of the man of bronze, published by Altus Press.

Join PulpFest 2013 over the last weekend of July to celebrate eighty years of Doc Savage and the pulp heroes of 1933.    (more…)

Nick Carter, the creation of John Russell Coryell, debuted in 1886 in Street & Smith’s New York Weekly. Five years later, the character was handed over to Frederic Dey and other writers who would pen over a thousand stories featuring the “Little Giant.” The character was so popular that when Detective Story Magazine began in 1915, Street & Smith claimed “Nicholas Carter” was its editor.

By 1933, interest in the old Nick Carter stories was beginning to wane. It was the era of the hardboiled detective with characters such as Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op and Sam Spade, Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams and Vee Brown, and Frederick Nebel’s “Tough Dick” Donahue and Jack Cardigan tearing up the pages of rough paper magazines like Black Mask and Dime Detective.

It was also the time of the pulp hero. With The Shadow Magazine flying off America’s newsstands on a twice-monthly basis, Street & Smith decided to expand the single character field with magazines featuring adventure and detective heroes. For the latter, it was decided to create a hardboiled version of the “Little Giant” of the dime novels and Nick Carter Magazine was born. Dated March 1933, the new pulp would sport a cover by Jerome Rozen and lead with the novel, “Marked for Death,” the work of author Richard Wormser (writing as “Nick Carter”). The second of the hero pulps of 1933, Nick Carter Magazine would run through June 1936.

(more…)

For the eightieth anniversary of the Man of Bronze, Will Murray has teamed Doc with another legend who first appeared in 1933—King Kong—in Skull Island. Meet the author at PulpFest 2013, July 25th – 28th at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio. We’ll be celebrating the pulp heroes of 1933 and more.

Cover art by Joe DeVito for Kenneth Robeson’s Skull Island, forthcoming from Altus Press.