The PulpFest Organizing Committee would like to thank the following people whose invaluable assistance helped to make PulpFest 2010 a tremendous success:

Our front desk staff Sally Cullers, Maura Childers, Aaron Cullers, Jack Cullers, Samantha Cullers, and Sam Childers, as well as John Gunnison, Chris Kalb, Michael Neno, David Saunders, Mark Trost, Dan Zimmer, plus Jason and Sunni Brock, Brian Earl Brown, Rusty Burke, Stephen Haffner, Rick Hall, Morgan Holmes, Steve Lewis, Lohr McKinstry, Walker Martin, Laurie Powers, David Lee Smith, Steve Haynes of Cinevent, John Bruening of Ohio Magazine, Vineetha Thomas and Diane Share of Experience Columbus, and Meri Lynne Stumbo, Beth Sweet, and the rest of the staff at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center. A special thank you to Martin Grams for his eleventh-hour technical assistance in setting up the Thursday-night movie screening.

The Organizing Committee would also like to thank all of the folks who helped to create The Pulpster #19:

Tony Davis and Bill Lampkin, plus Wooda Carr, Mike Chomko, Peter Chomko, Dave Fox, Fracesco Francavilla, Don Hutchison, Rex Layton, John Locke, Neil Mechem, Kenney Mencher, William F. Nolan, Bruce Stirling, and the magazine’s sponsors–Bear Manor Media, Black Dog Books, Golden Age Comics, Granton City Press, Malice Domestic, Mike Chomko Books, Origins Game Fair, PageTurner Editions, The Pulp Factory,  Pulp Ts, and the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention.

And many thanks to all of the presenters who informed and entertained everyone who attended our programming events:

John DeWalt, Martin Grams, John Gunnison, Stephen Haffner, Ed Hulse, Don Hutchison, Will Murray, Francis Nevins, our Guest of Honor, William F. Nolan, Laurie Powers, Tom Roberts, Anthony Tollin, David Walker, John Wooley, auction organizers Barry Traylor and Mike Chomko, plus Maura Childers, Sam Childers, Aaron Cullers, Jack Cullers, Sally Cullers, and Sam Cullers, and finally, to the nominators and Lamont Award and Munsey Award winners who helped to select the winner of this year’s winner, Mike Chomko.

Finally, thanks to all of the conventions, book shows, websites, magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets that helped to promote our show as well as the dealers, attending members and supporting members of PulpFest 2010. It was due to your encouragement and support that our convention was a great success. We hope to see you all back in  the summer of 2011 along with a good many newcomers for PulpFest 2011. 

Accolades for the 2010 edition of PulpFest have been pouring in from all over the Internet. With 394 registrations, the convention closed in on four hundred members, while its panels and presentations were very well received. And where else can you go to see thousands of pulp magazines?

The reporting began on Friday, July 30, when Laurie Powers began a three-part post to her Internet blog, Laurie’s Wild West. A highly regarded writer, Laurie is also the granddaughter of Paul Powers, one of the original pulpsters and the author of many stories originally published by Wild West Weekly. Laurie’s report was soon followed by longtime pulp fan and conventioneer Walker Martin when he logged onto the Yahoo news group Pulpmags, and offered his view of PulpFest 2010. Both reports can be found on Laurie’s blog. Walker’s is also available on Steve Lewis’ Mystery*File.

For those who enjoy the work of Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, Morgan Holmes has posted a convention report at the REHupa website, the blog for the members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. For a look at PulpFest 2010 from a Howardian perspective, please visit the association’s site.

Mike Nevins, Bill Nolan, Don Hutchison, Laurie Powers, and Ed Hulse discussing the pulp Western at PulpFest 2010.

And for those of you who would like a more visual presentation, there are plenty of pictures available from this year’s convention. Adirondack reporter Lohr McKinstry has about a dozen photos posted on Flickr, Yahoo’s public photography archive. And Brian Earl Brown, the official editor of the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society and publisher of  BEB Books, has over forty pictures elsewhere on Flickr. Finally, if you belong to Pulpmags, the Yahoo news group devoted to discussing the history of pulp magazines, David Lee Smith has posted twenty more photos from this year’s con.

Planning is already underway for PulpFest 2011 which will be even bigger and better than this year’s event. See you next summer!

Rusty Burke, Walker Martin, Laurie Powers, and John Gunnison of Adventure House enjoying themselves at PulpFest 2010!

On Saturday, July 31, bookseller Mike Chomko was named the winner of the 2010 Munsey Award. Nominated by members of the general pulp community, Mike was selected by a panel of judges consisting of the 25 living Lamont Award winners and last year’s Munsey winner, Bill Thom. The award is a fine art print created by David Saunders, with the help of Dan Zimmer.

Mike has been involved in the pulp hobby for over twenty years, writing his first article for Echoes in the late eighties. In 1995, he launched the pulp fanzine Purple Prose that ran for seventeen issues and published many highly regarded articles about the pulps, including “The Steeger Papers,” the start of a pulp history penned by Popular Publications’ Harry Steeger. He has volunteered at many pulp conventions over the years and is one of the leading distributors of pulp-related publications. With Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse, and Barry Traylor, Mike is one of the organizers of the annual PulpFest .

In receiving his award, Mike thanked his family and all of the people who have helped and mentored him through his years within the pulp community, in particular Jack Cullers, Barry Traylor, and fellow Munsey nominee John DeWalt.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2011 Munsey Award. If you have someone in mind that you feel worthy to receive the Munsey Award, please let us know. 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. Previous winners of the Lamont Award or the Munsey Award are not eligible for the award. The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2011.

Following dealer set-up on Thursday evening, PulpFest 2010 officially got underway at 8 AM this morning. As always, the show began with the typical feeding frenzy as book and pulp collectors scoured the room searching for this or that long elusive volume. The convention’s programming schedule began at 2 PM when Mike Nevins discussed his forthcoming book, Cornucopia of Crime. Dave Walker follwed with a reading from his new Captain Midnight story, The Dawn of Midnight. There will be a lot more programming during the evening hours including Bill Nolan’s guest of honor presentation and Don Hutchison’s panel on the pulp Western. Rounding out this evening’s programming will be publisher Steven Haffner’s multi-media look at science fiction author Leigh Brackett and Anthony Tollin’s discussion of the 80th anniversary of the Shadow’s radio debut.

There’s still plenty of time to join in on the fun. The dealers’ room will be open until 5 PM on Friday and from 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday. Sunday will be a bit shorter, from 10 am to 3 PM. The evening programming schedules for Friday and Saturday nights will run from 7 PM until 12 AM. Tomorrow’s programming will include afternoon presentations by Doc Savage author Will Murray and another by popular culture expert Martin Grams. The evening programming will include an auction, a panel on the classic detective pulp, Black Mask Magazine, and presentation of the 2010 Munsey Award.

Admission to the show is $15 per day or $35 for all three days, allowing entry to all convention activities. The general public is very much welcome to attend.

PulpFest 2010 will begin tomorrow. Dealer set-up will take place from 6 PM to 12 AM. Early registration will begin at 7 PM at a location to be determined. Information will be available in the hotel lobby.

To all of you who will be attending PulpFest, we look forward to seeing you. Please have a safe journey to Columbus.

Barry Traylor, Ed Hulse, Jack Cullers, and Mike Chomko

The deadline for advance registrations to PulpFest 2010 is Tuesday, July 27, at 10 PM. Advance registrations will not be accepted after Tuesday. Payments made through Paypal will not be accepted after 10 PM on July 27.

Although PulpFest 2010 officially gets under way on Friday, July 30, the convention’s organizing committee is urging dealers to arrive on Thursday to set up their displays. The dealers’ room will be open from 6 PM to 12 AM on July 29 for set-up. It will also be open for set-up on Friday morning for one hour during early bird admission. The dealers’ room will be open to everyone beginning at 9 AM on Friday.

During Thursday set-up, dealers will be asked to arrange their displays and, upon completion, cover them up and then depart the room. No selling will be permitted during Thursday evening’s set-up.

The general membership is also welcome to arrive on Thursday. Early registration will take place beginning at 7 PM at a location to be determined. All members, dealers included, will be able to pick up their registration packets at this time. For those of you who have not yet registered for PulpFest, Thursday evening will be an ideal time to do so. Three-day memberships will be available for $35. Early-bird memberships will be available for $60. Early-bird memberships will not be available after Thursday.

For those members arriving on Thursday, July 29, refreshments will be provided courtesy of the PulpFest organizing committee. Film historian Ed Hulse has also put together a short film program to help celebrate the convention’s themes–the 90th anniversaries of the debut of Black Mask Magazine and the first appearance of Max Brand in Western Story Magazine.

Single-day memberships will be available at the door for Friday or Saturday at the rate of $15 per day. Sunday only memberships will cost $5. Full three-day memberships will also be available at the door for $35. Children who are accompanied by a parent and are fifteen years of age or younger will be admitted free of charge.

The hotel’s special room rate of $79 per night plus tax will continue through the start of the convention. However, rooms are going quickly. If you want to take advantage of this or other offers by the hotel, be sure to make your reservation as soon as possible. For further details, visit the Ramada Plaza page under "The Details." You can also make a reservation by calling the hotel at 614-846-0300. Be sure to mention PulpFest to get the special convention rate whether placing your reservation by phone or online.

The Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center is located just off Exit 116 of I-71, about ten minutes north of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Heading north on I-71, get off at Exit 116, the Morse Road exit. Turn left onto Morse Road. Follow Morse until you get to Sinclair Road. Turn right onto Sinclair Road. The hotel is at 4900 Sinclair Road. Heading south on I-71, get off at Exit 116, the Sinclair Road exit. Turn right onto Sinclair Road and follow to the Ramada Plaza Hotel. For those who would like a map to get to the hotel, click here.

The PulpFest organizing committee is looking for volunteers to serve as hospitality suite hosts on Friday and Saturday evenings. If you are willing, please write to jack@pulpfest.com. Haffner Press will be sponsoring the con suite on Friday  when it will be temporarily renamed "The Otherness Suite." The Robert E. Howard Foundation will sponsor the con suite on Saturday.

The convention will officially open on Friday, July 30 at 9 AM. Early-bird registrants will be allowed into the dealers’ room beginning at 8 AM. The doors will open to everyone, beginning at 9 AM. The dealers’ room will be open until 5 PM on Friday evening. It will be open from 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday and from 10 AM to 3 PM on Sunday.

There will be a full schedule of programming on Friday and Saturday evenings from 7 PM until about midnight. There will also be several presentations during the daytime hours. Please visit our programming page for further details.

All PulpFest attendees will be able to submit material for inclusion in the Saturday Night Auction. For additional information, please visit our Auctions page or contact Barry Traylor via email.

The second annual Munsey Breakfast will take place on Sunday, August 1, beginning at 9 AM. This will be an informal meal in the hotel’s restaurant to celebrate this year’s Munsey Award winner and your PulpFest experience. All convention attendees are welcome to attend.

PulpFest 2010 will have many freebies available for all attendees. There will be a variety of materials at the entrance to the dealers’ room. These will be accessible on Saturday morning. So bring along a BIG bag!

For those attendees who would like to ship their purchases to their homes, PulpFest 2010 has arranged for a local UPS provider to be available at the hotel on Sunday, August 1. A local FedEx office, located about two miles from the hotel, will also be open for shipping your purchases. Transportation can be arranged through the hotel’s shuttle service. Further information is available on our FAQ  page.

The entire PulpFest 2010 organizing committee–Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse and Barry Traylor–is looking forward to seeing you all in just a few days. Have a safe trip to Columbus.

Over the last several months, the PulpFest organizing committee has been busy promoting the convention through a wide variety of media providers, including Internet news groups such as Pulpmags, TheREHcomicsgroup, and WesternPulps, the popular social networking site, Facebook, and through events calendars such as UpcomingCons.com and experienceColumbus.com. 

However, our efforts to promote PulpFest have not been limited to cyberspace. We have also been reaching out to print and broadcasting media as well, targeting the Columbus area in the interest of securing regional publicity and, through it, attracting more walk-ins. Thanks to these efforts, PulpFest landed an article in the June 23, 2010 issue of ThisWeek, a community newspaper serving central Ohio. Additionally, PulpFest committee members Jack Cullers and Ed Hulse, as well as Ohio State professor Eric Johnson were interviewed for a three-page article entitled "Amazing Tales in Columbus" that ran in the July 2010 issue of Ohio Magazine, a glossy periodical devoted to promoting travel opportunities in the state of Ohio.

By our reaching out to a wide variety of media providers, the use of Internet news groups, our print advertising, and outreach efforts via other conventions and book and paper shows, PulpFest 2010 hopes to draw a record crowd to Columbus at the end of this week. Rest assured, your PulpFest committee will continue to work to assure that PulpFest 2010 will be a resounding success.

PulpFest 2010 would like to thank the following organizations for their generous contributions to our convention:

Book Source Magazine for sending copies of their publication for distribution at PulpFest.

Chaosium, the developer of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, for donating a number of books to the convention that will be awarded as door prizes during our evening programming.

Dell Magazines for giving us over 100 copies of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for our members.

Engle Publishing for sending copies of The Paper & Advertising Collectors’ Marketplace for distribution to PulpFest attendees.

Experience Columbus for putting together a VIP package that will get you and your family members reduced admissions to many of the city’s fine attractions. Copies will be available at our freebies table, but you can also download copies through the Visiting Columbus page of our website.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the award-winning magazine that celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2009, for donating a number of back issues to hand out to our members.

Galaxy Press for sending copies of The Golden Gazette for our freebie table.

We’d also like to thank Acorn Bookshop, Blue Jacket Books, Dark Star Books, The Dust Jacket, Karen Wickliff Books, and Mavericks Cards and Comics for their help in promoting our convention, and we invite PulpFest attendees to visit them in Ohio. You’ll find links to their websites under "Friends" on the PulpFest home page.

Many thanks to cartoonist and publisher Michael Neno and Eric Johnson, Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts and an Assistant Professor at Ohio State University, for their help promoting PulpFest in the Columbus area, as well as Mark Trost for his work to promote us through the media.

Finally, Haffner Press will be sponsoring the PulpFest hospitality suite on Friday, July 31. The suite will be renamed "The Otherness Lounge" to honor the release of Haffner’s Detour to Otherness, a collection featuring some of the best fiction from Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, two of the greats from the pulp era.

Saturday night’s hospitality suite will be sponsored by The Robert E. Howard Foundation, an organization that works to foster understanding of the life and works of Robert E. Howard through its publishing efforts, its support of Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas, and other methods.

Six years after serving as the guest of honor at Pulpcon 33, Francis M. Nevins returns to the spotlight with an appearance at PulpFest 2010. Mike will be talking about Cornucopia of Crime, his forthcoming book from Ramble House, a hefty volume of 449 closely printed pages featuring chapters on pulp titans such as Cornell Woolricjh, Erle Stanley Gardner, John Lawrence, Cleve F. Adams and John D. MacDonald. Also included are interviews with James Atlee Phillips, better known as espionage novelist Phlip Atlee of the Joe Gall series, and with his brother David Atlee Phillips, a career CIA officer who shadowed Graham Greene in Castro’s Cuba and is suspected in some quarters of having had a hand in the JFK assassination.

Best known as the author of the ultimate Woolrich biography, First You Dream, Then You Die (which won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, Nevins is a professor at the St. Louis University School of Law where he has taught since 1971. Some of his other books include Hopalong Cassidy: On the Page, On the Screen and The Cisco Kid: American Hero, Hispanic Roots. He has also edited many mystery anthologies and collections including Night and Fear and Leopold’s Way. Additionally, he has authored six mystery novels and two short story collections.

Join Mike Nevins at PulpFest at 2 PM on Friday, July 30 for Cornucopia of Crime.

They were called scribes, word slingers, hacks and penny-a-worders. But perhaps the most favored term, especially among the men and women who labored for the bloody pulps, was fictioneer—a fiction writer, especially a prolific creator of commercial or pulp fiction.

Join PulpFest as we celebrate today’s fictioneers—the authors writing the new pulp fiction. Indiana’s David Walker, a longtime friend to pulp historian Nick Carr, will be on hand to read from The Dawn of Midnight, a story originally penned for Airship 27’s Lance Star, Sky Ranger, Volume Two, published by Cornerstone Books and featuring the popular adventure hero, Captain Midnight. He’ll also be available for questions, critiques and good, old-fashioned schmoozing.

David’s New Fictioneers reading will take place on Friday, 7/30 at 3 PM. Please visit our programming page for further details on this and PulpFest’s other exciting programming events.