2009 Nominees

Chris Kalb

Chris would be the perfect recipient for the first Munsey Award. He embodies everything your committee is trying to accomplish with PulpFest. His web site work and many publishing ventures are really attractive to people being exposed to pulps for the first time. There isn’t anyone out there making better use of all the new technology while still preserving the “oldness” of pulps and popular culture. He has become the “go-to-guy” for publishers who want a retro design. Please see his work for Age of Aces Books, the newly redesigned Blood ‘n’ Thunder, his own The Spider Returns website and, of course, the PulpFest website.

Steve Miller

Stephen T. Miller has been helping to index the pulps for years. Along with Michael Cook, he compiled Garland Publishing’s Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U. S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974, an exceptionally useful resource for collectors of not only detective pulps, but also hero and some adventure magazines. With Bill Contento, Steve compiled Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index (1890-1998), a guide to more than 900 different magazines, published on CD-ROM by Locus Press and updated periodically by the publisher. Over the years, Steve has also helped many different people with pulp-related research.

Garyn Roberts

Dr. Roberts is the Chair of the Communications/English Discipline at Northwestern Michigan College. He is also an unabashed fan of the pulps. Garyn has written extensively about the pulps, both professionally and as a fan. He has edited or co-edited some of the best collections from the pulps including A Cent a Story: The Best from Ten Detective Aces, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps, The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of the Green Ghost and The Compleat Great Merlini. His insightful essays in these books and elsewhere have led to a greater understanding of the pulps both inside and outside of the pulp community. His collection, The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, a college level textbook, is notable for the attention paid to the pulp magazines where the science-fiction and fantasy genres evolved from their roots in the works of Poe, Hawthorne, Verne and Wells. Additionally, Garyn has helped other researchers time and again with various pulp-related projects and is a regular attendee of pulp conventions.

Bill Thom

One person who has been dedicated to the pulp community for many, many years is Bill Thom. Pretty much everyone knows of his efforts with Coming Attractions, the website that Bill updates on a weekly basis where just about every pulp fan with computer access goes to learn about the latest news and book releases in the world of pulps and pulp reprints. And before computers became widespread, Bill was telling us the latest pulpish news in Echoes, Tom and Ginger Johnson’s long running and acclaimed pulp fanzine. Additionally, Bill maintains the Pulp Series Character Reprint Index that can be accessed through the Altus Press website as well as the Robert E. Howard bibliography available through the Howard Works website. He has also been a tremendous help for researchers over the years through his knowledge and collection.

Anthony Tollin

It was Tony Tollin who had the fortitude to convince Conde Naste to license authorized reprints of Doc Savage, The Shadow and now, The Avenger and The Whisperer. Although we were already in a golden age of pulp reprints before Tollin’s publications began to appear, his books were icing on the cake. Today, we can enjoy a double dose of some of the pulp era’s greatest heroes practically every month, coupled with informative articles about the authors, the sources for the stories and the pop culture that they inspired. Additionally, Tony was the co-author with Walter Gibson of The Shadow Scrapbook and helped to put together numerous recorded collections of pulp-related radio programs during his association with Radio Spirits.

George Vanderburgh

Through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, George has published nearly 400 books, many of them directly related to the pulps. He was largely responsible for finally getting all of Fred Davis’ classic Moon Man stories back into print. And what about his Peter the Brazen series, his five volumes featuring the work of Seabury Quinn, The Compleat Adventures of the Park Avenue Hunt Club, his Green Ghost set and the just released The Compleat Saga of John Solomon? He has also given us numerous collections of detective fiction, including volumes featuring the Thinking Machine, Dr. Thorndyke and Martin Hewitt. Looking at his website, his future plans include several books reprinting pulp authors who have been unjustly forgotten. And so much of this work was done while he was practicing medicine full time. Along with Robert Weinberg, George has just been named the co-editor of Arkham House Books. A regular attendee of pulp conventions, George is very much deserving of the first Munsey Award.

Dan Zimmer

For the last ten years, Dan has been working to promote greater awareness of pulp artists by producing and distributing Illustration Magazine. Dan has tirelessly contributed his time, expertise and his own personal wealth to promote a more respectful awareness of the artistic accomplishments of pulp artists through the deluxe publication of the many biographical articles on pulp artists that have appeared in his magazine and been distributed around the globe. He has done this despite the overwhelming fact that his creative vision is far beyond receiving any reasonable economic return for his efforts. Dan’s devotion to classic American illustrators is manifest in the elegant presentation of his magazine and has helped to turn the tide in our culture’s growing appreciation of pulp art. Additionally, he has supported the pulp community by drawing his readers’ attention to various pulp conventions, including the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, Pulpcon and PulpFest. Dan has also served as the sponsor of Windy City’s annual pulp art exhibit and created the limited edition print of David Saunder’s Munsey Award painting without cost to the PulpFest organizing committee.