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.

Lester Dent, Laurence Donovan, Paul Ernst, Ryerson Johnson…were pulp writers with one thing in common: they were all Kenneth Robeson.

When Street & Smith launched Doc Savage Magazine in 1933, they decided to use a house name to mask the identity of the author behind the new adventure series. Six years later, they did it again when the first issue of The Avenger hit the stands. Warner Books followed suit when Ron Goulart continued the series in the 1970s.

On Saturday afternoon, July 31 at PulpFest 2010, you’ll have a chance to meet the latest Kenneth Robeson when Will Murray discusses his seven-year effort to get new Doc Savage novels back in the book stores. He’ll also talk about his latest novel featuring the Man of Bronze–The Desert Demons, a story based upon an outline by Lester Dent–and related subjects.

But wait! If you prefer green over the color bronze, Martin Grams will be on hand with a history of The Green Hornet. Although the character never crossed over to the pulps, The Hornet had the same feel and essence as many of the rough paper masked vigilantes. Get the lowdown on this character and his companion Kato, their earliest adventures, why most of the recordings for the radio series don’t exist, and more through this fascinating slide show presentation. Additionally, Martin may have some tidbits about The Shadow that will surprise even the most dedicated enthusiast of the dark avenger.

For further details on all of the programming at PulpFest 2010, please visit our programming page.

2010 is already shaping up to be a great year for pulp fiction. We’ll have another full year of not only Doc Savage and The Shadow from Sanctum Books, but also quarterly issues of The Avenger and The Whisperer. From Girasol Collectables, there will be twelve new Spider pulp replicas as well as eight adventures of The Master of Men in the popular doubles format. Girasol will also be publishing two facsimile editions collecting all of H. P. Lovecraft’s output for Weird Tales magazine. John Gunnison’s Adventure House will have six more issues of High Adventure–fast approaching its 20th anniversary–four issues of G-8 and His Battle Aces, about three dozen pulp replicas, and more. And of course, there will be plenty of other books to choose from with the offerings from Age of Aces Books, the award-winning Altus Press, Black Dog Books, Pulpville Press, and other small publishers.     (more…)