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!

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.