Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of PulpFest 2009, told through the posts that originally appeared on the convention’s home page during 2008 and 2009. They began a few months after the last Pulpcon, when the organizing committee started planning, arranging, and promoting the first PulpFest.
Four pulp fans founded PulpFest in October 2008 after seeing a need for a vibrant, proactive summer pulp convention. Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse, and Barry Traylor joined together, and with help from web and art designer Chris Kalb, set out to build a convention from scratch.
After a great deal of time and hard work, PulpFest 2009 took place from July 31 – August 2, 2009, in the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. It was a resounding success.
In the posts that follow, you’ll read posts released on the convention’s website in the days, weeks, and months leading up to the 2009 convention. In them, you’ll learn about the wide-ranging programming of the first PulpFest, the creation of the Munsey Award, and much more. A convention report from Dime Novel Round-Up closes out the post.
If you’d like to learn more about PulpFest’s history, please contact any of the organizing committee members. You’ll find their email addresses scattered throughout our website and at the bottom of the FAQ Page.
Unfortunately, some posts about PulpFest 2009 are unavailable due to coding problems embedded in the text. However, below is the first post to ever appear on the PulpFest website. Dated November 6, 2008, it announced the organizers’ plans for the 2009 convention.
Announcing PulpFest 2009!
Pulpfest 2009, a new and improved version of the venerable convention catering to fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction, will be held from Friday, July 31, through Sunday, August 2, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.
Sellers of pulp magazines, all-fiction digests, dime novels, and other collectible books and periodicals are already lining up for exhibit space, and the convention will be advertised and promoted extensively to attract new hobbyists and veteran attendees. Preliminary flyers carrying basic information are being distributed at various collectibles shows this fall, beginning with Bouchercon, the annual gathering for collectors of mystery fiction. The Pulpfest 2009 committee has also contacted several publications to inquire about advertising the convention.
Additionally, the Pulpfest 2009 website is now operational and can be found by clicking here. Please make it a favorite. In the weeks and months ahead, we will update it regularly with new information on guests and programming as soon as it becomes available. Chris Kalb is working long and hard to get everything up and running..
Dealers interested in helping promote Pulpfest 2009 can download and print out any of the four flyers available on the website in PDF form. You can distribute these at collectibles shows or send them with mail-order shipments. A pricing schedule for dealer tables and registrations is forthcoming.
Following an extensive search for the best available venue, the Pulpfest 2009 committee chose the Ramada Plaza for its spacious accommodations, numerous amenities, ease of access, and competitive pricing. The committee negotiated a guest-room rate of $84 plus tax per night, significantly less than similar conventions.
The Convention Center’s main ballroom boasts more than 10,000 square feet of space and will accommodate up to 80 eight-foot tables. A separate room on the same floor will be set up theater-style for our evening programming. A con suite will be open for after-hours conversation and conviviality.
Located just off Exit 116 of Interstate 71, the Ramada Plaza is only 20 minutes from Columbus International Airport and 10 minutes from downtown Columbus, making our convention site easily accessible to attendees whether they’re driving or flying.
The Ramada offers complimentary shuttle transportation to and from the airport, downtown Columbus, and other locations within a five-mile radius of the hotel, including restaurants.
The newly renovated hotel additionally offers all the usual amenities. High-speed wireless Internet access is now available in the main lobby, convention center, and guest rooms. Guests can use a whirlpool, an exercise room, and both indoor and outdoor pools, as well as a full-service business center. Parking is free for hotel guests and single-day convention attendees.
The Ramada’s spacious restaurant, Justin’s Place, serves traditional American cuisine and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week. The hotel’s cozy lounge, Bowties, is open until two a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Ramada Plaza is an extremely popular venue for conventions of our type and size. For fifteen years it has hosted Cinevent, an annual confab of vintage-film fans and collectors of movie memorabilia. Hotel management is both committed to and experienced in providing the courteous, comprehensive service that produces satisfied conventioneers.
Chris Kalb adapted our lead image from George Rozen’s original cover art for the Fall 1948 issue of The Shadow. An excerpt from Rozen’s cover is also our featured image.
PulpFest.com is Fully Operational!
December 5, 2008 – If you’re here, you know that the PulpFest 2009 website is now up and running! And it’s certainly a joy to behold!
For any and all information concerning summer’s premier event for collectors of vintage pulp magazines and related material, simply bookmark pulpcon.com on your home computer.
In addition to all the basic information, you’ll find a downloadable registration form, links to sites managed by our host hotel and local Columbus institutions, a list of dealers (which is already substantial, even with the convention more than seven months away), capsule bios and contact info for PulpFest committee members, and other items of interest including links to our dealers, pulp-related publishers and other great sites.
The PulpFest website boasts an eye-catching design and is easy to navigate. The site will be updated regularly over the coming weeks and months: not only with additional facts about the show, but also with fun stuff every pulp fan will enjoy.
You can also sign up for the PulpFest email list by entering your name and email address in the box on our home page. Click the “join” button and watch for your confirmation email to finalize your subscription.
Visit often for all the news about what promises to be 2009’s most noteworthy gathering of people who read, research, and collect pulp magazines and other forms of American popular culture.
We’ll close by reiterating that PulpFest is your convention. We’re interested in your suggestions and will consider them carefully. We’ve already received many great ideas and want to thank those of you who’ve written to us.
The Munsey Award
January 31, 2009 – David Saunders, the son of the legendary pulp artist Norman Saunders, has created a sensational limited-edition print that we’ve named the Munsey Award. David’s work is a refreshing homage to classic pulp art that honors the entire pulp community and their common love of the purple prose of the bloody pulps. We are sure that Norman Saunders would be proud of his son’s wonderful painting. Dan Zimmer of The Illustrated Press has produced a deluxe edition of thirty-six numbered and signed prints. The PulpFest Committee is indebted to both David and Dan for their generous support of our convention.
A New York artist whose work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The New Museum and at other museums and in public buildings throughout the United States and other countries, David Saunders has taught art at Yale, Oberlin and many other colleges worldwide, including schools in Paris, London and Tokyo. An expert on pulp art, he has been a guest speaker on the subject, including “The Pulp Art Show” held at the Brooklyn Museum in 2003, and has served as the guest of honor at various pulp conventions. David has written biographical articles on pulp artists Allen Anderson, Rudolph Belarski, Frederick Blakeslee, Ernest Chiriacka, Rafael DeSoto, J. W. Scott, and his father. He is also the author of Norman Saunders, a biography and appreciation of the great pulp artist. The Illustrated Press released it in January 2009.
The Munsey Award is named after Frank A. Munsey, the man who published the first all-fiction pulp magazine. Beginning in 2009, it will be presented annually to a deserving person who has given of himself or herself to better the pulp community, whether by disseminating knowledge about the pulps, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and foster interest in the pulp magazines we all love and enjoy.
If you have someone in mind whom you feel is worthy of receiving the first Munsey Award, please let us know. PulpFest 2009 committee members are not eligible for this year’s award. A committee of all living Lamont Award winners will select the 2009 Munsey Award recipient. The award will be presented on Sunday, August 2, at a special breakfast at the Ramada Plaza in Columbus, Ohio. Tom Roberts, the 2008 Lamont Award winner, will present the first Munsey Award.
Pulps Are in the Air!
April 19, 2009 – Spring is in the air and so is the convention season. The Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention kicks off the first weekend of May. Three members of the PulpFest Organizing Committee will be on hand – Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse, and Mike Chomko. Please stop by our tables to learn more about what has become the talk of the pulp community – PulpFest 2009!
One short week after the Chicago convention, the pulp community heads to Toronto. Although none of PulpFest’s guiding hands will be in attendance, the 13th Annual Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale will certainly be a blast. For more information, please write to Girasol Collectables.
May closes with the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship gathering in California. Additional details concerning the 2009 ECOF convention are forthcoming.
With the arrival of June comes the spring edition of Classicon. This Michigan convention offers a wide variety of collectibles from pulps and paperbacks to calendars and pin-up magazines. For more information, write to the Curious Book Shop.
Cross Plains, Texas, celebrates Robert E. Howard Days on June 12-13. This year, the festival will be saluting the poetry of the popular pulp author.
Although PulpFest 2009 has generated a lot of positive buzz in the collectibles community, we haven’t been resting on our laurels. In addition to offering advertising flyers at pulp-related events such as Windy City and Classicon, we’ll promote our show at science-fiction and fantasy conventions, comic shows, mystery conferences, and book and paper fairs.
We’ll also be running print advertisements in The Paper and Advertising Collector’s Marketplace, Firsts, Alter Ego, Book Source Magazine, Illustration, and other publications.
We also want to thank Acorn Bookshop and Karen Wickliff Books—two Columbus bookstores—for helping promote our show. We hope PulpFest attendees will visit them while in town.
The PulpFest 2009 Organizing Committee is working very hard to get the word out about our convention. Please do your part by registering for what is shaping up to be the pulp event of 2009!
2009 Munsey Award Nominees
May 18, 2009 – The PulpFest Organizing Committee is proud to announce that art designer and illustrator Chris Kalb, researcher and indexer Steve Miller, researcher and editor Garyn Roberts, Coming Attractions’ Bill Thom, Anthony Tollin, the publisher of Doc Savage and The Shadow, Battered Silicon Dispatch Box publisher George Vanderburgh, and Dan Zimmer, editor and publisher of Illustration Magazine are the candidates for the 2009 Munsey Award.
The general pulp community selected the seven nominees over several months. PulpFest Organizing Committee members as well as winners of the Lamont Award – a service award that had been presented by Pulpcon – were not eligible for the 2009 Munsey Award. The nominees’ names have been forwarded to a committee of the 25 living Lamont Award winners, who will select this year’s winner.
The recipient of the 2009 Munsey Award, a limited edition print designed by artist and pulp enthusiast David Saunders, will be revealed at a special breakfast open to all PulpFest 2009 registrants. It will be held on Sunday, August 2, from 8-10 AM at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. Additional details concerning this event are forthcoming.
Munsey Award Breakfast
July 9, 2009 – If you are planning to attend the Munsey Award Breakfast on Sunday, August 2, please notify Jack Cullers as soon as possible. The breakfast will begin at 8 AM and cost $10-15 per person, tip included. We need to notify the hotel about how many people plan to attend.
John Gunnison of Adventure House has generously offered PulpFest a copy of The Thrill Book Complete, Vol. One to serve as a door prize for the Munsey Award Breakfast. One lucky attendee to the award ceremony will go home with a copy of this volume, a $70 value. PulpFest and Adventure House staff members are not eligible for the prize.
The Thrill Book Complete, Vol. One collects the first seven issues of the legendary Street & Smith pulp magazine. The magazine ran for sixteen issues.
Additionally, Gordon Van Gelder of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the award-winning digest that is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary in 2009, has donated several hundred back issues to hand out to our members come showtime. Back numbers of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine will also be on hand. Dell Magazines has donated over five hundred issues to PulpFest.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for June & July 2009, with cover by Ron Miller, depicting “The Formation of the Earth.”
It’s a Sellout!
As of July 11, all 100 dealer tables slated for PulpFest 2009 had been reserved. To be added to our waiting list, please contact Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com. You won’t need to pay for a table until you arrive at the convention. However, you must purchase a full, three-day membership to be added to our waiting list.
The following dealers have reserved tables at PulpFest 2009:
Adventure House
Age of Aces
Airship 27
Art Hackathorn
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box (George Vanderburgh)
Bill Maynard
Black Dog Books (Tom Roberts)
Bob Flowers
Brian Earl Brown
Chris Foss
Curious Book Shop (Ray Walsh)
Dave Kurzman
David Saunders
Dearly Departed Books
Don Hutchison
Doug Ellis and Deb Fulton
Dwight Fuhro
Ed Hulse
Ed Lancaster
Fantasy Illustrated (David Smith)
Gary Shaheen
Girasol Collectables (Neil & Leigh Mechem)
Gordon Huber
G. Warlock Vance
Haffner Press
(Stephen Haffner)
Harold and Honey Forman
Hooked on Books
Howling Wolf’s Lost Pulp Classics (Ian Lohr & Ian Isbitts Lohr)
Jack Cullers
Jack Juka
Jerry Schattenburg
Jim & WalterAlbert
John McMahan
Jon Wehler
Keith Dilbone
Mark Halegua
Mark Hickman
Martin Grams, Jr.
Mike Chomko, Books
Nick Certo
Off-Trail Publications (John Locke)
Paul Herman
Phil Nelson
R & B Enterprises
(Robin & Brandon Faulkner)
Randy Vanderbeek
Rick Hall
Sanctum Books (Anthony Tollin)
Scott Hartshorn
Steve Young
Tim’s Books (Tim Paxton)
Walker Martin
Wild Cat Books
(Ron Hanna)
Plus additional dealers who have asked us not to display their names on our website for various reasons.
PulpFest in the News
July 26, 2009 – Thanks to Mark Trost’s efforts, PulpFest 2009 made its way into two Midwestern newspapers today. Our convention appeared on the front page of the arts section of The Columbus Dispatch and in the local news section of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. The show starts this Friday, July 31, at 11 AM.
The entire PulpFest 2009 organizing committee – Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse and Barry Traylor – is looking forward to seeing you all in just a few short days. Have a safe trip to Columbus.
Business Week, a national business news magazine, later reprinted The Columbus Dispatch report.
And the Winner Is …
August 2, 2009 – Bill Thom, the designer of the Coming Attractions website, was named the recipient of the 2009 Munsey Award at this year’s PulpFest. Nominated by members of the general pulp community, a committee made up of the 25 living Lamont Award winners selected this year’s winner.
Bill’s website is 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. He also 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.
Congratulations to Bill for winning the first Munsey Award. The honor is very well-deserved.
PulpFest 2009 is a Hit!
August 2, 2009 – Thanks to all of our dealers and attendees who made PulpFest 2009 a great success. Please visit YouTube for a short video of this year’s PulpFest. Registrations totaled 351, and the future looks very bright for “The Summer’s Leading Pulp Convention.”
Attendance doubled the membership of the previous year’s PulpCon.
Planning is already underway for PulpFest 2010. It will again be held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, just off of Interstate 71, about ten minutes north of downtown Columbus. We’ll have an expanded dealers’ room, one or more lively auctions, and a variety of the wonderful programming that entertained this year’s attendees.
So start making your plans for the weekend of July 30 – August 1, 2010, and join the convention that everyone is talking about – PulpFest!
Chris Kalb adapted the PulpFest 2009 flyer from Earle K. Bergey’s original cover art for the September 1950 issue of Startling Stories.
Thanks a Million!
The PulpFest Organizing Committee would like to thank the following people whose invaluable assistance helped to make PulpFest 2009 a resounding success: Sally Cullers, Samantha Cullers, Aaron Cullers, John Gunnison, Mark Trost, Chris Kalb, David Saunders, Dan Zimmer, Steve Haynes, Phil Nelson, John Wehler, Curt Phillips, Rusty Burke, Morgan Holmes, Kurt Shoemaker, Rick Hall, Nicholas Hauser, Barry Traylor, Mark Halegua, Lohr McKinstry, Dave Kurzman, Walker Martin, Scott Hartshorn, Vineetha Thomas and Diane Share of Experience Columbus, and Meri Lynne Stumbo, Beth Sweet, Mark Carr, Jack, Patrick, Andrew and the rest of the staff at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center.
The Organizing Committee would also like to thank all of the folks who helped to assemble The Pulpster #18: Tony Davis, Bill Lampkin, Rex Layton, Monte Herridge, Mike Chomko, Garyn Roberts, Nick Carr, Dean Cartier, Joseph Wrzos, the late Edd Cartier, Barry Traylor, Peter Chomko, and Will Murray, plus the magazine’s sponsors – Altus Press, Age of Aces Books, Girasol Collectables, Dwight Fuhro, Black Coat Press, Mike Chomko Books, Off-Trail Publications, Fenham Publishing, and The Pulp Art Gallery.
And many thanks to all of the presenters who informed and entertained everyone who attended our programming events: Doug Ellis, John Gunnison, Walker Martin, Tom Roberts, Don Hutchison, Garyn Roberts, Rick Davis, Karen Cunningham, Nick Carr, Ron Fortier, Bill Maynard, Shelby Rhodes, Warlock Vance, Mike Glagola, Stephen Haffner, Anthony Tollin, Will Murray, Eric Johnson, Ian Lohr, our Guest of Honor, Otto Penzler, our masters of ceremonies, Jack Cullers and Ed Hulse, auction organizers Barry Traylor, Mike Chomko, Aaron Cullers, and Sam Cullers, and the Lamont Award winners who helped to select the recipient of the 2009 Munsey Award, Bill Thom.
Finally, thanks to all the conventions, book shows, websites, magazines, and newspapers that helped promote our show, as well as the dealers, attending members, and supporting members of PulpFest 2009. Your encouragement and support ultimately made our convention a great success. We hope to see you all back in 2010, along with many newcomers who will join the fun at PulpFest 2010.
November 7, 2009 — J. Randolph Cox, editor and publisher of Dime Novel Round-Up, offered the following summary of PulpFest 2009 in the August 2009 issue (Whole No. 718) of his journal dedicated to the study of dime and nickel novels, story papers, series books, and pulp magazines. The article is © 2009 J. Randolph Cox and used with permission.
Convention Report: PulpFest 2009
All hail the new beginning! PulpFest 2009 replaced the traditional Pulpcon this year and, by all accounts, was a great success. There were more than 350 in attendance (many of them walk-ins for the day), and the word that flashed around the dealer’s room to describe the atmosphere was “energy.” At any time during the three days, there were dozens of collectors at the tables examining the wares of the dealers.
PulpFest 2009 was held from July 31 to August 2 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio, a ten-minute drive from downtown (although arriving in the midst of the late afternoon rush hour traffic as your editor did, it seemed to take longer than that all the while hoping that he was in the correct lane of traffic for making the proper exit).
From there it was a quick trip to the Ramada parking lot and registration at the front desk. Once settled in the room, the next step was looking for the usual gang of comrades in pulp adventure with whom your editor has become accustomed to hang out at this annual event. From there it was only a car ride to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and then back to pick up our registration packets. (Over the next few days there were many similar visits to restaurants and a few to nearby bookstores as well).
One of the reasons this convention may have been so well attended was the proliferation and variety of material for sale in the dealers’ room. Not only pulp magazines, the original raw material for the pulp generation of readers, but the books in which some of the stories were preserved and the related material that reflected an interest in high adventure. There was more than one dealer who sold DVDs of rare movies, movie serials, and TV shows. Something for everyone.
As has been noted in past columns, this is a golden age of reprints, from volumes collecting the original magazine stories (arranged by author or by series character or genre) to facsimiles of magazine issues themselves. Only a handful of publishers of these reprints had tables themselves, but their publications could be obtained from many different dealers.
The pulp conventions have never had a rigid program with an emphasis on panel discussions or presentations by authors or collectors, preferring to allow collectors more time to browse in the dealers’ room. PulpFest gave everyone a choice by making some events (generally readings from recently published fiction in the pulp tradition) available even while the dealers’ room was open. These ranged from G. Warlock Vance and Mike Glagola reading from The Missing Narrative of Neptune, described in the program as “a hardboiled novella from the weird-detective genre of mystery fiction” and from a forthcoming novel, The Bad Man, to Ron Fortier reading a chapter from his latest Captain Hazzard novel, Cavemen of New York, and S. Clayton Rhodes reading his novelette, “To Bite the Worm,” from the revived Startling Stories. Your editor was able to attend William Patrick Maynard’s reading from The Terror of Fu Manchu, his newly published novel. Maynard is the second writer since 1959 (the first was Cay Van Ash) to be authorized by the Sax Rohmer estate to continue the famous thrillers.
On Friday, the official welcome from those responsible for PulpFest was followed by a panel discussion of “Pulp Collecting 2009: State of the Hobby,” the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Operator #5 stories by Frederick C. Davis, and the early work of science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton. Late that first evening, Anthony Tollin and Will Murray discussed the new series from Sanctum Books reprinting The Avenger novels. An hour devoted to H. P. Lovecraft was appropriately scheduled for 11:00 p. m., during which Ian Lohr of Howling Wolf Lost Pulp Classics ably explored the life and legacy of Lovecraft and his influence on weird fiction and the way his stories have been interpreted (and misinterpreted) in the media.
Saturday evening began with a lively and informative business meeting where the founders of PulpFest took praise as well as suggestions for improving future conventions. Eric Johnson, Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Ohio State University, presented an overview of OSU’s pulp and popular culture materials (including the Cartoon Research Library). The guest of honor was Otto Penzler, who answered questions about his long career as publisher, editor, bookseller and collector. The evening was concluded by an auction of magazines, books and original art. The bidding was lively and thousands of dollars changed hands.
PulpFest concluded on Sunday with the Munsey Award Breakfast at which Bill Thom received the first Munsey Award for his work in keeping us all alert to new publications and activity in the pulp world at his Coming Attractions website.
PulpFest 2010 has already been scheduled for July 30 to August 1, in Columbus, Ohio.
