The following posts — from around the end of January through late July 2010 – cover the programming planned for PulpFest 2010.
Our Guest of Honor, Bill Nolan
PulpFest is proud to announce that award-winning author, editor, screenwriter, and biographer William F. Nolan will be the Guest of Honor at this year’s convention.
Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Nolan is a leading authority on author Frederick Faust, who wrote pulp fiction as Max Brand and other pseudonyms. He also knows a thing or two about Dashiell Hammett and other Black Mask contributors who flourished under editor Joseph T. Shaw. His many books on these writers include Hammett: A Life at the Edge (1983), The Black Mask Boys (1985), and Max Brand: Western Giant (1986).
2010 marks the 90th anniversary of both Black Mask’s first issue and Max Brand’s first appearance in Western Story Magazine, and the PulpFest committee felt that Mr. Nolan was the ideal person to help recognize these milestones in pulp history. He will headline PulpFest panels on western and hard-boiled detective fiction.
William F. Nolan was born in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards before moving to California in the late 40s. Soon he began concentrating on writing rather than art.
Not long after his first genre fiction, “The Joy of Living,” was published in the August 1954 issue of 
, Nolan became a full-time writer. Since that short story, Nolan has published more than 1500 stories, articles, books, and other works.
Soon after arriving in California, Nolan, along with Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Chad Oliver, and John Tomerlin, formed the nucleus of a group known as “The Southern California School of Writers,” “The Southern California Sorcerers,” and other names. Together, they worked to develop their writing skills.
Nolan is best known as the co-author (with George Clayton Johnson) of Logan’s Run and sole author of its sequels. The original novel sold over a million copies in the United States alone, spawned a popular MGM movie, a CBS television series, a Marvel comic book, and dozens of websites. Bluewater Productions recently launched a new graphic version of Nolan’s creation entitled Logan’s Run: Last Day, and a mega-budget film version of the novel is in development.
With 85 books to his credit, plus hundreds of articles, scripts and short stories embracing a dozen genres, Nolan is a regular word factory. He has written countless works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, particularly in short-story form. The best of his dark fantasy was collected in 2001 as William F. Nolan’s Dark Universe: Stories 1951 – 2001, while a representative sampling of his science fiction appeared in 2005: Wild Galaxy: Selected Science Fiction Stories. He is a two-time winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar Award, was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2006, acclaimed a Living Legend by the International Horror Guild, and recently received the Lifetime Achievement Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association. His television work has earned him two Golden Medallions in Europe.
In the pulp field, Nolan has not only written about Hammett, Faust, and Black Mask, but has also written about his friends Ray Bradbury and Charles Beaumont. He has also edited six collections featuring the work of Frederick Faust, and penned a trio of mystery novels featuring Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner as detectives. The first, The Black Mask Murders, appeared in 1994. His Sam Space series, a joking homage to Hammett, transported the hero of The Maltese Falcon to outer space. Although Nolan began his “fiction career too late for the pulps,” he “did have letters printed in Planet Stories and Famous Fantastic Mysteries” and “grew up reading Argosy and Weird Tales.”
Nolan’s most recent work is The Bleeding Edge: Dark Barriers, Dark Frontiers, an anthology of dark short fiction and film scripts, co-edited with Jason V. Brock. Published as a limited edition by Cycatrix Press, it features works by Nolan, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Matheson, the late Dan O’Bannon, Frank Robinson, and others. Additionally, Nolan has penned a short piece for The Pulpster #19, this year’s PulpFest program book.
At PulpFest 2010, Nolan will headline panels on western and hard-boiled detective fiction and discuss his long writing career. He will be available for autographs and conversation on Saturday afternoon.
A resident of Vancouver, Washington, Nolan is currently at work on ten new books, including a biography of Frederick Faust. He lives in an apartment filled with books, pulps, and stuffed animals.
Our lead image is If: Worlds of Science Fiction for August 1954, with cover by Kenneth Fagg, and featuring William F. Nolan’s “The Joy of Living,” a short story illustrated by Ed Emshwiller.
Robert J. Randisi to Attend
Joining us at the 2010 PulpFest to help celebrate the 90th anniversaries of Black Mask’s debut and Max Brand’s first appearance in Western Story Magazine will be prolific author Robert J. Randisi, whom the publishing-industry trade journal Booklist has called “one of the last true pulp writers.”
Randisi, active for years in both fan and pro circles, has written over 540 books, more than 50 short stories, and one screenplay. He has also edited 30 anthologies.
A professional since 1982, when he began writing full time, Randisi has penned westerns, mysteries, and stories in the horror, science fiction, and men’s-adventure genres. He has written yarns published under 15 different pseudonyms; as “J. R. Roberts” he created — and still writes — the long-running Gunsmith series, which currently numbers some 340 novels.
Randisi’s work in crime fiction has been varied. He edited a Writer’s Digest how-to book – Writing the Private Eye Novel – and for seven years was the mystery reviewer for The Orlando Sentinel. In 1982, he founded the Private Eye Writers of America and created the Shamus Award. In 1985, he co-founded Mystery Scene Magazine and the short-lived American Mystery Award. With Ed Gorman, he co-founded the American Crime Writers League. In 1993, he was awarded a Life Achievement Award at the Southwest Mystery Convention. In 2009, he received the Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.
We look forward to having Bob Randisi join us in late July, and trust that PulpFest attendees will be delighted to have him participate in our celebration of vintage pulp fiction.
Although news of Robert Randisi’s plans to attend PulpFest was met with great excitement, the author was unable to attend the convention.
The Queen of Space Opera
Known mostly to modern genre fans as the author of the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back, pulp fans know Leigh Brackett as “The Queen of Space Opera.”
From the beginning, Leigh Brackett merged the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs with the hard-boiled, economic storytelling of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. The results were spectacular! Beyond her pulp output, Brackett also drew the attention of Hollywood auteur Howard Hawks and contributed to projects such as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, Hatari!, and other film classics.
Since 2002, Haffner Press has been steadily reprinting the stories of Leigh Brackett, and at PulpFest 2010 editor and publisher Stephen Haffner will present a 45-minute multimedia program on the background and career of this favorite writer. Drawing from sources common and obscure, you do not want to show up late for this event.
Join Stephen Haffner on Friday, July 30, at 9:30 PM for “Leigh Brackett: American Icon.” You have been warned.
Our image is the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, with cover by Hubert Rogers, illustrating Robert A. Heinlein’s “If This Goes On—.” The issue also features Leigh Brackett’s first professional sale, “Martian Quest.”
Who Knows What Evil …?
Almost a full year before his first appearance in the pulps, The Shadow debuted as the narrator of The Detective Story Hour, a CBS radio program sponsored by Street & Smith. A mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice, the character soon had listeners visiting their neighborhood newsstand to ask for “that Shadow detective magazine.” Bowing to demand, Street & Smith created The Shadow, a Detective Monthly, and the hero pulp genre was born.
On July 31, join Sanctum Books publisher and pulp historian Anthony Tollin as he commemorates the 80th anniversary of The Shadow’s radio debut with a multi-media presentation featuring interview material with Walter Gibson and other important figures from the history of the ” Knight of Darkness.“
Meet Kenneth Robeson
Lester Dent, Laurence Donovan, and Paul Ernst were pulp writers with one thing in common: they were all Kenneth Robeson.
When Street & Smith launched Doc Savage Magazine in 1933, they used 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 bookstores. 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.
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 rough-paper masked vigilantes. Get the lowdown on this character and his companion, Kato; their earliest adventures; why most recordings for the radio series don’t exist; and more in Martin’s fascinating presentation.
Our image is the cover of the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine. Dated March 1933, it features cover art by Walter M. Baumhofer.
The New Fictioneers
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 of 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, July 30, at 3 PM.
Cornucopia of Crime
Six years after serving as the guest of honor at Pulpcon 33, Francis M. Nevins returns to the spotlight at PulpFest 2010. Mike will be talking about Cornucopia of Crime, his forthcoming book from Ramble House. It’s a hefty volume of 449 closely printed pages featuring chapters on pulp titans such as Cornell Woolrich, 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 Philip Atlee, 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 Edgar Award-winning Cornell Woolrich biography, First You Dream, Then You Die, 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 2010 on Friday, July 30, at 2 PM.
The PulpFest 2010 Hospitality Suite
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 greats of 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, support of Robert E. Howard Days, and other methods.
PulpFest 2010 Dealers
Many thanks to the following exhibitors in our expanded dealers’ room at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center for making PulpFest 2010, one of the best pulp conventions in years.
Adventure House
Age of Aces
Airship 27
Art Hackathorn
Barry Traylor
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
Bill Maynard
Black Dog Books
Bob Flowers
Brian Earl Brown
Chris Foss
Curious Book Shop (Ray Walsh)
Dark Star Books (Gary Diedriech)
Dave Kurzman
David Saunders
Dearly Departed Books
Dearly Departed Books
Dennis Harford
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
Harold and Honey Forman
Hooked on Books (Wayne and Deb Keil)
Howling Wolf’s Lost Pulp Classics
Jack Cullers
Jack Juka
Jim & Walter Albert
John Hauser, Pulps & Comics
John McMahan
Jon Wehler
Josh Petrie
Keith Dilbone
Main Street Music (David L. Schmidt)
Mark Halegua
Mark Hickman
Martin Grams, Jr.
Midway Books (Tom Stransky & Bob Jackson)
Mike Chomko, Books
Modern Age Books (Jeff Canja)
Nick Certo
Off-Trail Publications (John Locke)
Paul Herman
Peter Chapman
Phil Nelson
R & B Enterprises
Randy Vanderbeek
Reel Art (Cory Glaberson)
Richard Clear
Rick Hall
Sanctum Books (Anthony Tollin)
Scott Hartshorn
Steven Spilger
Steve Young
Thomas Martin
Tim’s Books (Tim Paxton)
Tom Skemp
Walker Martin
Wild Cat Books (Ron Hanna)
Yammering Magpie (Peter & Pam Marchionna)
Our featured image is excerpted from Modest Stein’s cover for All Story Weekly, dated December 7, 1918, and illustrating Max Brand’s “The Untamed.”
