Editor Bill Lampkin is hard at work on the 23rd issue of The Pulpster. A freelance writer-editor and publication designer, Bill discovered the pulps through paperback reprints of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider. He’s capably assisted by Peter Chomko, a grant writer and research analyst for an educational fund.
A longstanding tradition cherished by attendees of summer pulp cons, this highly collectible and informative program book will be released at PulpFest 2014, beginning on Thursday, August 7th. Like the convention, the new number will focus on the 75th anniversary of the blossoming of science fiction’s Golden Age, when fantastic fiction “grew up.” We’ll also be looking at the shudder pulps of 1934. Every member of PulpFest will receive a complimentary copy of The Pulpster.
Leading off the issue will be “Science Fiction and the Pulps,” the unabridged version of Mike Chomko‘s “History of Magazine Science Fiction,” recently serialized on our home page. Last year’s Munsey Award winner, Garyn G. Roberts, is on board with an article on Futuria Fantasia, the fanzine that Ray Bradbury debuted at the first World Science Fiction Convention. Don Herron, the creator of San Francisco’s Dashiell Hammett Tour, the longest-running literary tour in the USA, takes a look at Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Fritz Leiber’s classic characters that made their first appearance in the August 1939 Unknown. Dwayne Olson contributes several letters written by Donald Wandrei concerning the death of his friend, Hannes Bok, born one-hundred years ago on July 2, 1914. Additionally, Argentine pulp writer Alfredo Julio Grassi is profiled by Christian Lawson.
Weird-menace fiction came into its own in 1934 and The Pulpster will look back to those days with “Pulp Horrors of the Dirty Thirties,” written by Don Hutchison, author of The Great Pulp Heroes and many other works. Archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks will also be on hand with a look at “Zombies from the Pulps,” an overview of the undead writings of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Manly Wade Wellman, Henry Kuttner, and other great pulpsters.
For those who are unable to attend PulpFest 2014, you can still get a copy of The Pulpster by becoming a supporting member of the convention. Visit our registration page for further details. Alternately, copies of The Pulpster #23 are available for $14, postage paid, from Mike Chomko, Books, where you can also get back issues of the magazine. Write to mike@pulpfest.com to place your order. Quantities are limited; PulpFest members take priority over orders from non-members.
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