Tonight, we thought that we would share a short essay written by Walker Martin based on something he had recently posted on Yahoo’s Pulpmags newsgroup. Walker, who writes about pulp collecting for Steve Lewis’ Mystery*File blog, has been a reader and collector for over sixty years. In 1997, he received the Lamont Award at Pulpcon 26 in Bowling Green, Ohio. We’re proud to have him as one of our own and can think of no one better to answer the question, “Why PulpFest?” Take it away Walker . . .
Were you at the 2014 Comic-Con in San Diego? Still tired out from that recently concluded media extravaganza?
Will you be attending Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention with Andy Porter, Curt Phillips, and other science-fiction fans?
I guess I better give my 10 cents, though it has been over half-a-century since you could buy a fiction magazine for a dime. I hope Andy and Curt have fun in England, but I’ll be heading for PulpFest on August 7th. This is a joyful trip that I’ve been making every year (with a couple of exceptions) since 1972.
During the seventies, eighties, and nineties, it was called Pulpcon and every year I would see fellow pulp collectors, most of them gone now, damn it. Magazine collectors many of you may still remember. Great guys like Rusty Hevelin, Jack Deveny, Richard Minter, Bob Sampson, Bob Weinberg (he’s still with us), Sheldon Jaffery, Harry Noble, Darrell Richardson, Frank Robinson, Mike Avallone, and such amazing guests like pulp artists Norman Saunders, Walter Baumhofer, Rafael Desoto, and so many more.
I used to attend many of the SF conventions before they started stressing costumes and bookless dealer’s rooms with only a few pulps. I’m talking about the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I remember when Philcon and Lunacon were worth attending if you were a collector of books and magazines. I also went to several of the Worldcons, such as the events held in New York City, Toronto, Washington DC, and Boston.
But then the dealer’s rooms changed and I couldn’t find old magazines except for a couple here and there. Fortunately Pulpcon, PulpFest, and Windy City came along and enabled me to add thousands of pulps to my collection.
If you are big SF fan or writer, then I guess the Worldcon is the place to be I . But if you are a fiction magazine or a book collector, then there is no doubt about it, you have to attend PulpFest from August 7 – 10 in Columbus Ohio. You’ll find all the details at pulpcon.org.
I’ve never met a magazine or book collector who regretted attending PulpFest. I hope to see some of you there!
—Walker Martin
To learn more about the image used in this post, click on the illustration.
