As they do every year, a number of publishers have chosen to roll out new titles at PulpFest 2015. Altus Press, Murania Press, and Stark House Press will be premiering reprints of classics from the past, while Adventures in Bronze, Airship 27, and Meteor House will debut new work inspired by the great fiction of the past. And since PulpFest will be hosting four New Fictioneer readings, expect to meet some of the creators of today’s pulp fiction at the convention. Check out our schedule page for the times of our readings.
Tarzan. Doc Savage. The Shadow. All three of these iconic characters will be at PulpFest, courtesy of Adventures in Bronze and author Will Murray. You’ll be able to get signed copies in both hardcover and softcover of the fully authorized editions of RETURN TO PAL-UL-DON and DOC SAVAGE: THE SINISTER SHADOW. They’ll be available at PulpFest 2015 where their author, pop culture historian Will Murray, will be appearing on four different panel presentations.
Although it originally appeared in 2007, THRILLING DETECTIVE HEROES certainly deserves a mention here. Edited by John Locke and John Wooley, it was published by Adventure House, one of the leading publishers of pulp reprints and reference works in the country. On Thursday, August 13th, at 8:40 PM, John Wooley and Adventure House publisher John Gunnison will pay a visit to some of the continuing characters that were featured in the Thrilling line of detective pulps. Join them for a discussion of “Thrilling Detectives” during our Thursday evening presentations in PulpFest‘s second-floor programming area at the Hyatt Regency. Their discussion will center around many of the characters featured in THRILLING DETECTIVE HEROES, a book that also includes the most complete history of the Thrilling Group of pulp magazines ever to be published. You’ll be able to pick up a copy at the Adventure House tables during the convention and have one of its editors and its publisher sign it for you. That won’t happen on ebay!
New pulp fans will see a number of books for the very first time at PulpFest 2015, courtesy of Ron Fortier and Rob Davis of Airship 27 Productions. Frederick C. Davis’ occult detective, Ravenwood, the Stepson of Mystery, will appear in his first, full-length novel. Author Micah Harris links the classic pulp hero with one of the most notorious crimes in Hollywood history in RETURN OF THE DUGPA. Also debuting is the second volume of SIX-GUN TERRORS in which the Wild West meet WEIRD TALES. Fred Adams, Jr. weaves a weird western novel concerning warriors able to transform themselves into beasts!
As he does every year, Mike Chomko will be premiering the latest books from America’s leading pulp reprint house Altus Press. Thanks to an arrangement with Altus publisher Matt Moring, Mike will be offering both hardcover and softcover editions of THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF THE MOON MAN, VOLUME ONE; THE MASKED RIDER ARCHIVES, VOLUME TWO; THE BLACK BAT OMNIBUS, VOLUME THREE; and five books written by H. Bedford-Jones, including THE DEVIL’S BOSUN, GHOST HILLS, and WILL O’ THE WISP. Mike will also have the first ten volumes of the recently released ARGOSY LIBRARY, including Lester Dent’s GENIUS JONES, Victor Rousseau’s DRAFT OF ETERNITY, Otis Adelbert Kline’s THE SWORDSMAN OF MARS and W. Wirt’s WHEN TIGERS ARE HUNTING. Mike Chomko, Books has been one of the leading purveyors of pulp reprint books and periodicals since the early nineties. Look for his tables just inside the entrance to the PulpFest 2015 dealers’ room and say hi to the convention’s marketing and programming director.
We’re very happy to have Rich Harvey and Audrey Parente of Bold Venture Press as one of this year’s fifty exhibitors. Since 1992, Bold Venture has been publishing quality reprints of classic pulp fiction. At this year’s convention, Rich and Audrey will be premiering John Wooley’s and Robert Leslie Bellem’s HOMICIDE HIGHBALL: THE LOST DAN TURNER MOVIE SCRIPT, Richard Lupoff’s DREAMER’S DOZEN, PULP JAZZ: THE CHARLES BOECKMAN STORY, the latest issue of PULP ADVENTURES featuring stories by Bellem, Lupoff, Stewart Sterling, and others, and Audrey’s own PULP NOIR: A CLUTTERED ROMANCE, in which two avowed hoarders of paper memorabilia try to make room in their lives for each other. It’s a funhouse mirror image of the world of collecting pulps and comics. Bold Venture Press brings you vintage pulp fiction and exciting new stories. Learn for yourself at PulpFest 2015.
Dick and Norma Enos of Fantasy Publishing will have a new adventure of Rick Steele at PulpFest 2015. Watch for DEATH ON THIN ICE, the latest yarn featuring the ace trouble buster from the fifties. A former test pilot with a trio of “ace” assistants, Rick will go anywhere in search of adventure. It’s part one of THE MONSTER OF CHINATOWN and you’ll see it at PulpFest.
John D. Haefele, who will be part of our panel on the development of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, will be offering copies of his landmark study, A LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS: ORIGINS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS. Published by The Cimmerian Press, Haefele’s book answers numerous questions about the Lovecraft/Derleth controversy with fresh evidence and thunderous revelations, covering in unprecedented detail everything from the notorious “Black Magic Quote” to Derleth’s infamous “posthumous collaborations” with Lovecraft. Signed copies will be available at Mike Chomko, Books.
On Saturday, August 15th, co-authors William Patrick Maynard and Alexandra Martukovich will be on hand to sign copies of FURTHER ENCOUNTERS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, released by Titan Books in 2014. Their story, “The Adventure of the Coin of the Realm,” was one of twelve stories selected by George Mann for this new collection of Sherlock Holmes stories from a variety of exciting voices in modern horror and steampunk. Visit Bill’s tables in the PulpFest dealers’ room to meet the authors.
Meteor House, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy that specializes in works set in the worlds created by Philip José Farmer and and original science fiction and fantasy novels and novellas, hopes to offer four new books at PulpFest 2015. Jim Beard’s and Duane Spurlock’s AIRSHIP HUNTERS delves into the mystery of 19th-century UFOs as the skies are haunted by mysterious airships and unfathomable secrets. Can two agents of a newly formed secret government agency discover the truth behind the greatest mystery of them all? HADON, KING OF OPAR, written by Christopher Paul Carey, picks up fourteen years after the novel THE SONG OF KWASIN, co-authored by Farmer and Carey. FLIGHT TO OPAR features nearly 4,000 words cut from Farmer’s original manuscript when it was originally published in 1976. Lastly, EXILES OF KHO is a new hardcover edition of the out-of-print prequel to Philip José Farmer’s beloved Khokarsa adventure series.
Ed Hulse and Murania Press will be offering a new issue of the award-winning “Journal of Adventure, Mystery and Melodrama in American Popular Culture” BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER at this year’s PulpFest. The Summer 2015 issue takes a detailed look at the classic Munsey and Popular Publications pulp FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES. Also appearing will be a Wold Newton article on “The Secret Son of Bran Mak Morn,” a piece entitled “32 from ’32: A Banner Year for Fantastic Cinema,” the story behind the all-but-forgotten radio dramatization of KING KONG, and much more.
Ed will also have several new titles from the MURANIA PRESS book line at the convention — William Corcoran’s THE PURPLE EYE, a 60,000-word novel that could very well have served as the template for Popular’s hero pulps, and three volumes of crime and mystery yarns written by Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro — ALIAS THE THUNDERBOLT, THE RETURN OF BLACK STAR, and THE SPIDER SPINS HIS WEB.
In the business of reprinting some of the best mysteries and supernatural fiction of the past 100 years, Stark House Press hopes to have several new titles ready for PulpFest 2015. Douglas Sanderson wrote a series of white hot thrillers in the 1950s which were published under his two pseudonyms, Martin Brett and Malcolm Douglas. But he also published a good many novels under his own name, and Stark House is proud to reprint two of them: NIGHT OF THE HORNS & CRY WOLFRAM. Peter Rabe was a psychology professor turned hardboiled crime writer back when Gold Medal ruled the original paperback racks of the fifties and sixties. The second volume of Rabe’s fictional study of the use and abuse of power features the final three stories of the Daniel Port gangster series. Other titles that Stark House hope to have ready for PulpFest include Robert W. Chambers’ THE KING IN YELLOW & THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE, two collections of decadent horror fiction that will feature an introduction by noted critic, Stefan Dziemianowicz; Bruno Fischer’s THE BLEEDING SCISSORS & THE EVIL DAYS, two hard-boiled classics from one of Cap Shaws’ BLACK MASK boys; and Ed Gorman’s GRAVE’S RETREAT & NIGHT OF SHADOWS, two classic western mysteries. Mike Chomko, Books will be representing Stark House at the convention.
These are just a few of the great publications that you’ll find in the PulpFest 2015 dealers’ room. So what are you waiting for? Book a room for three nights and register now for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con.” To book a room for this year’s convention, please visit pulpcon.org/2015/06/16872/.
