Why do we attend PulpFest? We’re able to find pulps and other collectibles across the Internet. So perhaps it seems foolish to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to attend a convention dedicated to magazines that most people know nothing about.
But PulpFest is more than a dealers’ room featuring tens of thousands of pulp magazines, vintage paperbacks, digests, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, original art, first edition hardcovers, series books, reference books, dime novels and story papers, Big Little Books, B-Movies, serials and related paper collectibles, old-time radio shows, and Golden and Silver Age comic books, as well as newspaper adventure strips. PulpFest is people — readers and collectors with a common interest in pulp fiction and pulp art. People who realize that the pulps had a profound effect on American popular culture.
Why do we attend PulpFest? According to collector Walker Martin: “They are a hell of a lot of fun! Not only do you get to roam around a gigantic dealer’s room full of books and pulps, but you get to meet and talk to some of the greatest collectors and dealers. These will lead to future deals and contacts. Plus you can eat and drink with these guys!”
After the end of our evening programming on Thursday, July 21, join PulpFest for a round or three in the bar at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Buy a round for your table and talk about the magazines we love and collect. “What’s your favorite Doc Savage adventure? How many people died in ‘Death Reign of the Vampire King?’ Did Joan Randall have a thing for Gragg the Robot? Remember when Conan bit off that vulture’s head in ‘A Witch Shall Be Born?’ How the hell do you say Cthulhu? And what about Tsathoggua? Do you pronounce that with a lisp? Why does the Phantom Detective wear a top hat? Who the hell is Pinky Jenkins?”
These are just some of the mysteries you might clear up with your pals — old and new — at PulpFest 2016. You sure can’t do that on your iPhone!
(Come celebrate “Christmas in July” over the weekend of July 21 – 24 in the Columbus, Ohio Arena district at the Hyatt Regency hotel and the city’s spacious convention center. Pick up a few pulps to put under your holiday tree during PulpFest 2016. And don’t forget to join us for “Pulps in the Pub.” Perhaps you’ll have as much fun as these three songsters, painted by John Falter for the December 26, 1931 issue of Street & Smith’s WESTERN STORY MAGAZINE.)
