One of PulpFest‘s hallmarks has been its willingness to seek out and try new ideas. This was amply demonstrated by its decision in 2009 to present readings by “The New Fictioneers,” contemporary authors whose fiction is inspired by a love of the pulps. Since then, several other conventions have added a “New Pulp” track to their programming schedules.
PulpFest‘s dedication to new ideas and “New Pulp” continues with its annual panel moderated by Ron Fortier, a professional writer for over forty-five years. In 2007, Ron teamed up with illustrator Rob Davis to start Airship 27 Productions and built a home for new adventures featuring many of the pulp characters long remembered by our community. Ron’s own creation, the undead avenger known as Brother Bones, would certainly have been at home with Paul Ernst’s Doctor Satan in the pages of WEIRD TALES and Norvell Page’s The Spider. Ron has also penned the adventures of pulp heroes Captain Hazzard and the Domino Lady, as well as pop culture icons The Green Hornet and The Phantom.
In recent posts on this page, we’ve delved into the world of the specialty pulp, one of the themes of this year’s PulpFest. The first of these — Street & Smith’s DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE premiered with its October 5, 1915 issue. The first pulp magazine successfully dedicated to one fiction genre, its success would lead to a proliferation of pulp magazines devoted to a single theme or genre, eventually culminating in the single-character pulp or hero pulp. For our 2016 “New Pulp” panel, Fortier has set his sights on the topic, “Writing the Pulp Hero.” He’ll be joined by four of the leading practitioners of contemporary pulp fiction.
Barbara Doran is a science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. Her father introduced her to the work of S. J. Perelman and P. G. Wodehouse, as well as Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. Her earliest influences however, were pulp heroes such as Doc Savage and The Shadow. Another influence was The Green Hornet and Kato. These characters inspired Barbara’s first published work, CLAWS OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON, released in 2015 by Airship 27. Most recently, Barbara penned an adventure of Sinbad the Sailor for the fifth volume of Airship’s SINBAD — THE NEW ADVENTURES.
One of the founding members of the “New Pulp” movement, Win Scott Eckert is co-author (with Philip José Farmer) of the Wold Newton novel THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE, concerning the daughter of a certain bronze-skinned pulp hero, and its sequel, THE SCARLET JAGUAR. Win also edited and contributed to MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER’S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, nominated for a Locus Award in 2007, and wrote the critically acclaimed CROSSOVERS: A SECRET CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD, published by Black Coat Press. He has also written tales featuring many adventure and pulp hero characters, including The Avenger, Captain Midnight, The Green Hornet, Honey West, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sherlock Holmes, and Zorro. Win is currently finishing another incomplete Farmer manuscript, THE MONSTER ON HOLD, which will almost certainly debut at a future PulpFest. The latter features Philip José Farmer’s celebrated character, Doc Caliban.
Nominated for a Pulp Ark New Pulp Award as the 2016 “Best New Writer,” the work of Andy Fix has appeared in several anthologies of “New Pulp” fiction. His story, “Face to Face with Agent Loki,” appeared in the fifth volume of Airship 27’s celebrated SECRET AGENT X series. Andy also contributed a tale to LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION, an all-new anthology to benefit new pulp publisher, editor, and writer Tommy Hancock, recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Andy is currently working on an air war story for Airship 27 and is featured on the Global Adventure Society Pulpcast, which “covers all aspects of Pulp Culture.”
Like Andy Fix, Jeff Fournier contributed to LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION and is featured on the Global Adventure Society Pulpcast. And like Barbara Doran, Jeff has penned an adventure of Sinbad the Sailor. It appeared in the fourth volume of Airship’s SINBAD — THE NEW ADVENTURES.
Our panel, “The AMAZING World of New Pulp,” will take place at 2 PM on Saturday, July 23 in the Union Rooms on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Watch for the PulpFest PANELS banner outside the entrance to our programming room. PulpFest 2016 — the destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction, art and related materials — will begin on Thursday, July 21, and run through Sunday, July 24. Join us at the Hyatt Regency Columbus and the Greater Columbus Convention Center for “Summer’s AMAZING Pulp Con!” You’ll have a FANTASTIC time.
Please remember that the Hyatt Regency Columbus is sold out of rooms for July 21 through July 23. At www.columbusconventions.com/thearea.php, you’ll find a list of area hotels courtesy of the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Alternately, you can search for a room at tripadvisor or a similar website to find a hotel near the convention. Thanks so much to everyone who has reserved a room at our host hotel. By staying at the Hyatt Regency, you’ve helped to ensure the convention’s success.
(In case you’re wondering about the term “fictioneer,” most dictionaries place its origin during the early twenties. However, it was relatively commonplace in magazines between 1910 and 1920 and has been spotted in works dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. H. Bedford-Jones used it in a series of articles called “The Graduate Fictioneer,” originally published by AUTHOR & JOURNALIST in the early thirties. In 1932, a group of Wisconsin writers got together and called themselves “The Milwaukee Fictioneers.” At various times, Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, August Derleth, Ralph Milne Farley, Lawrence Keating, Ray Palmer and Stanley Weinbaum were members of this group. In the late 30s, Popular Publications started Fictioneers, Inc., a pulp line that paid its authors half the going market rate of a penny a word. E. Hoffmann Price, soldier-of-fortune, and prolific pulp author, used the term in his memoirs from the pulp years, BOOK OF THE DEAD — FRIENDS OF YESTERYEAR: FICTIONEERS & OTHERS, published by Arkham House in 2001. Pulp historian and anthologist John Locke likewise used it in his non-fiction anthology PULP FICTIONEERS: ADVENTURES IN THE STORYTELLING BUSINESS, published by Adventure House in 2004.
LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION, an all-new anthology to benefit new pulp publisher, editor, and writer Tommy Hancock, features front cover art by Douglas C. Klauba.)
