PulpFest 2018 enters it second day, following a successful dealer set-up, early registration, early-bird shopping, and a full slate of programming. If you missed our first day, there’s still more to come.
From 9 to 10 AM today, the dealers’ room will be open only to dealers for set-up. All visitors will also be able to register for the convention this morning — beginning at 9 PM — and at any time during regular dealers’ room hours. A full-weekend advance membership to PulpFest will cost you $35 — if staying at our host hotel — and $40 if staying elsewhere. Single day memberships will be available for $20 for Friday or Saturday and $10 for Sunday. Children who are fifteen and younger and accompanied by a parent, will be admitted free of charge. The general public is welcome to attend. There is ample free parking surrounding our host hotel, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry.
All members, dealers included, can pick up their registration packets at the entrance to our dealers’ room. To help things move smoothly, please bring along a completed registration form. You can download a copy by clicking here or through the link found on our registration page. Paper forms will also be available at the door.
If you’re a member of Confluence — Pittsburgh’s long-running science fiction, fantasy and horror conference — and you’d like to attend PulpFest, just show your Confluence badge at our registration desk and you’ll get $10 off the price of our daily admission. PulpFest members who visit Confluence will receive the same discount. The two conventions are taking place over the same weekend!
The dealers’ room will open to all at 10 AM and will remain open until 4:45 PM. Located in the Grand Ballroom of the DoubleTree, our dealers’ room will feature exhibitors selling and trading pulp magazines and related materials, digests, vintage paperbacks, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, first-edition hardcovers, series books, dime novels, original art, Big Little Books, B-movies, serials and related paper collectibles, old-time-radio shows, and Golden and Silver Age as well as pulp-related comic books and games. That’s why PulpFest is known as the “pop culture center of the universe!”
Our afternoon programming will start at 12:30 PM with our New Fictioneers readings. There will be five authors reading from their works and fielding questions and comments throughout the afternoon. The gallery showing of original art by acclaimed comic book artist, book illustrator, and graphic designer Mark Wheatley will open at 1 PM, as will the FarmerCon 100 showing of Memories of Phil, a video tribute to the late author.
The convention’s evening programming will begin shortly before 7 PM as PulpFest chairman Jack Cullers officially welcomes all our attendees. Afterward, our FarmerCon 100 panelists will discuss 100 Years of Philip José Farmer: His Influence and Legacy. Presentations on men’s adventure magazines, the air war pulps, and artist John Fleming Gould round out the evening’s programming. Afterward, PulpFest will host the first of two, large estate auctions.
Click here for a look at the preliminary catalog for our Friday Night Auction.
All members of PulpFest 2018 can submit items to our auctions. If you’d like to submit something, you’ll find instructions in your registration packet. Your lots must be submitted by 1 PM on the day of the auction. If you have questions concerning the PulpFest auctions, please talk to programming and marketing director Mike Chomko at his dealer tables.
You can find additional details about all of our programming by clicking the button found at the top of our home page. Each event on the schedule is linked to a post that provides further information on that event. Just click on the event’s title. Watch for the “panels” banner to find our programming area at the convention.
PulpFest members are also welcome to socialize together in our hospitality suite at the DoubleTree. You’ll be able to enjoy drinks and snacks with your comrades in pulpdom and talk about the things that you love and collect. If you’re new to the hobby, please join us in our con suite and learn more about pulps and pulp fiction and art. Friday’s sponsor of the PulpFest hospitality suite is Meteor House, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy that specializes in works set in the worlds created by Philip José Farmer.
If you are not from the Pittsburgh area and have yet to book your room for this year’s PulpFest, you can try calling 1-800-222-8733 to reach our host hotel. Perhaps there is an opening. Please be sure to mention PulpFest in order to receive any special convention deals that may still be available.
The DoubleTree is very conveniently located at the intersection of three major roadways in Cranberry Township. It’s just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate-79. The address is 910 Sheraton Drive, Mars, Pennsylvania. We have a map on our home page or click here for a link to a large map of the area.
PulpFest 2018 will continue on Saturday and Sunday. It concludes at 2 PM on Sunday, July 29. Please join us at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry — just north of Pennsylvania’s “Steel City” — for “Summer’s AMAZING Pulp Con!” You’ll have a FANTASTIC time!
(In addition to celebrating the century mark of Science Fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer, PulpFest 2018 will be honoring the centennial of the armistice that ended the First World War. Also called “The War to End All Wars” and “The Great War,” PulpFest will salute the 100th anniversary of the war’s end by focusing on the so-called “war pulps” of the early twentieth century and the depiction of war — such as Norman Saunders cover art for the September 1968 issue of MAN’S ILLUSTRATED — in popular culture.
Tonight at 7:50, our three-part presentation on “The Art of War” continues with Life and Death on the Front Lines: The Men’s Adventure Magazines and the Art of War. Join Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle — the editors and publishers of the Men’s Adventure Library series — as they explore the roots of the men’s adventure genre and its depiction of war in such magazines as BATTLE CRY, MEN IN COMBAT, REAL COMBAT STORIES, SALVO, TRUE WAR STORIES, WAR CRIMINALS, WAR STORIES, and WOMEN-IN-WAR.
We hope to see you at the DoubleTree for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con! Our complete schedule for Friday, July 27, is below. If you’d like to access our schedule via your mobile phone or tablet, go to http://pulpcon.org/schedule/.)
PULPFEST 2018 SCHEDULE
Friday, July 27
Dealers’ Room
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM — Early Registration and Dealers’ Room Set-Up
10:00 AM – 4:45 PM — Dealers’ Room Open to All
Afternoon Programming
1:00 – 4:00 PM — Mark Wheatley Presents The Art of SWORDS AGAINST THE MOON MEN
1:00 – 4:00 PM — FarmerCon 100: Memories of Phil (shown on the hour)
Readings
12:30 – 1:05 PM — VIOLENCE IN BLOOM (a New Fictioneers reading by Gary Rabuzzi)
1:10 – 1:45 PM — ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE BEAST MEN (a New Fictioneers reading by Wayne Carey)
1:50 – 2:25 PM — FOGGY SUNSET (a New Fictioneers reading by Peter McGarvey)
2:30 – 3:05 PM — FarmerCon 100: An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke (Chuck Loridans, Christopher Paul Carey, & Win Scott Eckert)
3:10 – 3:50 PM — SWORDS AGAINST THE MOON MEN (a New Fictioneers reading by Christopher Paul Carey)
3:55 – 4:30 PM — LANDSCAPE OF DARKNESS (a New Fictioneers reading by Sara Light-Waller)
Auction Preview
3:30 – 4:30 PM — Friday Night Auction Preview
Evening Programming
6:55 – 7:00 PM — Welcome to PulpFest (Convention Chairman Jack Cullers)
7:00 – 7:40 PM — FarmerCon 100: 100 Years of Philip José Farmer: His Influence and Legacy (Joe Lansdale, Christopher Paul Carey, Mark Wheatley, & Mike Croteau)
7:50 – 8:20 PM — Life and Death on the Front Lines: The Men’s Adventure Magazines and the Art of War (Bob Deis & Wyatt Doyle)
8:30 – 9:10 PM — Fighting Aces of War Skies: The Pulps Take Flight (Don Hutchison with Chris Kalb, Bill Mann, & Mike Chomko)
9:10 – 9:50 PM — Special Guest Presentation: John Fleming Gould, Pulp Illustrator (Robert Gould)
9:50 – 10:05 PM — Last Minute Auction Viewing
10:05 – 12:00 AM — Friday Night Auction
