PulpFest 2018 is drawing to a close, but there is still time to get in on the action. The dealers’ room will be open from 9 AM until 2 PM today. With most of our dealers getting ready to head for home, our admission for the day is only $10, which includes a copy of our highly collectible program book, THE PULPSTER. Children who are fifteen and younger and accompanied by a parent, will be admitted free of charge. There are no programming events scheduled for Sunday.
Located in the Grand Ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, 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. Although our dealers’ room will be open, buying opportunities may be limited as most of our dealers will be packing up their displays, preparing for their trip home.
If you have not been able to attend PulpFest in 2018, start making your plans right now to join the 48th anniversary of “Summer’s Great Pulp Con” in 2019. Your PulpFest organizing committee is already starting to plan for next year’s convention. We’re also hoping to be joined by our FarmerCon friends following their great celebration of 100 years of Grand Master of Science Fiction Philip José Farmer. As always, expect a terrific dealers’ room and superb programming.
To keep informed about PulpFest 2019, bookmark http://pulpcon.org/ and visit often. News about the convention can also be found on the PulpFest Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/PulpFest. And for those who prefer their news short and sweet, follow our Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/pulpfest. Wherever you look for PulpFest on the web, we’ll be sure to keep you informed of our plans.
Many thanks to all of you who attended this year’s convention. We hope that you enjoyed yourself and will return for PulpFest 2019. Please bring your friends!
Your PulpFest Organizing Committee — Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Sally Cullers, Bill Lampkin, Barry Traylor, & Chuck Welch
(This year, in addition to celebrating the century mark of Philip José Farmer, PulpFest 2018 has also honored the centennial of the armistice that ended the First World War. Our focus has been the so-called “war pulps” of the early twentieth century, and the depiction of war in popular culture.
At the start of the twentieth century, reading was a primary form of entertainment in the United States. Cheaply made magazines printed on wood pulp paper and costing a quarter or less were affordable to most. These “pulps” featured a variety of stories: westerns, romances, mysteries, science fiction, and more. Tales of war were largely relegated to the historical past and colonial Britain or France. Except for a single writer — Leonard Nason — stories about the First World War were very limited during the teens and early twenties.
As the century progressed, pulps began to specialize. There were magazines devoted to fantasy, detectives, love, sports, and other genres. In 1926, Dell Publishing introduced WAR STORIES, the first magazine devoted to tales of war. It was followed by many others: BATTLE STORIES — such as the January 1932 number with cover art by Gertrude C. Orde — WINGS, OVER THE TOP, DARE-DEVIL ACES, SKY FIGHTERS, and dozens more. Most had disappeared by 1940.
After World War II, the demand for pulp magazines waned as paperback books took hold. In the fifties, television became the favored form of escapism and the surviving pulps ceased publication. Fiction magazines continued to be published, but in new formats. The science-fiction and mystery digests and men’s “adventure” magazines are considered descendants of the pulps.
Start making your plans right now to join PulpFest 2019 when you can expect more great programming from your PulpFest team and more great collectibles in our tremendous dealers’ room. We look forward to seeing you.)
