The Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale is celebrating its 23rd year! The show is held annually in the lower level of the Lillian H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library, 239 College Street in Toronto, Ontario.
A small but terrific show featuring a wide variety of pulp and pulp-related items, you’ll find over twenty-five dealers’ tables crammed with collectible pulp magazines, pulp reprints, vintage paperbacks, posters, and other ephemera. There’s also a half-hour pulp magazine cover slide show. It’s a great time for both serious pulp collectors as well as the casually interested, with lots of great stuff to see!
Admission is only $3, with tickets available at the door. Children under ten are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
So if you reside in the states, head north for the Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale on Saturday, May 4, beginning at 10 AM and running until 4 PM. For additional details, you can email Neil or Leigh Mechem at girasolcollectables@teksavvy.com. Please tell them that PulpFest sent you.
(This year’s Fantastic Pulps poster — designed by Neil and Leigh Mechem — features the art of the great Jerome Rozen. It originally appeared on the cover to the July 1935 issue of NICK CARTER MAGAZINE. A Street & Smith hero pulp, it ran for 34 issues.
The pulp was a revival of a dime-novel character that had debuted in 1886. “America’s top dime novel detective” appeared in several thousand stories, many written by Frederic van Rensselaer Dey. Nick also made it into the movies, both in France and the United States. There was also a radio program entitled NICK CARTER, MASTER DETECTIVE. It ran on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1943 to 1955.
According to the Thrilling Detective website, “By 1949, it was estimated that Carter had appeared in over 4000 dime novels, pulps, films (both silents and talkies, including many in French), comic books, comic strips and radio shows. There were probably more Nick Carter adventures than those of any other fictional detective.”
Beginning in 1964, the character was revived as a super-spy for paperback books. The NICK CARTER: KILLMASTER series was written by Michael Avallone, Bill Crider, Michael Collins, Dennis and Gayle Lynds, Robert J. Randisi, Martin Cruz Smith, and others, all writing under the house name of Nick Carter. At least 261 novels were released by a variety of publishers. The series ran until 1990.
Nick Carter has been inspiring creators for over 130 years. We hope you can join us at PulpFest 2019 to explore “Children of the Pulps and Other Stories.” The convention will begin on Thursday evening, August 15, and run through Sunday afternoon, August 18. It will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. Just click the button below the PulpFest banner to “Book a Room.)
