Why do we attend PulpFest? We’re able to find pulps and other collectibles across the Internet. Perhaps it does 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, genre fiction, 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 popular fiction and art. People who realize that the pulps had a profound impact on American popular culture.
Why do we attend PulpFest? According to collector Walker Martin: “It’s a hell of a lot of fun! Not only do you get to roam around a gigantic dealers’ 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 folks!”
Our hospitality suite will be back at PulpFest 2019. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry — our host hotel — will provide a room for our members where they can socialize after a hearty day of collecting in our dealers’ room and partaking in our evening programming. Watch out for our terrific con suite banner featuring art by Pittsburgh’s own pulp artist, Gloria Stoll Karn.
You’ll be able to enjoy drinks and snacks with your comrades in collecting and talk about the things that you love and collect. “What’s your favorite Doc Savage adventure? Did Joan Randall have a thing for Grag the Robot? Remember when Conan bit off that vulture’s head in ‘A Witch Shall Be Born?’ How the hell do you say Tsathoggua? Who’d win a knock-down-drag-out between Wu Fang and Shiwan Khan? Would either stand a chance against Doctor Fu Manchu? Why does the Phantom Detective wear that top hat? How about the Domino Lady and that mask? Isn’t it hard to fight crooks in an evening gown? Who the hell is Pinky Jenkins?”
As Walker Martin said in a recent con report, “. . . at the Double Tree hotel we had our own room, and thanks to AbeBooks.com, the PulpFest committee was able to buy pizzas and craft beer. I would have to say that this was the best beer I’ve ever had at a pulp show. And instead of the usual snack items, the pizza was a real treat.”
These are just a few of the things that you’ll be able to enjoy with your pals — old and new — at PulpFest 2019. You sure can’t do that on your iPhone!
(Come celebrate pulps and popular culture over the long weekend of August 15 – 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, just nineteen miles north of the exciting city of Pittsburgh. You can book your room directly through the PulpFest website. Just click the Book a Room button, found on our homepage or call 1-800-222-8733. Be sure to mention PulpFest in order to receive the convention rate. And don’t forget to join us in our hospitality suite.
You won’t have to battle your way into the hospitality suite like Captain Future, the robot Grag, and android Otho seem to be doing on George Rozen’s cover for the Winter 1940 issue of CAPTAIN FUTURE: WIZARD OF SCIENCE. But you may have to fight your way out as your friends hoist another one to Simon Wright, the living brain.
If you are a dealer, publisher, or other business and would like to sponsor our con suite for a night, please write to marketing director Mike Chomko at mike@pulpfest.com or 2217 W Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542. Like AbeBooks.com and Meteor House, you’ll soon learn that helping out with our con suite is a great way to get your name out to the pulp and collecting community.)
