Happy Halloween from everyone here at PulpFest! Mask up!
This is the time when pulp readers love to pull out their favorite scary stories and reread them with relish. As we know, there are plenty of magnificent and spine-tingling thrillers that came out of the pulp fiction magazines like WEIRD TALES, GHOST STORIES, STRANGE TALES, and others.
Halloween also brings us closer to the end of 2020. It was a scary year in itself, what with dealing with a dangerous virus and a shaky economy, and yes, our favorite conventions being canceled. With 2021 on the horizon, we can look forward to a new year and to conventions once again, especially PulpFest 2021. From August 19 to August 22, we’ll be back at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh-Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania, celebrating our 2021 theme, “Love In the Shadows.”
With this theme, PulpFest will be marking the centennial of the launch of Street & Smith’s LOVE STORY MAGAZINE. Widely considered to be the pulp fiction magazine with the highest circulation, LOVE STORY was the first of almost one-hundred romance pulp magazines that crowded newsstands for over 30 years.
2021 will also mark the 90th anniversary of the launch of THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, which ushered in the hero pulp craze. The Shadow would eventually become perhaps the most famous of all pulp fiction heroes.
While we all wait for the arrival of PulpFest 2021, we’ll be entertaining you with regular features here on pulpfest.com. We’ll have regular posts to celebrate and acknowledge events such as anniversaries, birthdays, and special dates in pulp history. We’ve also begun “PulpFest Profiles,” a new series in which we interview contemporary creators who have drawn inspiration from the pulps. The first two of these profiles have already appeared.
We’ll be posting our “PulpFest Profiles” for you on a regular basis, all the way up to the beginning of PulpFest 2021. Look for our next profile — featuring author and pulp scholar Will Murray — on November 16.
Along with news and features, we’ll be sharing some of our favorite LOVE STORY MAGAZINE and romance pulp cover art in the months ahead. Romance pulp covers were generally positive and optimistic. That’s something we all could benefit from after surviving this year!
Be sure to bookmark pulpfest.com so you can see our latest updates. You can also keep up to date via the PulpFest Facebook page, our Twitter account, or our posts on the PulpFest Instagram page.
Once again, happy Halloween to one and all. Be safe and stay well! We look forward to seeing you next year at PulpFest 2021!
(Although the March 28, 1936 issue of STREET & SMITH’S LOVE STORY MAGAZINE pictured here is, most likely, a Mardi Gras number, we simply could not resist using it for our post. Its bright and cheerful tone is so refreshingly positive in our current times. Besides, masks and costumes play a strong role in both Mardi Gras and Halloween. So why not???
The cover is the work of Modest Stein. A Russian immigrant, the artist began to sell cover paintings to the pulp industry in 1910. His primary markets were the Munsey chain and Street & Smith. For the latter, he created covers for CLUES, COMPLETE STORIES, DETECTIVE STORIES, FAR WEST ILLUSTRATED, PEOPLE’S FAVORITE MAGAZINE, and, particularly, LOVE STORY MAGAZINE. Between 1922 and early 1943 — when the magazine switched to photographic covers — Stein painted over 100 covers for LOVE STORY. In later years, he added ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, CRIME BUSTERS, DOC SAVAGE, MYSTERY MAGAZINE, PICTURE PLAY, ROMANTIC RANGE, THE SHADOW, and UNKNOWN to his oeuvre.
Laurie Powers is the granddaughter of pulp author Paul S. Powers. Introduced to the pulp community in 2007 through the publication of PULP WRITER: TWENTY YEARS IN THE AMERICAN GRUB STREET, an autobiography, and appreciation of her grandfather, Laurie won The Munsey Award in 2016. A resident of Virginia, she is the author of QUEEN OF THE PULPS: THE REIGN OF DAISY BACON AND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE. A PulpFest presenter, Laurie recently joined the PulpFest promotional team to write for our website. We’re sure that you’ll enjoy her work.)
