PulpFest 2021 and ERBFest enter their 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 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania.
There is ample free parking surrounding the convention’s host hotel. It is very conveniently located at the intersection of three major roadways in Cranberry Township. The DoubleTree is just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate-79. The address is 910 Sheraton Drive, Mars, Pennsylvania. We have a map on our website or click here for a link to a large map of the area.
From 9 to 10 AM today, the dealers’ room will be open only to dealers for set-up. All visitors will be able to register for the convention this morning — beginning at 9 PM — and at any time during regular dealers’ room hours.
All members — dealers included — will be able to register for the convention 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. The general public is welcome to attend.
A three-day membership to PulpFest 2021 will cost $40. Single-day memberships for Friday or Saturday will be available for $20. A Sunday-only membership will cost $10, to cover the cost of our program book, THE PULPSTER #30. Children who are fifteen and younger and accompanied by a parent will be admitted free of charge.
As ERBFest is part of PulpFest 2021, there is no extra cost to attend any ERBFest activities.
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, contemporary genre fiction and pulp reprints, 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 daytime programming will start at 1 PM with our “New Fictioneers” author readings. Appearing today will be Christopher Paul Carey, Craig McDonald, Wayne Carey, and Darrell Schweitzer. PulpFest 2021 will be hosting nearly thirty contemporary writers, artists, and publishers.
ERBFest 2021 continues this afternoon at 3 PM with a presentation on “Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Unfinished Tales — Mars, Venus, Poloda, and Tarzan’s Africa.” Featuring Henry G. Franke III — the editor of THE BURROUGHS BULLETIN journal and THE GRIDLEY WAVE newsletter — our presentation will be followed by a pair of panels with Director of Publishing, Christopher Paul Carey, and Vice President of Operations, Cathy Mann Wilbanks, of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Incorporated.
There will be a dinner buffet in the Ember & Vine lounge within the DoubleTree. It will run from 5 – 7 PM. The cost is $22 per person.
Following the annual PulpFest business meeting at 7 PM, the 2021 Munsey Award will be presented to an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community. Bill Lampkin — winner of our 2018 Munsey Award — will reveal the name of this year’s recipient. The Munsey is a fine art print created by David Saunders and published by Dan Zimmer of The Illustrated Press.
Our salute to the centennial of Street & Smith’s LOVE STORY MAGAZINE — the bestselling pulp magazine of all time — continues this evening with Laurie Power’s presentation on “The Queen and Her Court — Great Women Pulp Editors.” If you’ve been reading the posts on our website over the last few months, you should know that Daisy Bacon was THE editor of LOVE STORY MAGAZINE. After all, back in April, we wrote, “Under Bacon’s leadership, the magazine . . . headed to the stratosphere!”
We’ll also continue our celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of THE SHADOW, A DETECTIVE MAGAZINE with a panel presentation on the topic, “Selling the Shadow.” Our panelists will explore the methods used by Street & Smith to sell America on The Shadow. Afterward, our Friday evening programming will conclude with the second segment of our Shadow film festival. Tonight we’ll be showing the DETECTIVE STORIES short feature, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, and INTERNATIONAL CRIME, starring Rod La Rocque.
You can find additional details about all of our programming by clicking the button found at the top of our website. Or click here to link to our 2021 mobile schedule. 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. The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming, free of charge.
If you are not from the Pittsburgh area and have yet to book your room for PulpFest 2021, you can try calling 1-800-222-8733 to reach our host hotel. Perhaps there is a vacancy.
According to the DoubleTree’s website, masks are optional for guests and DoubleTree Team Members who are fully vaccinated. The hotel follows Hilton’s brand standard and asks those who are not vaccinated to please wear a mask indoors and practice social distancing.
With the delta variant taking off around the United States, the CDC recommends that everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear masks in indoor public settings in areas with “substantial” or “high” virus transmission. Currently, the counties of Allegheny and Butler — where the DoubleTree is located — are in these categories.
To keep up to date with Pennsylvania’s coronavirus numbers, click here.
If you are exhibiting any symptoms associated with COVID-19, please stay at home. You should not attend PulpFest or ERBFest. Isolate and avoid contact with others, rest, and drink fluids. If your symptoms worsen, call your health care provider.
In memory of the canceled 2020 PulpFest, our featured image is by Margaret Brundage, illustrating the opening segment of Edmond Hamilton’s “The Vampire Master.” The artist’s iconic cover painting originally ran on the October 1933 issue of WEIRD TALES. We planned to use it last year to promote PulpFest 2020. We’re also featuring it today as Doug Ellis will be sharing his thoughts concerning “The Weird Tales of Margaret Brundage” during our evening programming.
Also featured during tonight’s programming is a look at the women who served as the editors of pulp magazines, presented by our 2016 Munsey Award winner, Laurie Powers.
One of the leading editors of pulp magazines was Dorothy McIlwraith. In 1936, she took over Doubleday’s SHORT STORIES, among the longest-lived of the general fiction pulp magazines. McIlwraith would also succeed Farnsworth Wright as the editor of WEIRD TALES in 1940. She would remain in charge of both magazines until 1954. Pictured above is SHORT STORIES for May 10, 1937, featuring cover art by William Fulton Soare.
This afternoon, we hope you’ll join us for no less than three ERBFest presentations, beginning with “Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Unfinished Tales — Mars, Venus, Poloda, and Tarzan’s Africa.” Pictured above is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR, a series that the author introduced in the January 1942 issue of BLUE BOOK MAGAZINE. After witnessing the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the author set the series aside when he volunteered to become a war correspondent. He never returned to it.
Each night of PulpFest 2021, our evening programming will conclude with “The Shadow on the Silver Screen.” Our nightly film festival will begin with a DETECTIVE STORIES film short, released by Universal Pictures. Each featurette was narrated by The Shadow, as portrayed by Frank Readick. Pictured above is a Universal trade advertisement for its series of Shadow featurettes.
You’ll find our complete schedule for Thursday, August 19, below. You can also access our schedule via your mobile phone or tablet, by visiting http://pulpcon.org/schedule/.
PulpFest 2021 Schedule
Friday, August 20
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 PulpFest Members
Author Readings
1:00 – 1:25 PM — Christopher Paul Carey
1:30 – 1:55 PM — Craig McDonald
2:00 – 2:25 PM — Wayne Carey
2:30 – 2:55 PM — Darrell Schweitzer
Afternoon Programming
3:00 – 3:30 PM — ERBFest 2021 — Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Unfinished Tales — Mars, Venus, Poloda, and Tarzan’s Africa (Henry G. Franke)
3:35 – 3:55 PM — ERBFest 2021 — Beyond the Farthest Star: A Classic Science Fiction Novel Restored (Christopher Paul Carey & Cathy Mann Willibanks, with Henry G. Franke III moderating)
4:00 – 4:45 PM — ERBFest 2021 — The News from Tarzana: Thrilling Updates from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. (Christopher Paul Carey & Cathy Mann Willibanks)
Hotel Lounge
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM — Dinner at the DoubleTree (all PulpFest members are welcome)
Evening Programming
7:00 – 7:30 PM — Annual PulpFest Business Meeting (all are welcome)
7:35 – 7:50 PM — 2021 Munsey Award Presentation (presented by William Lampkin)
7:55 – 8:45 PM — The Queen and Her Court — Great Women Pulp Editors (Laurie Powers)
8:50 – 9:40 PM — Selling the Shadow (Dwight Fuhro & Chris Kalb, with William Lampkin moderating)
9:45 – 10:35 PM — The Weird Tales of Margaret Brundage (Doug Ellis)
10:40 – 11:10 PM — Jen Lightfoot and Her Mad Auto Dash (Jennifer DiGiacomo)
11:15 PM – 1:00 AM — The Shadow on the Silver Screen II — The Shadow Detective Stories Short Feature HOUSE OF MYSTERY and INTERNATIONAL CRIME starring Rod La Rocque
Please note that the schedule above is subject to change. To learn more about each presentation, click on the link that is embedded in each title.
