PulpFest is for lovers … of pop culture. It’s the convention for fans of popular culture and genre fiction both old and new. It celebrates the many ways that pulp magazines have inspired writers, artists, film directors, game designers, and other creators over the years.
So what’s your taste? Heroic warriors and omnipotent wizards? Mysteries that leave you breathless? Awe-inspiring adventures inside the earth or beyond the far horizon? Finding true love when you least expect it? They all have their roots in the pulps.
For the last fifty years, PulpFest has celebrated mystery, adventure, science fiction, and much more. The pulp magazines of the early twentieth century — cheaply-priced all-fiction magazines printed on pulpwood paper — were the vessel where the hardboiled detective, science fiction, and sword and sorcery genres developed and flourished. The pulps gave us Buck Rogers, Conan the Barbarian, Cthulhu, Doc Savage, Hopalong Cassidy, John Carter of Mars, Sam Spade, The Shadow, Solomon Kane, Tarzan, Zorro, and many other pop culture icons.
We hope you’ll join us at PulpFest 50 as we celebrate “A Half-Century of Pulp Cons,” in recognition of our golden anniversary. We’ll also be joined by FarmerCon XVII, celebrating the life and times of Philip José Farmer, longtime pulp fan and Grand Master of Science Fiction.
PulpFest 50 will also honor the centennial of Fiction House, the pulp magazine and comic book publisher that gave us Action Stories, Fight Comics, Jumbo Comics, Jungle Stories, Lariat Story Magazine, North-West Romances, Planet Stories, Rangers Comics, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Wings, and many other classic titles.
Additionally, our fiftieth summertime PulpFest will salute the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Publications’ “Dime” line of pulp magazines, particularly Dime Western and Dime Mystery. Both magazines debuted in 1932 and played a major role in the evolution of popular fiction.
PulpFest 50 will take place from August 4 – 7 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. You can become a member of the convention by clicking the Registration button on the PulpFest website. If you need lodging, you’ll also be able to book a room through our site.
Join us at PulpFest 50 for “A Half-Century of Pulp Cons” and “Action for a Dime!” You’ll find our planned programming schedule below. Please note that the schedule is subject to change, due to the possibility of unforeseen circumstances.
PulpFest 50 Schedule
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Dealers’ Room
11:00 AM – 4:45 PM — Dealers’ Room Set-Up
12:00 PM – 4:45 PM — Member Registration & Early-Bird Shopping
Auction Preview
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM — Estate Auction Preview (in auction set-up rooms)
Hotel Lounge
5:00 PM – 6:45 PM — Pizza at PulpFest (Sponsored by Our Generous PulpFest Dealers)
Evening Programming
7:00 PM – 7:05 PM — Welcome to PulpFest (Chairman Jack Cullers)
7:10 PM – 7:55 PM — Fifty Years of PulpFest (Jack Cullers, Tony Davis, Don Hutchison, Sara Light-Waller, and Walker Martin, with William Lampkin moderating)
8:00 PM – 8:45 PM — Nick Eggenhoffer — Dean of Western Illustrators (David Saunders)
8:50 PM – 9:35 PM — Popular’s Chameleon — Dime Mystery (Ed Hulse & Garyn Roberts)
9:40 PM – 10:25 PM — Robert E. Howard and Fiction House (Morgan Holmes)
10:30 PM – 11:15 PM — FarmerCon XVII Panel — Lord Grandrith, Doc Caliban, and Lovecraft (Win Scott Eckert and Frank Schildiner, with Rick Lai moderating)
11:30 PM – 1:00 AM — North-West Stories — King of the Royal Mounted, Chapters 1 – 4, and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties
Friday, August 5, 2022
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
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM — Submit Your Auction Items to PulpFest 50
Afternoon Programming
1:30 PM – 2:20 PM — Forty Years of The Savage Society of Bronze (Jennifer DiGiacomo and Will Murray)
2:30 PM – 3:20 PM — Bringing the Pulps to the 21st Century — The Writers (Christopher Paul Carey, Ron Chandler, Noir Hayes, Craig McDonald, and Will Murray, with William Patrick Maynard moderating)
3:30 PM – 4:20 PM — Made Ya Flinch! — In-Your-Face Pulp-Style Adventure Fiction! (Jim Beard and John Bruening of Flinch! Books, with William Patrick Maynard moderating)
Auction Preview
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM — Estate Auction Preview (in auction set-up rooms)
Evening Programming
7:00 PM — A Princess of Mars – The Manuscript Edition Raffle Drawing (Mike Chomko)
7:00 PM – 7:45 PM — George Gross — From Pulps to Paperbacks (Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle)
7:50 PM – 8:35 PM — The Hardboiled West (Ed Hulse and Will Murray)
8:40 PM – 9:25 PM — Fiction House Comics (Jim Beard)
9:30 PM – 10:25 PM — Planet Stories and the Romance of Space (Sara Light Waller)
10:30 PM – 11:15 PM — Meteor House — Collaborating with the Grand Master (Mike Croteau, Win Scott Eckert, and Paul Spiteri, with Keith Howell moderating)
11:30 PM – 1:00 AM — North-West Stories — King of the Royal Mounted, Chapters 5 – 8, and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties
Saturday, August 6, 2022
Dealers’ Room
10:00 AM – 4:45 PM — Dealers’ Room Open to All PulpFest Members
10:00 AM – 1:45 PM — Submit Your Auction Items to PulpFest 50
Afternoon Programming
1:30 PM – 2:20 PM — Influence or Coincidence? Hemingway’s Fiction and Hammett’s Hardboiled Pulp (Craig McDonald with William Patrick Maynard)
2:30 PM – 3:20 PM — Bringing the Pulps to the 21st Century — The Artists (Sara Light Waller & Mark Wheatley)
3:30 PM – 4:20 PM — The Universe According to Edgar Rice Burroughs (Christopher Paul Carey & Cathy Mann Wilbanks of ERB, Inc. with author Win Scott Eckert)
Auction Preview
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM — Estate Auction Preview (in auction set-up rooms)
Evening Programming
7:00 PM — Tarzan of the Apes – The Artist Edition Raffle Drawing (Mike Chomko)
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM — PulpFest Annual Business Meeting (meet the convention organizers)
7:40 PM – 8:00 PM — 2022 Munsey Award Presentation (presented by William Patrick Maynard)
8:15 PM – 11:15 PM — Carl Joecks Estate Auction & PulpFest 50 Member Auction
11:30 PM – 1:00 AM — North-West Stories — King of the Royal Mounted, Chapters 9 – 12, and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Dealers’ Room
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM — Dealers’ Room Open to All PulpFest Members
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.
Click here to link to our mobile schedule for your smartphone or tablet.
Our featured images have been adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from George Gross’ cover art for All-American Football Magazine, the Fall 1949, 2nd number, published by Fiction House, and Walter Baumhofer’s cover art for the April 1934 Dime Western Magazine, published by Popular Publications.
