It’s hard to believe in this age when there are several pulp conventions across North America that fifty years ago, there were no organized gatherings specifically geared toward pulp fiction and art and the magazines in which they appeared. But that was the case when three St. Louis pulp fans — Ed Kessell, Earl Kussman, and Nils Hardin — teamed up and founded Pulpcon.
After consulting with longtime science-fiction fan, James “Rusty” Hevelin, Kessell took the lead and began to organize what was planned as a one-shot convention. Adopting the name Pulpcon and advertising in the leading pop culture fanzines of the day, Kessell and his cohorts were able to attract about one-hundred pulp fans to the Colony Motor Hotel in Clayton, Missouri over a June weekend in 1972.
With science-fiction writers Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton, as well as pulp magazine cover artist Graves Gladney in attendance, the first Pulpcon was a rousing success. As the convention was drawing to a close, people began to ask for an encore. And so was born the first convention meant to specifically honor pulp magazines.
In the years that followed, Rusty Hevelin became the guiding light of Pulpcon, organizing annual conventions, generally during the summer months, in Dayton and other Ohio cities, along with gatherings in Arizona, California, Missouri, New Jersey, and North Carolina. All told, a total of thirty-nine Pulpcon conferences took place, including two off-season conventions. Unfortunately, due to several years of diminishing attendance, the last Pulpcon was held in Dayton, Ohio in August 2008.
Hoping to keep alive a summer gathering specifically geared toward pulp fiction and art, three longtime members of the Pulpcon organizing committee — Jack Cullers, Barry Traylor, and Mike Chomko — asked Ed Hulse, the publisher of the pop culture fanzine BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER and a convention organizer himself, to join them in founding a new convention. Planned as a successor to Pulpcon, the new convention took on the name PulpFest and sought to widen the focus of the annual confab. Although centered around pulp fiction and pulp art, the convention was launched on the premise that pulp magazines had a profound effect on American popular culture. The rough paper magazines reverberated through a wide variety of mediums — comic books, movies, paperbacks and genre fiction, television, men’s adventure magazines, radio drama, and even video, computer, and role-playing games.
Planned as the summertime destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction and related materials, PulpFest sought to honor pulp fiction and pulp art by drawing attention to the many ways they have inspired writers, artists, film directors, software developers, game designers, and other creators over the decades.
Beginning with its first convention in 2009, PulpFest has annually drawn hundreds of fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction and related materials to its summertime festivities. In addition to a large dealers’ room, the convention offers a wide range of interesting and entertaining programming each and every year.
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 begin our salute on Thursday, August 4, from 12 to 4:45 PM, as we open up our dealers’ room to early-bird shoppers. To learn more about early-bird shopping, click the Registration button at the top of this page.
Our celebration of “A Half-Century of Pulp Cons” continues at 7 PM on August 4, as PulpFest chairperson, Jack Cullers, welcomes everyone to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania for PulpFest 50. Immediately afterward, Jack will join moderator William Lampkin — our 2018 Munsey Award winner — for our “Fifty Years of PulpFest” panel.
A member of the PulpFest organizing committee, serving as the convention’s advertising director and webmaster, Bill Lampkin has also been the editor of The Pulpster since 2013. The founder of Facebook’s Southern Pulpsters, he also runs ThePulp.Net and writes the Yellowed Perils blog. Bill attended his first Pulpcon in 2006 and his first PulpFest in 2014.
Joining Lampkin on our “Fifty Years of PulpFest” panel will be PulpFest chairperson Jack Cullers, co-winner of the 2012 Rusty Award with his wife, Sally Cullers, and a member of every Pulpcon and PulpFest since the mid-1970s; Tony Davis, founder and former editor of The Pulpster, winner of the 1999 Lamont Award and a member of almost every Pulpcon and PulpFest since 1990; writer and anthologist Don Hutchison, winner of the 1990 Lamont Award and a member of almost every Pulpcon and PulpFest since 1982; PulpFest committeeperson and award-winning writer and artist Sara Light-Waller, a member of almost every PulpFest since 2018, and last, but certainly not least, reader, writer, and longtime collector Walker Martin, winner of the 1997 Lamont Award and a member of every Pulpcon and PulpFest since that first one way back in 1972.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events. To learn more about our schedule, please click the Programming button at the top of this page. In addition to our Golden Anniversary celebration, we’ll also be honoring the centennial of Fiction House and the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Publications’ “Dime” line of pulp magazines.
To enjoy our dealers’ room, join PulpFest 50 by clicking the Registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree!
The advertising flyer for Pulpcon #1 — dated June 9 – 11, 1972 — is from the collection of Michael Chomko.
The advertising flyer for PulpFest 2009 was designed by Chris Kalb and adapted from George Rozen’s cover art for the Fall 1948 issue of The Shadow, published by Street & Smith.
The PulpFest 50 advertisement was designed by William Lampkin and adapted from WINGS for Summer 1949, featuring cover art by Norman Saunders. It was published by Fiction House.
