PulpFest 50 and FarmerCon XVII 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.
A three-day membership to PulpFest 50 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 #31. Children who are fifteen and younger and accompanied by a parent will be admitted free of charge.
There is no extra charge to attend FarmerCon XVII as it is part of PulpFest 50.
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 begin at 1:30 PM. We’ll start with a salute to the fortieth anniversary of the Doc Savage fanzine, The Savage Society of Bronze. We’ll also have a couple of writer panels: Bringing the Pulps to the 21st Century — The Writers at 2:30 and Made Ya Flinch! — In-Your-Face Pulp-Style Adventure Fiction! at 3:30.
All of our afternoon programming will begin on the half hour.
Our daily estate auction preview will run from 3:30 – 4:40 PM. We’ll be selling over 200 lots of material from the estate of the late Carl Joecks. The auction will take place on Saturday, August 6, beginning at 8:15 PM. The general public is welcome to attend and bid.
Tonight’s evening programming begins at 7 PM with a drawing for a copy of A Princess of Mars – The Manuscript Edition. It’s sponsored by ERB Books.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of PulpFest, ERB Books will also be offering a 25% discount on the standard first edition of Robert B. Zeuchner’s Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography. To receive the discount, simply place your order online from August 1 – 7 and use the promo code PF25.
Our salute to the centennial of pulp magazine and comic book publisher Fiction House continues with “George Gross — From Pulps to Paperbacks.” Gross was one of the leading cover artists for the publisher. We’ll also have presentations on Fiction House Comics and “Planet Stories and the Romance of Space.”
We’ve not forgotten about the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Publications’ “Dime” line of pulp magazines. Award-winning pop culture historians Ed Hulse and Will Murray will discuss The Hardboiled West, a look at how the western evolved in the pages of the Fiction House and Popular Publications western pulps, particularly Dime Western Magazine.
At 10:30 PM, our live programming ends with our second FarmerCon XVII panel of the convention. Mike Croteau, Win Scott Eckert, and Paul Spiteri will be joined by artist Keith Howell for a discussion of Meteor House — Collaborating with the Grand Master.
We’ll close out the night with the first segment of our film festival celebrating Fiction House’s North-West Stories. We’ll be showing chapters 5 – 8 of the Republic movie serial, King of the Royal Mounted, along with a selection of Dudley Do-Right cartoons.
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 PulpFest 50 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 programming, free of charge.
If you are not from the Pittsburgh area and have yet to book your room for PulpFest 50, you can try calling 1-800-222-8733 to reach our host hotel. Perhaps there is a vacancy.
Currently, the DoubleTree does not have any COVID policies for guests. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has lifted all COVID mitigation orders. Businesses and individuals are encouraged to follow the latest CDC safety guidance. People may choose to mask at any time. 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. Isolate and avoid contact with others, rest, and drink fluids. Call your health care provider if your symptoms worsen.
Although we can’t force anyone, we hope that everyone who plans to attend PulpFest 50 will be vaccinated against COVID-19. We have many older members who attend PulpFest. Please keep them in mind. Remember, we’re all in this together.
When Fiction House debuted Planet Stories with its Winter 1939 issue, they turned to artist Frank R. Paul for the magazine’s cover art. However, it was Allen Anderson who was the leading cover artist for Planet Stories, painting more than thirty covers for the magazine, including our featured image, reproduced from Anderson’s original art for the January 1953 issue.
Although he also sold freelance covers to A. A. Wyn’s Magazine Publishers and the Street & Smith pulp chain, George Gross’ bread and butter was earned largely through Fiction House. He painted countless covers for T. T. Scott’s line of magazines, particularly the Fiction House sports pulps and Jungle Stories. He also painted many covers for the publisher’s detective pulps. Leading our post is William Lampkin’s adaptation of Gross’ cover art for Fight Stories for Summer 1940.
Fiction House was not only a leading publisher of pulp magazines, it was also a strong player in the comic book market. Pictured above is Fight Comics #48 for February 1947, with cover art by Joe Doolin. He got his start as a freelance artist, contributing to Weird Tales, beginning in 1925. After moving to New York City, he began contributing interior story illustrations to many pulp magazines. He turned to comic book illustration during the 1940s, contributing many covers and interior art pages to Fiction House.
Don’t be left out in the heat like this couple on horseback, painted by Walter M. Baumhofer for Dime Western Magazine for October 1, 1934. Be sure to get a room at the DoubleTree and help us celebrate the 90th anniversary of Popular Publications’ Dime Western at PulpFest 50.
You’ll find our complete schedule for Friday, August 5, below. You can also access our schedule via your mobile phone or tablet, by visiting http://pulpcon.org/schedule/.
PulpFest 50 Schedule
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
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
