PulpFest is not only lauded for its fine programming but also for its very substantial dealers’ room.
Beginning on Thursday, August 3, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry will be home to thousands of collectible pulp magazines and digests, vintage paperbacks, first-edition hardcovers and series books, original art, genre fiction, B-movies and serials, collectible comic books, and much more.
What dealers are we expecting at PulpFest 2023? Today, we’ll be profiling the last of our dealers, telling you a little bit about each of them so you get to know them.
Tom Skemp is a longtime collector from Latrobe, Pennsylvania who will be bringing some unusual material that will be fresh to Pulpfest. Check out his table for some thrills and great finds.
Steven Spilger from South Bend, Indiana has been collecting and selling both Silver and Golden Age comics, pulps, books, fanzines, and more for over thirty years. More recently, he’s added illustrative art to the mix. He calls his business, Mr. Polyester Books & Comics. The name came from his college friends, who watched him wear the same polyester leisure suit for all of his college yearbook photos. Steven has been a regular PulpFest dealer and supporter for many years. He’ll be sharing a table with Mark Alvarado.
Matt Moring of Steeger Books will be sharing a table with Walker Martin. Winner of the Munsey Award in 2012, Matt will be selling a variety of pulp magazines at this year’s PulpFest.
Please welcome Jim Steranko to his first PulpFest as a dealer. A regular attendee of PulpFest and other conventions, Jim is a man of many hats, known for his work as a graphic artist, comic book writer and artist, comics historian, magician, publisher, and film production illustrator. Best known in pulp circles for his great paperback covers for The Shadow series — published by Pyramid and Jove — Steranko will be offering a variety of pulp magazines at his table, garnered from his own pulp collection. There will also be a selection of Steranko collectibles at his booth, and he will be autographing throughout the event.
Virginia’s Joab Stieglitz is an avid tabletop role-playing game player and game master of the horror, espionage, fantasy, and science fiction genres. He will be selling copies of his highly regarded Utgarda and Thule series and other books. Joab’s stories will appeal to pulp fans, H. P. Lovecraft readers, gamers, and horror movie fans. While you’re waiting for PulpFest 2023 to begin, check out Joab’s blog at Rantings of a Wandering Mind ~ The Writing Blog of Joab Stieglitz.
Please welcome Debra Reynolds of Sunbury Press to her first PulpFest. Located in Boiling Springs, PA, Sunbury Press is the publisher of Herbert Stover’s The Dominant Idea and Other Stories. Best remembered for his full-length historical novels published after World War II, Stover struggled as an upstart writer of mystery and detective pulp fiction during the 1920s and 30s. Rejected by publishers, Stover’s stories were stored away, only to be rediscovered in the 21st century. Stop by the Sunbury Press table at PulpFest 2023 to pick up a copy of Stover’s collection, edited by contemporary writer Debra Reynolds.
A regular dealer at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention, please welcome Terry O’Neill of Terry’s Comics to his second PulpFest. A comic book dealer, as well as a comic book collector, Terry’s specialty is vintage comic books, including Gold, Silver, and Bronze Age comics. He also sells original art, pulps, vintage hardcover books, paperbacks, and fanzines. Terry exhibits at many shows and is always in the market to buy collections. You can check out Terry’s extensive catalog at terryscomics.com.
A specialty book retailer since 1982, and an Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide advisor since the 1990s, Michael Tierney will be offering his newly released 4-volume book set of the Robert E. Howard Art Chronology, as well as his previous 4-volume set, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Art Chronology. He will also be bringing a selection of his long-running series of Wild Stars comics and novels, including the sold-out, limited-edition variants, as well as magazine appearances in Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense. Michael will also be bringing copies of his posthumous collaboration with Edgar Rice Burroughs on the Young Tarzan short story that appeared in Cirsova. Check out Michael’s work on the weekly online comic strip, Beyond the Farthest Star.
Tim Paxton of Grand Rapids, Michigan specializes in paperbacks and small-press, first-edition hardcovers, dealing mainly in high-grade science fiction, fantasy, and horror as well as mysteries and pulp-related material. Tim has been selling at PulpFest for many years. You’ll find the Tim’s Books website at AbeBooks.com.
Our 2011 Munsey Award winner, Anthony Tollin, will be selling some of his Sanctum Books pulp reprints – The Avenger, The Black Bat, Doc Savage, Nick Carter, The Phantom Detective, The Shadow, The Skipper, The Spider, and The Whisperer – nine of the greatest pulp heroes in one of the best formats imaginable. He’ll also have his special multi-packs featuring art prints, preliminary pulp cover art by Jerome and George Rozen, original Shadow and comic strip art, and other unique items.
Sheila Vanderbeek has been a pulp collector for over fifty years. Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, she’ll have pulp magazines from all genres for sale or trade. Of course, the more she sells, the more she’ll be able to buy from the many fine dealers who will be attending PulpFest 2023. Sheila is one of our nominees for the 2023 Munsey Award.
Todd Warren is a pulp, book, and art collector from Fort Washington, PA. He’ll be offering vintage pulps — especially Weird Tales — Arkham House books and other hardcovers, paperbacks, and original pulp and comic-related art. He’ll be joined by his brother, Ross Warren.
Christopher Maffei of Well-Stacked Books comes to PulpFest 2023 out of Parkville, Maryland. A member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, Chris will be bringing vintage paperbacks, first-edition hardcovers and series books, art books, graphic novels and comics, and more to this year’s PulpFest.
Inducted into The Overstreet Hall of Fame in July 2017, Mark Wheatley is a longtime Edgar Rice Burroughs fan and admirer of the work of Philip José Farmer. He’s painted covers for Norvell W. Page’s The Spider: Satan’s Murder Machines and Amazon Nights by Arthur O. Friel. In collaboration with G. D. Falksen, Mark created the book Doctor Cthulittle. He also illustrated Songs of Giants: Poetry of Pulp, a collection of the very best horror, dark fantasy, and heroic sword and sorcery poetry written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and H. P. Lovecraft. More recently, he’s contributed cover art to Meteor House, the Robert E. Howard Foundation, and First Fandom Experience. Mark and his wife Carol will have several new art prints for sale at PulpFest 2023 and will be promoting the Kickstarter campaign for Mark’s new book, Nucleus X. The book will feature several portfolios of Mark’s art, including his Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs portfolios. On Friday, August 4, Mark will be joining artists Mark Schultz and Don Simpson on our panel, “Illustrating Conan for the Commercial Market.”
We’re pleased to welcome back Chicago’s Larry Hallock of Ygor’s Books to his first PulpFest in a few years. Specializing in out-of-print science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction, Larry will be selling original art, paperbacks, hardcovers, digests, pulps, and other collectibles, including many signed items.
If you would like to register as a dealer at this year’s PulpFest, we’ve run out of tables. Please contact Jack Cullers to be added to our waiting list. You can reach him at jack@pulpfest.com.
To wander through our dealers’ room, click the Registration button at the top of this page to join PulpFest. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. Click our link. You can also reserve a room by calling 800.222.8733 or 724.776.6900. Be sure to mention PulpFest to get the special convention rate. Currently, there are only a few rooms left at the convention rate. Click here for other options.
Join us on Monday for our next PulpFest Profile when Sara Light-Waller will talk with Cathy Wilbanks, Vice President of Operations at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Our featured image is excerpted from Rafael DeSoto’s cover painting for the October 1941 issue of The Spider, published by Popular Publications. We’ll be celebrating the 90th anniversary of The Spider and other great pulp heroes at PulpFest 2023. We hope you’ll join us for “Chilling Sports and Pulp Heroes” at this summer’s convention.
Our lead image was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from Mark Wheatley’s dust jacket art for The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume 3, published in 2022 by The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press.
James Steranko painted the cover art for The Silent Death, published by Pyramid Books in 1978. The image pictured above is from a portfolio by the artist, published in 1978 by Supergraphics.
The tremendous success of The Shadow pulp — a Street & Smith magazine that debuted in 1931 — served as the impetus for the many hero pulps that debuted ninety years ago in 1933.
The first Shadow double novel was published by Sanctum Books in July 2006. It featured cover art by George Rozen that originally ran on the July 1938 issue of The Shadow, illustrating the story “The Golden Vulture.” Originally written by Doc Savage creator Lester Dent, the story was revised for publication by Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson.
Along with The Spider and other great pulp heroes, we’ll be saluting Doc Savage at this year’s PulpFest.
