With all the news that PulpFest has to share, Jack Cullers and his volunteers have been manning the presses. With the ink barely dry, our latest newsletter should have already arrived in your mailbox.
The PulpFest newsletter tells all about this year’s convention. You’ll find a programming preview, news about our hotel, registration and auction details, and much more. A registration form for both dealers and regular members is also part of the newsletter.
If you have not received a copy of the PulpFest 2024 newsletter by the end of March, please get in touch with David J. Cullers at 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook, OH 45305 or jack@pulpfest.com. Provide your mailing address and he’ll get one off to you.
If you can’t wait for the post office or want us to save the cost of a stamp or two, click our registration link at the top of our website and scroll down to the heading that reads “To Learn More.” There, you’ll find a link to our 2024 newsletter. Print yourself a copy!
Or, if you’re at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention in April, pick up a copy near their registration desk.
Although our newsletter is filled with great info, don’t forget about us here. Be sure to bookmark our homepage, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for our great videos on pulps and PulpFest.
You can also sign up for the PulpFest e-letter — focusing on the “behind-the-scenes” planning for this summer’s convention — by clicking here. Just give us your name and email address and click the “submit” button.
Start making your plans to attend PulpFest 2024 and join hundreds of genre fiction and art fans at the pop-culture center of the universe. We’ll see you August 1 – 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, just nineteen miles north of Pittsburgh.
If you still need a hotel room, you can book one directly through the PulpFest website. Just click the “book a room” link at the top of our website or call 1-800-222-8733. Be sure to mention PulpFest or use the code CDT91J to receive the convention rate. You must book your room before midnight on Wednesday, July 10, to receive the discount.
At PulpFest 2024, we’ll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Black Mask editor Joseph T. Shaw, among other things. During his time as the pulp’s editor, “Cap” Shaw aimed to establish Black Mask “as the only magazine of its kind.” He asked his writers to create stories that were, “real in motive, character, and action.”
“Word has gone out to writers of our requirements of plausibility, of truthfulness in details, of realism . . . in the portrayal of action and emotion. . . . Slowly, but surely, we are moulding the contents of this magazine along the lines of our purpose.”
In 1934, he convinced former newspaper reporter George Harmon Coxe to join his “Black Mask Boys.” Feeling that “there were already too many reporter-detectives in the pulps,” Coxe “came up with a guy who was a crime photographer.” The author called his character Jack ‘Flashgun’ Casey.
Debuting in the story “Return Engagement,” published in the March 1934 issue of Black Mask, Coxe’s photographer hero would go on to be featured in radio, film, books, comic books, and television.
Our featured image is excerpted from Rafael DeSoto’s cover art for the June 1942 issue of Black Mask, while our lead image is the September 1941 number of Black Mask, with cover art by Milton Luros. Both paintings illustrate Flashgun Casey stories.
For more on Joseph T. ” Cap” Shaw, please visit our YouTube page for Craig McDonald’s look at Black Mask’s Editor Supreme . . .
And be sure to subscribe to PulpFest on YouTube.
