Paleontology — the science dealing with the life of past geological periods as known through fossil remains — can be summed up for most people in a single word . . . dinosaurs.
Although some ancient scientists recognized that fossils were the remains of past life forms, it wasn’t until the late 1700s that people began to describe and map rock formations and classify fossils. During the next century, the works of Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, and others strongly influenced how Western society understood the history of Earth and its organisms.
Other important factors were the development of museums in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with large natural history collections and a growing international network of geologists and fossil specialists whose work was organized and reviewed by scientific societies. The westward expansion of railroads, military bases, and settlements into the Western United States following the Civil War tremendously fueled the expansion of fossil collection, especially following the discovery of several new types of dinosaur remains.
Please join PulpFest 2024 at 8:35 pm on Friday, August 2, as we welcome author and illustrator Mark Schultz and PulpFest‘s Mike Chomko to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania for a discussion of dinosaurs in the pulps and popular fiction.
Beginning with the first illustrated edition of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1867 — which featured only marine reptiles — dinosaurs have fascinated both readers and writers. From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in “The Lost World” to Ray Bradbury in “The Foghorn” and “A Sound of Thunder” and Michael Crichton in Jurassic Park and its sequel, writers have used dinosaurs as an element in their fantastic fiction.
Mark Schultz is best known for his award-winning Xenozoic Tales, a graphic series set in a post-apocalyptic future when humans share the planet with prehistoric creatures. Xenozoic Tales also inspired an animated television series, arcade, video, and role-playing games, action figures, candy bars, and more. Since November 1, 2004, Mark has been the writer for the comic strip, Prince Valiant, created by Hal Foster. A longtime pulp fan and the winner of five Harvey Awards, two Eisners, an Inkpot, a Spectrum Award, and three Haxturs for comics published in Spain, Mark last presented at PulpFest in ” Illustrating Conan for the Commercial Market,” also featuring artist Don Simpson and Mark Wheatley.
Mike Chomko is the marketing and programming director for PulpFest. The winner of the 2010 Munsey Award, Mike is a former member of the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society where he started Purple Prose, a highly respected pulp fanzine that ran for seventeen issues in the late 1990s and early 21st century. Around the same time, he founded Mike Chomko Books, an independent purveyor of genre fiction and related materials. His specialty is pulp-related material. In “real life,” Mike is a semi-retired registered nurse. He works in the operating room of a surgical center for pediatric patients. Married for over 45 years, he is the father of two adult children and a grandfather who developed a love for dinosaurs at an early age. His favorite Doc Savage novel is Lester Dent’s “The Land of Terror.”
Our “Pulp Paleontology” presentation is all part of ERBFest 2024, our third salute to the Master of Adventure, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Co-hosted by Henry G. Franke III — the editor of The Burroughs Bibliophiles, which publishes The Burroughs Bulletin journal and The Gridley Wave monthly newsletter.
ERBFest was started in 2021 when it seemed as if a second summer was going to pass without both of the usual Burroughs conventions — The Burroughs Bibliophiles’ Dum-Dum and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship.
In addition to “Pulp Paleontology,” ERBFest 2024 will also feature “The Universe According to Edgar Rice Burroughs,” “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs,” and late-night showings of Kevin Connor’s The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot.
Of special note is the 2024 Dum-Dum Banquet, scheduled for Saturday, August 3, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Bravo! Italian Kitchen, located one-half mile from PulpFest’s host hotel. Mark Schultz will be one of the guest speakers. The banquet will be hosted by The Burroughs Bibliophiles and is independent of PulpFest 2024. You don’t have to be a member of The Bibliophiles to attend the banquet.
PulpFest 2024 begins on August 1 and runs through August 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. We’ll be celebrating “Spice, Spies, Shaw, and More” at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the Schedule button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re almost sold out!
If you want to sell at this year’s PulpFest, our wall tables are sold out. Island tables are still available, but they won’t last long. Register soon!
Our featured image is excerpted from Mark Schultz’s cover art for Russ Manning’s & Gaylord Dubois’ Tarzan the Untamed, published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1999. The book collects the feature stories from Tarzan #163, 164, 166, and 167, originally published by Western Publishing’s Gold Key comic book imprint. The story was adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels “Tarzan the Untamed” and “Tarzan the Terrible,” originally published in Argosy All-Story Weekly, first published in 1920 – 21.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Frank R. Paul’s cover art for the February 1927 issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating the opening segment of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The Land That Time Forgot.”
Amazing Stories for June 1926 with cover by Frank R. Paul, illustrating a scene from Jules Verne’s serial, “A Trip to the Center of the Earth,” published in three parts in the Gernsback magazine. The sauropod attacking the raft is most likely a Plesiosaur, which sported flippers and fins. They are believed to have come out onto the land to lay eggs, as turtles do.
Lester Dent’s “The Land of Terror,” originally appeared in the April 1933 issue of Street & Smith’s Doc Savage Magazine, featuring cover art by Walter Baumhofer. The second Doc Savage adventure, the story involves the Smoke of Eternity which dissolves anything it comes into contact with. Doc and his crew set off for Thunder Island — somewhere off the coast of New Zealand — where they must battle for their very survival against ferocious dinosaurs.
J. Allen St. John contributed the front cover art for the July 1942 issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating David Wright O’Brien’s story “Blitzkrieg in the Past,” in which an American tank and its crew are sent into the distant past by a time transfer device and an errant lightning bolt.
Our final image is C. C. Senf’s cover for the November 1930 issue of Weird Tales, illustrating Katherine Metcalf Roof’s story “A Million Years After.” It concerns a dinosaur egg that mysteriously hatches itself during the contemporary times. The brief story — Roof’s only contribution to “The Unique Magazine” — vexed H. P. Lovecraft to no end.
Norman Bean is an Edgar Rice Burroughs and dinosaur fan who joined the staff of volunteer writers for our website in August 2023. We look forward to more contributions from Norman in the years ahead.
Trademarks Tarzan®, Tarzan of the Apes®, Jane Porter®, La of Opar™, Opar™, John Carter®, Dejah Thoris®, Tara of Helium™, Barsoom®, Chessmen of Mars™, Pellucidar®, At the Earth’s Core™, David Innes™, Dian the Beautiful™, The Land That Time Forgot®, Edgar Rice Burroughs®, Master of Adventure™, and others owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Associated logos, characters, names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks or registered trademarks of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Used by Permission.
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