PulpFest is not only lauded for its fine programming but also for its very substantial dealers’ room.
Beginning on Thursday, August 1, 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 2024? In our posts this week, we’ll be profiling our 80 dealers, telling you a little bit about each of them.
It’s particularly fitting for a convention that will celebrate Burroughs, Farmer, & Pulp that we welcome artist Douglas C. Klauba back to PulpFest. The acclaimed artist has painted The Avenger, Batman, Doc Savage, The Domino Lady, Flash Gordon, The Green Hornet, The Phantom, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, and many other heroes. We’ll have Doug’s table right near writer Craig McDonald. Doug has painted the covers for Craig’s three books in The Adventures of Zana O’Savin series. He has also painted for Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Meteor House, and John Bruening’s Midnight Guardian novels for Flinch! Books. Author Craig McDonald will interview Doug on the PulpFest stage on Saturday afternoon, August 3.
We’d like to welcome back John W. Knott, Bookseller to PulpFest after a long absence. John has been a bookseller for over 40 years. He specializes in fine first editions of popular literature, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, supernatural and horror, and mystery and detective fiction. He also offers pulp magazines, ephemera — such as manuscripts and letters — as well as signed books, limited editions, award winners, and books in all areas of popular fiction. At PulpFest 2024, John will primarily be offering pulps and other material from several major collections — Gerry de la Ree, Joe Wrzos, and Robert A. Madle. Please visit his website at jwkbooks.com.
Please welcome Tim Kupin of Koops Comics back to PulpFest. Tim (aka Koop) was born and raised in Pittsburgh and was the only former employee to have shopped and worked in the original Eide’s Comics location in Etna. He began working at Eide’s in December 1975 and continued to work there until he shipped out with the USAF. Since 1992, he has been setting up at comic cons, both large and small, all over our great country. Tim is actively attempting to exhibit at a comic con in all fifty states, having appeared in 36 different states, as well as the District of Columbia and Toronto, Canada. An Overstreet Price Guide Advisor, Tim owns and operates Koops Comics, a brick-and-mortar shop located in Lawton, Oklahoma. Koop will have comic books, magazines, art books, and a large selection of foreign editions, including hundreds of Conan comics from at least 30 different countries, some featuring original takes on the character.
Michael & Tracey Kowal have attended Pulpfest many times, both in Columbus and Pittsburgh. Michael has been an avid collector of science fiction magazines, comic books, and first-edition, signed, limited, and special collection books for many years. The Kowals will be selling pulps, science fiction and mystery digest magazines, Silver and Bronze Age comics, and large-size science fiction magazines from Michael’s collection. Residents of the Pittsburgh area, please welcome the Kowals back to PulpFest for their second go-round as dealers.
Our 2018 Munsey Award winner William Lampkin is the advertising director for PulpFest as well as the editor and designer of The Pulpster, the convention’s award-winning program book. He’s also the guy who designs all the great banners you’ll find around the convention. Bill will have a tempting selection of pulp fanzines and other collectibles for sale at his table. He attended his first Pulpcon in 2006 and his first PulpFest in 2014. The founder and publisher of ThePulp.Net, Bill is not only the designer, but also the sponsor of this year’s “Welcome to PulpFest” banner.
Author of the Edgar-nominated “Hector Lassiter” historical crime series, Craig McDonald is an award-winning novelist, journalist, and editor. The “Lassiter” series chronicles the exploits of a fictional Black Mask author and his encounters with such notable figures as Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Ian Fleming, and Lester Dent. McDonald’s internationally acclaimed works have found a global audience and have also been adapted to the graphic novel format. His works have been published by Simon & Schuster and Macmillan Press.
Craig — who writes regularly for pulpfest.com and The Pulpster — is also the author of The Adventures of Zana O’Savin. The third book in the series — The Death Killers — has recently been released. Craig will be interviewing artist Douglas C. Klauba at this year’s PulpFest. And don’t forget to check out Craig’s many great videos on the PulpFest YouTube Channel.
Please welcome Bob McGeeney back to his third PulpFest as a dealer. Bob formerly served as the Official Editor of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association (ERBapa). He specializes in ERB, vintage science fiction paperbacks, pulps, and big little books. Introduce yourself to Bob at PulpFest 2024 and pick yourself up a treasure.
John McMahan sells collectibles on ebay as mybckpages. He comes to us from Oklahoma, where he has long been active as a fan and dealer. At PulpFest 2024, John will be selling pulps, books, comics, original art, movie posters, and more. He will also have copies of Hard-Boiled Christmas Stories, the anthology he edited with 2006 Lamont Award winner John Wooley. Check out our profile of the latter by reading “PulpFest Profile: Seven Senses of John Wooley” on our website.
Peter Macuga has been selling at PulpFest for a half-dozen times. He’ll have many boxes of pulps and books to sell, including early issues of Astounding Stories, up through the late 1940s. Peter will also have collectible hardcovers from Gnome Press and other publishers.
From Buffalo, New York, Bill Mann returns as a dealer to PulpFest. One of the founders and a former editor at Age of Aces Books, Bill will be selling a variety of aviation pulps and books. Welcome back, Bill. So parachute over to his table and see what he’s flying.
Emanuel ‘Manny’ Maris is a lifelong fan and collector of hero, crime, and fantasy pulps, pre-1970 comic books, and other pop culture collectibles. He has been doing mail order and convention tables for over fifty years. He has run film shows and dealers’ rooms and published program books for various conventions. Since retiring, he sells through eBay and elsewhere as Manny’s Vintage Mintage, and occasionally takes tables at various conventions to sell the extras and second copies from his 45,000 book and magazine collection. He returns to PulpFest as a dealer for the second time.
Tom Martin has been a longtime collector of pulps, digests, vintage paperbacks, Golden Age comics, and many related items. Located in southwestern Ohio, Tom has attended many pulp conventions since the late 1970s, sometimes as a collector and other times as a dealer. He will be offering a diverse selection of items from all areas of our collecting interests, including a few surprises that are rarely offered. Be sure to visit his tables at PulpFest 2024.
Collecting since the early days of pulp fandom, legend has it that Walker Martin has owned practically every pulp at least once! A resident of New Jersey, he’ll be selling a variety of pulp magazines, original artwork, one-of-a-kind canceled checks from the files of Munsey and Popular Publications, and more at PulpFest 2024. Walker has been a regular columnist for the Mystery*File blog, published online by 2024 Munsey Award nominee, Steve Lewis.
William Patrick Maynard is the author of the first authorized Fu Manchu thrillers in nearly forty years. He will be signing and selling copies of his books, including the Flinch! Books anthology, Occupied Pulp. Bill will also have a selection of material from his own collection to sell. He’ll be exhibiting in our dealers’ room on Friday and Saturday only. This year, Bill will be joined by his daughter and co-author, Anna Victoria Maynard, to autograph copies of the Black Coat Press anthology, The Last Tales of the Shadowmen, which features their Fantomas story, “Malice and Snares.”
Terry Meister has been collecting pulps for 60 years, beginning with a handful of late-30s/early-40s Doc Savage issues purchased at the late lamented Kay’s Book Store in Cleveland, Ohio. While attending shows since the Pulpcon days, this is only his second PulpFest as a dealer. He’ll have a wide range of pulps, pulp excerpts, and pulp-related hardbacks — including material by Burroughs, Cummings, England, Giesy, Howard, Lovecraft, and Merritt. And, if time permits, some comics, movie material, comic strips, 16 mm shorts, and . . . stop by and see what you find at his table!
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.
If you’re from outside the area, don’t forget to book a room. Unfortunately, all the rooms in the PulpFest block at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania have been taken. So the special convention rate is no longer available. Click here for a look at other hotels in the area.
We’ll be profiling more of our PulpFest 2024 dealers through Friday, July 12. Please visit our site on Thursday, July 11, for our next segment.
In addition to our packed dealers’ room, PulpFest is known for its terrific programming. Our featured image is excerpted from H. J. Ward’s cover for the May 1936 issue of Spicy Detective Stories. Ward’s original cover art for the May 1935 issue of Spicy-Adventure Stories was also adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin for the PulpFest 2024 welcome banner, sponsored by ThePulp.Net. We’ll be saluting the 90th anniversary of the “Spicy” pulps and more at this year’s PulpFest.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Douglas C. Klauba’s painting, “A Princess of Mars.” Author Craig McDonald will interview Doug on the PulpFest stage on Saturday afternoon, August 3.
Kenneth Grant is a writer and popular culture enthusiast who began writing for our website in 2022. He particularly enjoys the hero pulps and has written about FarmerCon XIX, Ron Hill’s new documentary We Are Doc Savage, and more for pulpfest.com.
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