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 77 dealers, telling you a little bit about each of them.
Fantasy and science fiction publisher Meteor House will be back at PulpFest with the 2024 FarmerCon. Pick up your copy of the first omnibus publication of Philip José Farmer’s Secrets of the Nine; Crossovers Expanded, Volume 3 — compiled by crossover and Wold Newton expert Sean Lee Levin; or one of the 100 Signed, Limited Edition copies of The Lazarus Cabal, written by Sean Lee Levin. These new Meteor House editions will debut at this year’s PulpFest/FarmerCon.
Michael Croteau, Win Scott Eckert, and Paul Spiteri will also be selling items from their back catalog, as well as works created by attendees of FarmerCon. We hope you’ll also join us for our FarmerCon XIX panel on Saturday afternoon, August 3, “Secrets, Crossovers, and the Full Account.”
Charles F. Millhouse is an award-winning author and publisher who published his first book in 1999 and hasn’t looked back. He has written over forty published works, including novels and short stories. From the 1930’s adventures of Captain Hawklin; through the gritty paranormal old west town of New Kingdom; to the far-off future in the Origin Trilogy, Charles’ imagination is boundless. He breathes life into his characters, brings worlds alive, and sends his readers on journeys they won’t soon forget. Charles — who lives in southeastern Ohio with his wife and two sons — will be exhibiting at PulpFest for the first time. Visit stormgatepress.com to learn more about this exciting contemporary writer of genre fiction.
Brian K. Morris has been a professional freelance author for over twenty years. A frequent guest at comic and book shows throughout the Midwest, he’s also an independent publisher, award-winning playwright, occasional actor, YouTuber, and a former mortician’s assistant. His books include The Original Skyman Battles the Master of Steam — which has been compared to Doc Savage — Santastein, and Vulcana: Rebirth of the Champion. Brian lives in Indiana with his wife and too many comic books. Visit Rising Tide Publications to learn more about this new PulpFest dealer and please welcome him to this year’s convention.
Lamont Award winner Ed Hulse of Murania Press is the editor and publisher of the much-admired journal, Blood ‘n’ Thunder, and many other publications. He’ll have the 2024 edition of BNT at this year’s PulpFest, plus copies of the latest edition of his classic The Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction as well as his new book, The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster. In addition to his Murania Press books, Ed will be offering a selection of pulps, digests, hardcovers, and other paper collectibles. He’ll also be teaming up with pulp expert Walker Martin on Thursday evening, August 1, for “Black Mask: The Early Years,” part of our celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of legendary Black Mask editor, Joseph T. Shaw.
The author of over seventy novels and assorted books, Will Murray will be selling copies from his various “The All-New Wild Adventures of . . .” series including his latest book, The Spider: The Hangman from Hell. Expect to see some of Will’s non-fiction books, including Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow and Wordslingers: An Epitaph for the Western. Of course, he’ll be glad to sign your purchases. One of the leading scholars of pulp history, Will be joining John Wooley on Thursday evening, August 1, for “Under Covers,” a look at the zany gumshoes that populated Spicy Detective Stories. It’s part of our celebration of the 90th anniversary of the “Spicy” pulps.
PulpFest would like to welcome Ceza Faustino and his Lone Star Comics team back to our convention for the first time in many years. Selling comics since 1961, Ceza and his team will be visiting Mars, Pennsylvania with cash on the barrel. They buy Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age comics, as well as high-grade Modern. They’re also in the market for pulps and other collectibles, including paperbacks with cover prices of 75¢ or less. Ceza tells us that they’re especially interested in vintage paperbacks. Please visit mycomicshop.com/ to learn more about Lone Star Comics.
Phil Nelson is from Waverly, Ohio. He will be bringing an assortment of pulp magazines and new-condition Girasol Collectables pulp replicas. This very personable dealer will also have vintage paperbacks, comic books, and other collectibles. He’s a fan of detective and adventure fiction and has been attending both Pulpcon and PulpFest for many years.
One of our very first supporters when PulpFest came to Mars, Pennsylvania was Todd McDevitt of New Dimension Comics. Owned by Todd since 1986, New Dimension has six stores in the Pittsburgh region, including one just 2.5 miles away from Pulpfest. Please visit the store while you’re in town. It’s at 20550 Route 19, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. Todd will be sharing his space with Rick Santman and other local dealers, offering our members some vintage and exciting treats. They’ve rented ten island tables at PulpFest 2024.
Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle are the co-editors of The Men’s Adventure Library book series, published by New Texture. It collects classic stories and artwork from the men’s adventure magazines that were published from the 1950s through the 1970s. They’ll be selling copies of their books along with Men’s Adventure Quarterly, the magazine that Bob publishes with Bill Cunningham of Pulp 2.0 Press. For more information, please visit Bob’s Men’s Adventure Magazines blog at MensPulpMags.com and New Texture’s website, NewTexture.com. Bob and Wyatt will also be discussing “Pulp Spice in Men’s Adventure Magazines” on Friday evening, August 2, at PulpFest 2024.
Mike Parsons has been collecting detective and science fiction since the early 1970s. Back then, while attending Michigan State, he worked for Ray Walsh at the Curious Book Shop. Now retired, he has a lot of duplicates and is thinning out his collection. A regular at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention, Mike will have hardcover books, paperbacks, comics, some art, and a few pulps at this year’s PulpFest. A regular attendee of Pulpcon during the 1970s and 80s, please welcome back Mike Parsons to PulpFest.
From the 1950s to the 1990s, the late Samson Pollen created top-notch illustration artwork for various types of periodicals and paperback books, as well as fine art paintings for galleries and commissions. However, most of his artwork — literally hundreds of paintings — was used as interior illustrations for stories in the Atlas/Diamond group of men’s adventure magazines published by Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management Company. PulpFest 2024 is very pleased to announce that the artist’s widow, Jacqueline Pollen, will be exhibiting a number of her late husband’s illustrations in our dealers’ room. She will have some of Samson Pollen’s preliminary paintings, some prints, and some of his books to sell.
A resident of Virginia, Craig Poole has been attending pulp conventions for many years. He’ll be exhibiting a number of high-end illustrations in our PulpFest 2024 dealers’ room. Craig will have a mix of genres, but science fiction will be the primary focus.
Garyn and Virginia Roberts from Wisconsin will be bringing lots of good, fresh old treasures at bargain prices. They’ll have science fiction, mystery, and western pulps, young adult series books, Big Little Books, Golden and Silver Age comic books, pulp replicas, hardcovers, paperbacks, and more. Garyn is the winner of our 2013 Munsey Award.
A full-time proprietor of an antique toy shop by day and a mystery mavin by night, Joseph Saine returns to PulpFest for another go-round. Hailing from northwest Ohio, among Joe’s treasures will be a variety of pulps, a large collection of quality vintage paperbacks, Big Little Books, and more. A professional auctioneer, Joe is one of the leading dealers of antique toys and toy soldiers in the Midwest. He will be helping us with our annual Saturday night auction.
This year’s auction will feature part of the science fiction collection of the late Charles Danowski, plus submissions from members of PulpFest. Prepare to be entertained by Joe Saine at the microphone.
Rick Santman will be joining dealer Todd McDevitt of New Dimensions Comics and other local dealers at this year’s PulpFest. He’ll be selling many trays of science fiction paperbacks, science fiction hardcovers, a good assortment of pulps, vintage comics, some Big Little Books, and a bit of “cheesecake.” Rick’s helper, Jeff Lilly, will have vintage magazines from the 1940s.
World Fantasy Award winner Darrell Schweitzer has been publishing in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction fields since the early 1970s. He will be selling copies of his two-volume retrospective, The Best of Darrell Schweitzer, The Children of Chorazin and Other Strange Denizens — a Lovecraftian/weird short story collection — The Robert E. Howard Reader, Living with the Dead — a Shirley Jackson Award finalist — and anthologies that he has edited, including The Mountains of Madness Revealed and Shadows Out of Time. Darrell will also have magazines such as Interzone, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magzine, Weirdbook, and back issues of Weird Tales (a magazine that he co-edited for 19 years). Finally, he will have a selection of Wildside Press titles, including their Robert E. Howard volumes and pulp facsimile reprints, as well as used hardcover and paperback books. Darrell has been a panelist at PulpFest, as well as a regular contributor to The Pulpster.
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 tomorrow. Please visit our site on Friday, July 11, for our final segment.
In addition to our packed dealers’ room, PulpFest is known for its terrific programming. Our featured image is excerpted from H. C. Murphy’s cover for the September 1929 issue of Black Mask, featuring the opening segment of Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.” Our lead image was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from Fred Craft’s cover for the December 1927 issue of Black Mask. We’ll have several presentations on the classic detective pulp as part of our salute to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Joseph T. Shaw.
In 1988, Weird Tales was revived by George H. Scithers, Darrell Schweitzer, and John Gregory Betancourt. Since then, it has, more or less, been published continuously. The 366th issue was released earlier this year, marking the magazine’s 100th anniversary. Pictured above is the Fall 2000 issue, featuring cover art by Jeff Remmer.
A fan of horror and fantasy fiction, Jeanne Harding attended her first PulpFest in 2023, helping to celebrate the centennial of Weird Tales. Of course, Jeanne asked that a cover for “The Unique Magazine” appear somewhere in our discussion of PulpFest 2024 dealers. The weird fiction fan has contributed several posts to our website, including looks at other conventions, our Memorial Day post, and a tribute to Spicy Mystery Stories that can be found by clicking here.
