For more than fifty years, PulpFest has celebrated mystery, adventure, science fiction, and much more. In the pulp magazines of the early twentieth century — which gave PulpFest its name — the hardboiled detective, science fiction, and sword and sorcery genres developed and flourished. They gave us Buck Rogers, Conan the Barbarian, Cthulhu, Doc Savage, Hopalong Cassidy, John Carter of Mars, Sam Spade, The Shadow, Solomon Kane, Tarzan, Zorro, and many other pop culture icons.
And in a way, the pulps also gave us Grand Master of Science Fiction Philip José Farmer.
Few people think of Farmer as a pulp writer, but he was a child of the pulps and launched his career in the pulps. Born January 26, 1918 in North Terre Haute, Indiana, Phil Farmer grew up in Peoria, Illinois. He spent much of his childhood reading everything he could find in the local library and drug store. From the classics by Baum, Carroll, Cervantes, Chesterton, Cooper, Defoe, Dickens, Dumas, Homer, London, Shaw, Stevenson, Swift, Thackeray, Twain, Verne, Wells, and others, to popular fiction by Burroughs, Doyle, and Haggard, and on through such pulps as Air Wonder Stories, Argosy, Blue Book, Doc Savage, Science Wonder Stories, The Shadow, Weird Tales, and more, Farmer read it all.
His wide reading prepared Philip José Farmer for his career as a writer. It was to the pulp Adventure that the budding writer sold his first story. “O’Brien and Obrenov” appeared in the March 1946 issue of the Popular Publications pulp magazine.
Six years later, Farmer’s first science fiction story, “The Lovers,” was published in the August 1952 issue of Startling Stories. Famous for breaking the taboo on sex in science fiction, the story launched his science fiction career and won Farmer the 1952 Hugo Award as the “Most Promising New Talent.”
At PulpFest 2025, we’ll not only salute the “Masters of Blood and Thunder,” the “Great Pulp Villains,” and more, we’ll also welcome back the fans of Philip José Farmer for Farmercon XX!
Since 2011, PulpFest has hosted Farmercon, a convention celebrating the life and times of the longtime pulp fan and Grand Master of Science Fiction, born over 100 years ago.
By holding the convention alongside PulpFest, Farmer fans get a variety of programming and a room full of pulp and book dealers to enjoy. Of course, the premier publisher of Farmer and related works, Meteor House, will have a prominent spot in our dealers’ room. And don’t forget the after-hours socializing that the fans of Philip José Farmer are known to enjoy. These gatherings are always vibrant, entertaining, and informative.
One of the highlights of FarmerCon XX will be the convention’s panel saluting two of the late author’s favorite pulp characters — Doc Savage and Tarzan.
Philip José Farmer wrote several works connected to Tarzan, including Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke, The Dark Heart of Time, and A Feast Unknown.
The same can be said about The Man of Bronze. Farmer penned Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Escape from Loki, and The Mad Goblin. Hollywood producer George Pal also asked Farmer to write a Doc Savage screenplay for a film that was to be called Arch-Enemy Of Evil.
Our Farmercon XX panel — “Tarzan the Time Traveler and Discourses on Doc” — is scheduled for 8:35 pm on Friday, August 8, in the PulpFest 2025 programming room. It will be followed at 11:05 pm by “Fraternize at Farmercon” in the Ember & Vine lounge at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. All are welcome to join the “Friends of Phil” during their gatherings in our host hotel’s restaurant and lounge.
All this and more will be part of Farmercon XX, the 2025 convention for all things Farmer, taking place from August 7 – 10 at this summer’s PulpFest.
But that’s not all!
Just in time for the Golden Anniversary of George Pal’s film, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, the convention for the “Fans of Bronze” returns. Like Farmercon XX, Doc Con 2025 will be held at this summer’s PulpFest. And then there’s ERBFest 2025, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Master of Romance and Adventure, Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Make your plans now to head for the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania from August 7 – 10 for Farmercon XX and PulpFest 2025.
Your membership in PulpFest will also make you a member of Doc Con XXI, ERBFest 2025, FarmerCon XX.
That’s 4 conventions for the price of one! You can’t beat that, especially if you’re a Burroughs, Doc, Farmer, and pulps enthusiast! We hope you’ll join us from August 7 – 10, 2025 for FarmerCon XX.
Our featured image is excerpted from Griffith Foxley’s cover for the March 1946 number of Adventure, featuring Philip José Farmer’s first professional sale, “O’Brien and Obrenov.” The story concerns the occupation of a German town at the end of World War II. The American and Russian forces occupying the town argue over who can claim the high-ranking German they have captured. According to The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page, “The way they decide to settle their argument is hilarious, but the final outcome is even better.”
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Bob Eggleton’s cover art for Philip José Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, forthcoming from Meteor House in 2025. It features a character named John Gribardsun, “a tall, dark-haired gray-eyed Englishman who goes native far too easily and competently.”
The first science fiction story to deal with sexual relations between humans and aliens, “The Lovers” won Philip José Farmer a 1952 Hugo Award as “Most Promising New Writer.” Considered groundbreaking, it instantly gave Farmer a name worth watching. The story was first published in the August 1952 number of Standard Magazines’ Startling Stories, with cover art by Earle K. Bergey.
One of the most prolific and popular American illustrators of the 1970s and 1980s, Richard Amsel created the cover for the Popular Library edition of Farmer’s “Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke,” Tarzan Alive. It was published in 1973.
Philip José Farmer’s Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life has been reprinted numerous times, including in 2013 by Meteor House. The cover art was by Joe DeVito, well-known for his cover paintings for Will Murray’s Doc Savage novels.
Our Farmercon logo was designed by William Lampkin, advertising director for PulpFest and the editor of the convention’s program book, The Pulpster.
Leslie Silberberg is a writer and popular culture enthusiast who began posting on our website in 2022. She enjoys the science fiction pulps, particularly the work of such leading female writers as Leigh Brackett, Claire Winger Harris, Zenna Henderson, Judith Merril, C. L. Moore, Margaret St. Clair, Wilmar H. Shiras, Francis Stevens, and Leslie F. Stone. Leslie gratefully acknowledges the work of Mike Croteau, whose work, “100 Years of Philip José Farmer,” is liberally quoted in this post.
