Amazing Stories turns 100 years old in 2026. Launched in early 1926 by Hugo Gernsback, it was the world’s first magazine devoted to science fiction, or, as Gernsback called it, scientifiction.
Although Gernsback lost control of the magazine in 1929, Amazing Stories has continued under various owners to this day. It is still accepting submissions and publishing fiction online, as well as books through its Amazing Selects line.
Despite its importance in the history of popular culture, Amazing Stories was certainly not the only fiction magazine to premiere in 1926. From Dell Publishing came War Stories, the first pulp to specialize in stories of battle. Fiction House tried entering the women’s market by releasing Love Romances. Doubleday debuted West, a magazine that continued for nearly 30 years. Bill Clayton launched Clues, a “Magazine of Detective Stories,” in late 1926. After Clayton went belly up in 1933, Clues was picked up by pulp powerhouse Street & Smith. It carried on for nearly ten more years, piling up more than 200 issues during its full run.
And then there’s Bernarr Macfadden’s Ghost Stories. A bodybuilding and physical fitness fanatic, Macfadden had become fabulously wealthy after debuting True Story in 1919. It featured first-person stories that were purportedly written by the readers of the magazine.
Harland Manchester reported in the August 1938 issue of Scribner’s Magazine:
“When Macfadden saw how things were going, he decided to compete with himself. He figured that when readers finished True Story, they might find it tedious waiting for the next issue. So he brought out True Romances, which caught on at once, then Dream World, and in 1926, True Experiences.”
Macfadden struck gold again with the first factual crime and detective magazine, True Detective Mysteries, released in 1924. A couple of years later, he tried to duplicate its success by debuting Ghost Stories.
The July 1926 Ghost Stories appeared on American newsstands on May 23, not long after Gernsback’s Amazing Stories had been introduced. With most of its features narrated in the first person, Ghost Stories purported to lead its readers on a journey to the spirit world.
“What could be more fascinating than to journey into an unknown world? What more enthralling than to read the unique, spooky, creepy tales of those who have made the journey? You will make the journey with them. You will stand behind the brink of eternity, you will tear aside the veil that shrouds the spirit world, you will be held spellbound as each new issue of Ghost Stories reaches you.”
Ghost Stories ran for a total of 64 issues, starting with its July 1926 number and running through its December 1931 – January 1932 issue. Except for its final three issues, it was a monthly.
At PulpFest 2026, we’ll not only celebrate the centennials of these two classic magazines, but also the birth of artist Robert K. Abbett, known for his paperback covers illustrating the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. We’ll also salute the sesquicentennial of the birth of Jack London, the popular fiction writer and an early innovator in the science fiction genre.
And don’t forget that your PulpFest membership also includes Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and the first The Shadow Con, a new mini-convention celebrating the “Master of Darkness.” That’s 4 conventions for the price of one! You can’t beat that deal!
You’ll find all this and more at PulpFest 2026! We hope you’ll join us. Below is our planned schedule.
PulpFest 2026 Schedule
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Dealers’ Room
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Early Dealers’ Room Set-Up (only dealers & helpers allowed entry)
Evening Programming
9:00 pm – 9:45 pm — ERB — A Century of Robert K. Abbett (Henry G Franke III & Mark Wheatley)
Hotel Lounge
10:00 pm – ?? am — Doc Con — 2026 “Meet and Greet” — Socialize at Ember & Vine
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Dealers’ Room
8:00 am – 9:00 am — Dealers’ Room Set-Up (only dealers & helpers allowed entry)
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Registration Desk Open for All Attendees
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Dealers’ Room Open for Early-Bird Shopping
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Submit Your Auction Items to PulpFest (Dealers’ Room)
Auction Preview
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm — Auction Preview (in Willow & Walnut Rooms)
Hotel Lounge
5:00 pm – 6:45 pm — Pizza at PulpFest (sponsored by PulpFest’s Generous Dealers)
Evening Programming
6:55 pm – 7:00 pm — Welcome to PulpFest — Remarks from Chairman Jack Cullers
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm — Amazing — The Rise and Fall of Gernsback’s Amazing Stories (Garyn Roberts)
7:50 pm – 8:35 pm — Amazing — The Scithers Years (John Gregory Betancourt & Darrell Schweitzer)
8:40 pm – 9:25 pm — Doc Con — The Amazing Adventures of Doc Savage (Daryl Morrissey)
9:30 pm – 10:15 pm — Amazing — The Shaver Mystery (Jeff Shanks)
10:20 pm – 11:05 pm — Amazing — Cosmic Collectibles: Buck Rogers Conquers Merchandising (Jim Beard)
11:10 pm – 1:00 am — Amazing — 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
Hotel Lounge
11:10 pm – ?? am — Doc Con — Bronze Bash — Socialize at Ember & Vine
Friday, July 31, 2026
Dealers’ Room
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Dealers’ Room Open to All PulpFest Members
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Submit Your Auction Items to PulpFest (Dealers’ Room)
Art Show
11:30 am – 1:30 pm — ERB — A Century of Robert K. Abbett (hosted by Henry G. Franke III in the Chestnut Room)
Afternoon Programming
12:30 pm – 1:25 pm — ERB — The Universe According to Edgar Rice Burroughs (Win Scott Eckert)
1:30 pm – 2:25 pm — Flinch! Fest (John C. Bruening & Jim Beard)
2:30 pm – 3:25 pm — FarmerCon — The Early Philip José Farmer: Pulps and Digests (Michael Croteau & Win Scott Eckert)
Auction Preview
3:30 PM – 4:45 PM — Auction Preview (in Willow & Walnut Rooms)
Evening Programming
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm — Men’s Adventure Magazines — Gil Cohen: Inside & Out (Wyatt Doyle)
7:50 pm – 8:35 pm — Amazing — The Amazing Ray Palmer (John Ventre)
8:40 pm – 9:25 pm — Amazing — Amazing Artists (David Saunders)
9:30 pm – 10:15 pm — Jack London’s Amazing Stories (Morgan Holmes)
10:20 pm – 11:05 pm — Spooks — Ghost Stories: Truth or Fiction? (Mike Chomko & David Walker)
11:10 pm – 1:00 am — Spooks — The Haunting (1963)
Hotel Lounge
11:05 pm – ?? am — Fraternize at FarmerCon — Socialize at Ember & Vine
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Dealers’ Room
9:00 am – 4:45 pm — Dealers’ Room Open to All PulpFest Members
9:00 am – 12:00 pm — Submit Your Auction Items to PulpFest (Dealers’ Room)
Art Show
11:30 am – 1:30 pm — ERB — A Century of Robert K. Abbett (hosted by Henry G. Franke III in the Chestnut Room)
Luncheon
11:30 am – 2:00 pm — The Shadow Con — Dine with the Agents of Ying Ko at Lao Sze Chuan Pittsburgh (sign up at The Shadowed Circle)
Afternoon Programming
12:30 pm – 1:25 pm — Doc Con — The Bronze Gazette (Anthony Rais and Howard Wright)
1:30 pm – 2:25 pm — The Shadow Con — The Haunted Shadow (Tim King)
2:30 pm – 3:25 pm — Writer’s Panel — Working with Licensed Characters (John C. Bruening, Win Scott Eckert, William Patrick Maynard, and Will Murray, with Jim Beard)
Auction Preview
3:30 PM – 4:45 PM — Auction Preview (in Willow & Walnut Rooms)
Dinner
4:45 pm – 6:45 pm — Doc Con — Dinner at Bravo Italian Kitchen Cranberry (sign up at Doc Con)
4:45 pm – 6:45 pm — FarmerCon — Dinner with the Friends of Phil Farmer — location to be determined (sign up with Meteor House)
Evening Programming
6:55 pm – 7:15 pm — Looking Toward PulpFest 2027 (Jack Cullers & Mike Chomko — all members are welcome)
7:15 pm – 7:30 pm — Our 2026 Munsey Award Presentation & Raffle Drawing
7:30 pm – 7:55 pm — Last-Minute Auction Preview (in Willow Room)
8:00 pm – 11:00 pm — PulpFest 2026 Auction
Hotel Lounge
11:05 pm – ?? am — The Shadow Con — At the Cobalt Club — Socialize at Ember & Vine, co-hosted by Doc Con
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Dealers’ Room
9:00 am – 1:00 pm — Our Dealers Pack Up — All Are Welcome to Browse
All programming events are free & open to the general public.
A membership is required to enter the dealers’ room.
For further information on our presentations, click on the available links.
Click here to link to our mobile schedule.
All Scheduled Events Are Tentative.
Please visit our YouTube Channel and check out Craig McDonald’s Amazing Stories video.
And while you’re there, please be sure to subscribe.
Our featured image is excerpted from Frank R. Paul’s cover to the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating the first segment of Edward Elmer Smith’s & Lee Hawkins Garby’s three-part serial, “The Skylark of Space.”
Our lead image is the April 1926 number of Amazing Stories, the first issue of Hugo Gernsback’s groundbreaking science fiction magazine.
The first issue of Ghost Stories, dated July 1926 and published by Bernarr Macfadden, looks sort of like a recruiting poster. Uncle Sam is pointing at the reader and saying, “I Want You!” This particular Uncle Sam, however, is wearing a white sheet and has fangs. The artist is not known.
Robert K. Abbett painted the cover art for the tenth book in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, Llana of Gathol, published in 1963 by Ballantine Books.
Released in 2022 by Bottleneck Gallery, Francesco Francavilla’s 20 Million Miles to Earth is a limited edition screen print movie poster, paying tribute to the classic 1957 science fiction film featuring the special effects of Ray Harryhausen.
Closing out our post is a movie poster for Robert Wise’s 1963 classic ghost story, The Haunting. Roger Soubie, a prolific French artist renowned for his extensive work in film and travel advertising, created the poster. Born on June 14, 1898 in France. He began his career by drawing magazine covers and advertising posters for railway companies, car manufacturers, and tourism. After the war he moved to Granville. Soubie has created nearly 2,000 film posters throughout his career, before he died in 1984.
