With summer right around the corner, there will be four pulp-related conventions during June. From Pittsburgh to Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina, the convention season is heating up!
Starting things off will be the 3 Rivers Comicon on June 6 and 7, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on the southern shoreline of the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tickets are available through the convention’s website or at any of the six New Dimension Comics locations in the Pittsburgh region. They will also be available at the door.
New Dimension Comics owner Todd McDevitt — a regular PulpFest dealer — and his general manager Jon Engel, launched 3 Rivers Comicon in 2016. After hearing complaints from customers about the increasing cost of conventions and how the shift to wide-ranging pop culture conventions had left comics tucked away in the shadows, they felt challenged. “We made it our mission to hold a convention for comic book fans,” McDevitt said. “If you want something other than comics, go somewhere else.”
Weekend events at the Comicon will include panels, gaming, photo opportunities, and cosplay contests for kids and adults. There will also be an exclusive beer brewed for the convention that will be released during the 3 Rivers Comicon VIP Party. Visit the convention’s website for more information on events, as well as the convention’s guests and exhibitors.
On June 12 and 13, Robert E. Howard Days will take place at the Robert E. Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas. This year’s convention will be celebrating multiple anniversaries, including the 120th anniversary of Howard’s birth; the sixtieth anniversary of Lancer Books’ publication of Conan the Adventurer; the fortieth anniversary of Robert E. Howard Days, the international gathering of Robert E. Howard fans; the 30th anniversary of The Whole Wide World, the award-winning film about Bob Howard and Novalyne Ellis; and the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Robert E. Howard Foundation. Rusty Burke, the founder of Howard Days in 1986, will the convention’s guest of honor.
The annual gathering of Two-Gun Bob’s fans is sponsored by Project Pride of Cross Plains and the Robert E. Howard Foundation, with help from the members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. Visit the Howard Days home page or Facebook site to learn more about this great event. You can also get more information by emailing Bill Cavalier at indybillcav@gmail.com or 2cavaliers@sbcglobal.net.
As part of this year’s Robert E. Howard Days, Project Pride of Cross Plains and the Robert E. Howard Foundation are working to restore the Robert E. Howard Museum, the home of Two-Gun Bob. This 100+ year old home on the National Register of Historic Places requires serious professional repairs. The two organizations are seeking to collect $100,000 to fund the necessary work requiring contractors who have experience with this type of historical preservation. All donations are tax-deductible. Please visit the Help Save the REH House Page to learn more.
The summertime Monster Bash film festival returns from June 12 – 14 at the Pittsburgh Marriott North in Mars, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from the PulpFest host hotel.
The International Classic Monster Movie Conference and Film Festival will feature Gary Conway, who played the Monster in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein; Jack Hill, the director of Boris Karloff’s last four films; Butch Patrick, the actor who played Eddie on the original Munsters television show; actor and film director Daniel Roebuck, who played Grandpa in the 2022 Rob Zombie film, The Munsters; Beverly Washburn, one of the stars of the 1967 comedy horror film, Spider Baby; and other guests. There will also be a showing of Basil Gogos’ monster paintings at the convention. Gogos is best known for his portraits of movie monsters that appeared on the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in the 1960s and 1970s.
The convention’s film schedule will include Dracula, The Fiend Without a Face, Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters, Mad Love, The Mummy’s Tomb, Reptilicus, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Spider Baby, and other horror and monster classics. There will also be guest talks and interviews, game shows, live theater, a magic show, monster-sized sheet cakes, Saturday morning cartoons with cereal, and other events. Click here for a look at the current programming schedule.
Monster Bash celebrates the classic horror and science fiction films of the silent era through the 1980s. It’s a place to meet the people in the movies, behind the movies, and fellow fans of the movies, plus a monster memorabilia shopping gala. To check out some of the convention’s dealers, click here. To book a room for the convention, click here or call 724-772-3700. Be sure to ask for the special Monster Bash rate.
Visit the Monster Bash website or call (724) 238-4317 for further information.
On June 13, 2026, Pulp Hunter Con will debut at the Benjamin H. Wilson Senior Center, located at 580 Delmont Ave, Warminster, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by Phantasm Comics of New Hope, PA, Nuke ‘Em Comics & Collectibles of Lambertville, NJ, and Allied Printing and Graphics of Fairfield, NJ, Pulp Hunter Con is a brand-new convention that is taking place about an hour northeast of Philadelphia and a two-hour journey from New York City. It is conveniently located behind Giuseppes’ Pizza & Family Restaurant. After shopping for a few hours, you can walk right across the parking lot for an enjoyable lunch or early dinner.
General admission to Pulp Hunter Con is $5 with admission from 10 am until 3 pm on Saturday, June 13. For $10, you’ll be admitted at 9 am for an hour of early-bird shopping. If you enjoy science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, or mystery fiction, then this is the convention for you, bringing together the best pulp magazine, vintage comic book and paperback dealers, as well as vendors of both new and old books.
If you’re a fan of The Shadow, Doc Savage, Tarzan, Zorro, Conan the Barbarian, Buck Rogers, Fu Manchu, love reading stories written by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn, Erle Stanley Gardner, Dashiell Hammett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, or love collecting Golden Age, Silver Age, or Bronze Age comic books, then this is the show for you!
A few dealer tables are still available. If you’re interested in selling at Pulp Hunter Con, please get in touch with Greg Zuerblis of Phantasm Comics at greg.zuerblis@gmail.com.
Closing out the month of June will be the 2026 ERBCon, a celebration of all things Edgar Rice Burroughs, hosted by the Carolina Calots, the Burroughs Bibliophiles chapter of North and South Carolina.
Formerly called the Dum-Dum, this year’s ERBCon will take place at the Marriott-Brier Creek, 10600 Little Brier Creek Lane, in Raleigh, NC, from June 25 – 28. The convention will begin with an evening showing of Burroughs-themed television and films on June 25, followed by full days of programming on June 26 and June 27, as well as optional activities on June 28. Scheduled events include multimedia presentations, panels, art shows, model displays, miniature and board gaming, a “Burroughs Bowl” trivia contest, and live performances of classic Tarzan radio shows.
Roy Thomas, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and writer of Tarzan and John Carter graphic stories for Marvel and Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., will speak at the convention and receive the Golden Lion Award for his contributions to Burroughs lore and fandom. In addition to co-creating such now-familiar characters as Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Vision, Luke Cage, and others, Thomas helped introduce pulp-era characters such as Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Conan the Barbarian into comics and graphic novels.
In addition to Roy Thomas, a longtime resident of South Carolina, the convention will explore the careers of other Carolinians with connections to the life and works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. These include Greensboro, North Carolina native Murphy Anderson, who illustrated the John Carter series for DC Comics.
For a look at the full programming schedule for ERBCon 2026, click here. A full weekend membership to the convention costs $125, which covers special gifts, full access to convention events, and the awards banquet on the evening of June 27. Banquet-only tickets ($55) and day passes for Friday ($20), Saturday ($30), and Sunday ($20) are also available. To register for ERBCon 2026, please click here.
To make a room reservation for this year’s ERBCon, please click here. You must book your room by May 27, 2026, to get the special convention rate of $129 plus tax, per night. You can also reach the hotel by calling 833-320-5676. Be sure to ask for the convention rate.
To learn more about ERBCon 2026, please visit the Carolina Calots website at https://carolinacalots.com/. If you’re an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan living in North or South Carolina, you can also join the organization through this page. For additional information about the Calots or ERBCon, please contact John Hood at johnmcdonaldhood@gmail.com or through the mailing address listed on the website.
Hopefully, these four conventions will get you warmed up for the 2026 PulpFest. The convention will be celebrating the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, plus a great deal more from July 30 to August 2 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania.
PulpFest will also be joined by Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price! You can’t beat that deal.
You can register for PulpFest 2026 and its associated conventions by clicking the registration link on the convention’s website at pulpfest.com. If you need lodging, you’ll also be able to book a room through the PulpFest website.
Our featured image is excerpted from Frank Frazetta’s original cover art for Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Adventurer, first published by Lancer Books in 1966. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the paperback that set off the Howard boom of the 1960s and 70s. It will be one of several anniversaries celebrated by Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas.
Our lead image is the cover for the first Marvel Comics issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, dated June 1977, with cover art by John Buscema. The first of 29 issues published by Marvel Comics, the issue featured the first segment of an adaption of Burroughs’ novel, “Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.” The story was scripted by Roy Thomas, the guest of honor at this year’s ERBCon, with art by John Buscema.
Reptilicus, a film directed and co-written by Sidney Pink and released by American International Pictures in the United States in 1962, is one of several films that will be run at this summer’s Monster Bash, a convention for fans of classic horror and science fiction films that is held twice a year in Mars, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from the PulpFest host hotel.
The 2026 Pulp Hunter Con flyer was adapted from Allen Anderson’s original front cover art for the May 1952 issue of Planet Stories.
The late artist and illustrator, Murphy Anderson, is one of several Carolinians connected to Edgar Rice Burroughs who will be saluted at ERBCon 2026. Anderson’s splash page for the first segment of Marv Wolfman’s adaptation of Burroughs’ novel “John Carter, Warlord of Mars,” originally appeared in Weird Worlds #1, dated August-September 1972 and published by DC Comics.
Our final image was adapted by William Lampkin from Ed Valigursky’s cover art for the March 1956 issue of Amazing Stories. We will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the debut of Amazing, the first continuing science fiction magazine, at PulpFest 2026.
