PulpFest 2026 will celebrate the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, plus a great deal more at this year’s convention. Hugo Gernsback’s groundbreaking science fiction pulp and Bernarr Macfadden’s purportedly “true” magazine concerning the spirit world both debuted one hundred years ago.
Hard to miss on the newsstand – larger than the typical pulp magazine, with three-dimensional block letters trailing across its masthead – Amazing Stories was selling over 100,000 copies a month not long after its debut in March 1926.
Featuring bright covers with alien landscapes, weird monsters, and fantastic machines – all painted by artist and draftsman Frank R. Paul – Hugo Gernsback’s early issues of Amazing Stories were filled with reprints of classic science fiction stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells, supplemented by translations of European tales, stories from the Munsey pulps, and yarns culled from the pages of his science and electrical magazines. As time passed, more original stories began to appear, written by the likes of Miles J. Breuer, Edmond Hamilton, Clare Winger Harris, David H. Keller, A. Hyatt Verrill, and Harl Vincent.
A few months after serializing E. E. “Doc” Smith’s first space opera, “The Skylark of Space,” Hugo Gernsback lost control of the Experimenter Publishing Company and Amazing Stories. Due to financial mismanagement, the publisher was forced into receivership under the aegis of the Irving Trust Company. Hugo and his brother, Sydney Gernsback, were shown the door and replaced by editor Arthur Lynch and business manager Bergan A. MacKinnon.
We hope you’ll join PulpFest on Thursday, July 30, at 7 pm as we welcome Professor Garyn G. Roberts to our programming stage for “The Rise and Fall of Gernsback’s Amazing Stories,” a presentation examining the Gernsback years of the pulp magazine.
Garyn Roberts has written extensively about the pulps, both professionally and as a fan. He has edited or co-edited some of the best collections from the pulps, including A Cent a Story: The Best from Ten Detective Aces, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps, The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of Don Diavolo, and The Compleat Great Merlini Saga. His anthology, The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, a college-level textbook, is notable for the attention paid to the pulp magazines. Additionally, Garyn has helped other researchers with various pulp-related projects and often serves as a presenter and panelist at conventions. In 2013, Garyn received the Munsey Award, recognizing his efforts to keep the pulps alive for this and future generations.
PulpFest 2026 begins on July 30 and runs through August 2 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. In addition to honoring the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, we’ll also be celebrating the sesquicentennial of writer Jack London’s birth, the centennial of the birth of artist Robert Kennedy Abbett, and more at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our programming free of charge. To learn more about our presentations, please click the 2026 Schedule link found on our website.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the register link found on our website. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast!
Remember, in addition to your membership in PulpFest 2026, you’ll also be a member of Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price! You can’t beat that deal.
If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, all of our wall and foyer tables have been reserved. A few island tables are remaining for $110 per table. Please click the “register” link on our website to learn how to join the convention as a dealer.
Our featured image is excerpted from Frank R. Paul’s cover for the August 1926 issue of Amazing Stories.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Frank R. Paul’s cover for the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories.
Our final image is Frank R. Paul’s cover for the April 1929 issue of Amazing Stories, the last of the Gernsback issues of the magazine.
