Although PulpFest 2026 will not officially begin until Thursday, July 30, dealers who arrive on July 29 will be allowed to set up their displays from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The time is intended for setup alone.
There will be absolutely no buying, selling, or trading permitted during set-up time. If any dealer or dealer’s helper is observed buying, selling, or trading, that person will have to leave the dealers’ room immediately.
PulpFest welcomes dealer banners and other signage. However, such items cannot be attached to the hotel’s walls in any way, shape, or form.
Dealer setup will continue on Thursday, July 30, beginning at 8 am. We recommend that all of our dealers take advantage of our generous load-in and set-up times.
Access to the dealers’ room for unloading and loading purposes will be through the ballroom’s rear entrance and the nearby banquet dock. Click here for a map showing the loading area of the hotel and here for a map of the DoubleTree’s Grand Ballroom.
The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry is very conveniently located at the intersection of three major roadways in Cranberry Township. It’s just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate-79. The address is 910 Sheraton Drive, Mars, Pennsylvania. We have a map on our website or click here for a link to a large map of the area.
If you need additional help getting to the hotel and/or the loading area, please call or text Jack Cullers at 937.671.1574.
Although the focus of PulpFest is pulp magazines and related materials, digests, vintage paperbacks, contemporary genre fiction and pulp reprints, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, first-edition hardcovers, series books, dime novels, original art, Big Little Books, B-movies, serials and related paper collectibles, old-time-radio shows, and Golden and Silver Age, as well as pulp-related comic books and games, are also allowed. Sexually explicit material — including Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui — is not allowed.
Registration for all members of PulpFest 2026 will start at 8 am on Thursday, July 30, in the foyer outside the dealers’ room at the DoubleTree. Look for our welcome banner, sponsored by DreamHaven Books and Comics of Minneapolis.
For those of you who have not yet registered for PulpFest 2026, you will be able to do so at the door. All members — including dealers — will be able to register for the convention from 8 am to 4:45 pm on Thursday, July 30. Registration will take place at the entrance to our dealers’ room at the DoubleTree. Again, please look for our welcome banner.
For the remainder of the convention, you will be able to register at the entrance as you approach the dealers’ room. Just stop at the registration desk during our dealers’ room hours. You’ll find our hours by clicking the schedule link on our website. Or click here to link to our 2026 mobile schedule.
You will be able to pay for your registration at the door using cash, check, or credit card.
To help things move smoothly, please bring along a completed registration form. You can download a copy by clicking here or through the link found on our registration page. Paper forms will also be available at the door.
A full weekend membership to PulpFest 2026 will cost $50 at the door for those who have not registered in advance. Although there is no daily membership available for Thursday, July 30, daily memberships for Friday or Saturday will be available for $25 per day. Your PulpFest membership also includes membership in Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price!
Our dealers’ room will open for early-bird shopping at 9 pm on Thursday, July 30. Early-bird shopping will continue until 4:45 pm for PulpFest members who will be staying at the DoubleTree or for those who elect to purchase an early-bird membership if staying elsewhere.
Following our early-bird shopping, pizza will be served in the Ember & Vine lounge of the DoubleTree. Thanks to the generosity of our dealers, PulpFest will celebrate the convention’s return with pizza at 5 pm on Thursday, July 30. All PulpFest attendees are invited to have a few slices.
Our dealers’ room hours on Friday, July 31, and Saturday, August 1, will also be from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm.
PulpFest 2026 will be celebrating the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, the sesquicentennial of Jack London’s birth, and more. You can access our full programming slate by clicking the 2026 schedule link on our website or via your mobile phone or tablet, by visiting pulpfest.com/schedule/. Each event on the schedule is linked to a post that provides additional information about the event. Just click on the event’s title.
You’ll also find our full schedule printed on the flip side of your PulpFest 2026 badge that is part of your registration packet.
Watch for the “panels” banner to find our programming area at the convention. The general public is welcome to attend all of our programming, free of charge.
Saturday evening’s line-up will also include a short PulpFest business meeting, starting at 6:55 pm. All PulpFest members are urged to attend. Afterward, the annual Munsey Award will be presented, followed by our 2026 Raffle Drawing, sponsored by ERB Books.
We’ll be raffling off a copy of Pirates of Venus — The Illustrators Edition, the first book in the Amtor series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a $350 value. The book features over 100 illustrations by a dazzling array of artists, including Daren Bader, Gary Gianni, Thomas Grindberg, Richard Hescox, Michael Kaluta, Doug Klauba, Mark Schultz, Laurence Schwinger, William Stout, Mark Wheatley, and Thomas Yeates. A copy of Robert Zeuschner’s masterful Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography will also be given away.
Tickets will be available at the PulpFest 2026 registration desk for $5. Buy as many as you want. You don’t need to be present at the drawing to win.
You’ll also be able to purchase PulpFest t-shirts at our registration desk in a variety of sizes. Your choice of black or royal blue with the PulpFestlogo across the chest. Click the link on our website to learn more.
PulpFest 2026 will hold one live auction on Saturday evening, August 1. It will begin at 8 pm and feature over 200 lots from the George A. Rawling collection of hero and aviation pulps, plus collectibles consigned by members of the convention.
PulpFest attendees will also be able to submit lots to the auction from 9 am until 4:45 pm on Thursday and Friday, and from 9 am until noon on Saturday. Member submitted lots will be added to the auction as they come in. Please see PulpFest auction coordinator Mike Chomko to learn more. Look for the auction banner near his dealer tables.
People who desire to attend the PulpFest auction — but not the convention itself — are welcome to come. If non-PulpFest attendees wish to bid during the auction, they will have to register as bidders. There will be a $5 non-refundable registration fee to bid during the auction. Non-PulpFest attendees will be able to register for the auction in the PulpFest 2026 programming area, where our auction will take place. Auction registration will be from 7:30 – 7:55 pm.
Our daily auction preview will run from 3:30 – 4:45 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There will also be a short preview session immediately before the start of the auction. To learn more about our 2026 Auction or to download an auction catalog, click here.
On Sunday, August 2, the dealers’ room will be open to all members from 9 am to 1 pm as our dealers pack up. If you are looking for bargains, please be aware that buying and selling opportunities will be limited on Sunday.
For those attendees who would like to ship purchases made at PulpFest to their homes, there is a FedEx Office Print & Ship Center near the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. Located at 19095 Perry Highway in Mars, Pennsylvania, it is open from 8 am to 7 pm on Fridays, 9 am to 6 pm on Saturdays, and 12 pm to 6 pm on Sundays.
If you would like to lend a hand with the convention, please contact our chairman, Jack Cullers. You can reach him via email by writing to jack@pulpfest.com or by mail at 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook, OH 45305. Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.
If you have programming ideas, you can submit them to our programming director, Mike Chomko, by email at mike@pulpfest.com or via regular mail at 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104. Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.
We are hoping that this year’s con will be one of our best. We have nearly 90 registered dealers and have been receiving member registrations every day, many from people who have never previously attended PulpFest.
If you have not yet booked a room for your stay, please call 1-724-776-6900 or 855-610-8733 to reach the DoubleTree. Although the convention rate is no longer available, there may be some vacancies at the hotel. Other options include the Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, or Home2 Suites. They’re all less than two miles away from our host hotel. Click here to learn more.
If you are exhibiting any symptoms associated with COVID or other infectious ailments, please stay at home. You should not attend PulpFest. Isolate and avoid contact with others, rest, and drink fluids. Call your healthcare provider if your symptoms worsen.
Although we can’t force anyone, we hope that everyone who plans to attend PulpFest 2026 will be vaccinated against COVID-19. Although masked are optional, they are recommended. We have many older members who attend PulpFest. Please keep them in mind. Remember, we’re all in this together.
Please also be aware that our attendees come to PulpFest to celebrate and learn about popular culture, socialize, and enjoy themselves. Therefore, all attendees of PulpFest are asked to keep opinions of a political, religious, or societal nature to themselves.
If any convention attendee seeks to importune a PulpFest member — including the convention’s dealers — with his or her opinions, he or she will be asked to leave PulpFest.
Although you have a right to your opinions, our members — including dealers — are not at the convention to be lectured about politics, religion, and so on.
If you have other questions, please refer to our FAQ page. Hopefully, we’ll have it covered for you there. If not, there is contact information on the page listing the person to contact with a question on a particular topic.
The PulpFest 2026 organizing committee – Mike Chomko, Jack and Sally Cullers, Bill Lampkin, Craig McDonald, Regie and David Powell, and Barry Traylor – is looking forward to seeing all of you at the convention. Have a safe trip to Mars for summer’s annual pulp con.
Our featured image is excerpted from Leo Morey’s original cover art for the October 1935 issue of Amazing Stories. We’ll be celebrating the centennial of Hugo Gernback’s ground-breaking science-fiction magazine at this year’s PulpFest.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from the November 1926 number of Ghost Stories. The cover artist is not known. 2026 is also the centenial of Bernarr Macfadden’s magazine of “true ghost stories.”
Pulp magazines are not the only collectibles that are featured at PulpFest. You’ll also find Golden and Silver Age comic books, as well as comics featuring pulp heroes at the convention. The 3rd issue of Ziff-Davis’ Amazing Adventures — dated May/June 1951 and featuring cover art by Norman Saunders — is just one example of the kind of comic book you might find at PulpFest 2026.
Come as you are to “Pizza at PulpFest” on Thursday, July 30, after our dealers’ room closes for the day. However, please try to wear something more than the man and woman on Virgil Finlay’s cover for the February 1947 number of Famous Fantastic Mysteries, illustrating Jack London’s “The Star Rover.” We’ll be celebrating the sesquicentennial of the author’s birth at this year’s PulpFest.
Our PulpFest 2026 auction includes a copy of the Summer 1941 issue of Captain Future, with cover art by Earle K. Bergey, illustrating Edmond Hamilton’s “The Magician of Mars.” Other hero pulps in the auction include Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer, Doc Savage Magazine, and The Shadow. They’re all part of the George A. Rawling collection of hero and aviation pulps that PulpFest will be selling over the next few years.
We hope that you will join us to celebrate the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, and much more at PulpFest 2026. Your membership in the convention also makes you a member of Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price!
Our final image was adapted by William Lampkin from George Rozen’s cover for the November 1, 1936 issue of The Shadow Magazine, illustrating Theodore Tinsley’s “Partners in Peril.”
