There’s still time to get in on the action at PulpFest 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. Our dealers’ room will open to all at 9 am and will remain open until 4:45 pm.
Located in the Grand Ballroom of the DoubleTree, our dealers’ room will feature exhibitors selling and trading 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. That’s why PulpFest is known as the “pop culture center of the universe!”
There is ample free parking surrounding the convention’s host hotel. It is very conveniently located at the intersection of three major roadways in Cranberry Township. The DoubleTree is 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.
For those who have not yet registered for PulpFest 2026, you can do so today from 9 am until 4:45 pm. 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 one-day membership to PulpFest 2026 will cost $25 at the door for those who have not registered in advance. Your PulpFest membership also includes membership in Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price! You’ll also receive a copy of our award-winning program book, The Pulpster. Plus, you can return on Sunday if you wish. There’s no additional charge.
Our daytime programming will begin at 12:30 pm, starting with “The Bronze Gazette,” a look at the premier publication dedicated entirely to Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. It’s part of our Doc Con 2026 programming.
We’ll also have “The Haunted Shadow” — our programming presentation for The Shadow Con 2026 — and “Working with Licensed Characters,” our annual writer’s panel.
Our 2026 art show continues today, starting at 11:30 am. Honoring the centennial of the birth of artist and illustrator Robert Kennedy Abbett, it will take place in the Chestnut Room, across from the hotel’s main elevator. The art exhibit will be hosted by Henry G Franke III, the editor of The Burroughs Bulletin and The Gridley Wave monthly newsletter.
Our daily auction preview will run from 3:30 – 4:45 PM. We’ll be selling over 200 lots of material from the George A. Rawling collection of hero and aviation pulps, plus collectibles consigned by members of the convention. We’ll also have one last preview session, running from 7:30 to 7:55 pm. The auction will begin at 8 pm. The general public is welcome to attend and bid. To learn more or to download an auction catalog, click here.
PulpFest attendees will also be able to submit lots to the auction from 9 am until noon. 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.
Starting tonight at 6:55 pm, is the annual PulpFest business meeting with convention chairman Jack Cullers preciding, along with marketing & programming director Mike Chomko. This will be followed by the presentation of the 2026 Munsey Award and our 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.
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. And if you don’t win, stick around. A copy of Robert Zeuschner’s masterful Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography will also be given away.
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 PulpFest logo across the chest. Click the link on our website to learn more.
Our annual PulpFest Auction will start at 8 pm, following our business meeting and related activities.
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 to bid from 7:30 – 7:55 pm in the PulpFest 2026 programming area, where the auction will take place.
We’ll close out the evening with a night “At the Cobalt Club,” an after-hours social event in the hotel lounge at the DoubleTree. Join other fans of The Shadow and popular fiction in the Ember & Vine lounge at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, starting around 11 pm. Watch for the 3D art deco “Cobalt Club” sign.
You’ll find our complete schedule for Saturday, August 1, below. You can also access our schedule by clicking the 2026 schedule link on our home page 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.
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.
If you are not from the Pittsburgh area and have yet to book your room for PulpFest 2026, 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.
Please travel safely to summer’s pulp con.
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)
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)
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
For further information on our presentations, click on the available links.
Click here to link to our mobile schedule.
Our featured image is excerpted from Rafael deSoto’s cover art for the January 1934 issue of Ned Pines’s The Phantom Detective, published by Standard Magazines. PulpFest advertising director, William Lampkin, adapted this image for the PulpFest auction banner, utilized at the convention. John deSoto, the artist’s son, will be attending this year’s PulpFest as a dealer. Look for his table in the foyer outside of our dealers’ room.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Graves Gladney’s cover for the July 15, 1940 issue of The Shadow, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s “Gems of Doom.” We’ll be celebrating The Shadow at The Shadow Con 2026 and this year’s PulpFest.
Our final image is The Shadow Magazine for March 15, 1934, with cover art by George Rozen, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s novel, “The Green Box.” A copy of the issue, in very good condition, is lot #164 in tonight’s auction.
