PulpFest 2023 enters its second day, following a successful dealer set-up, early registration, early-bird shopping, and a full slate of programming. If you missed our first day, there’s still more to come at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania.
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.
From 9 to 9:30 am today, the dealers’ room will be open only to dealers for set-up. All visitors will be able to register for the convention this morning — beginning at 9 pm — and at any time during regular dealers’ room hours.
All members — dealers included — will be able to register for the convention from 9 am to 4:45 pm. Registration will take place at the entrance to our dealers’ room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. Everyone can pick up their registration packets at this time. 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 2023 will cost $50 at the door for those who have not registered in advance. Daily memberships for Friday or Saturday will be available for $25 per day. Your PulpFest membership also entitles you to membership in both FarmerCon XVIII and ERBFest 2023.
Our dealers’ room will open to all at 9:30 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!”
Our daytime programming will begin at 2 pm with our FarmerCon XVIII presentation, Doc Savage — The Man — and Myth — of Bronze. It will be followed at 3 pm by It’s a Jungle Out There, one of several panels that are part of this year’s ERBFest. Henry G. Franke III, editor of The Burroughs Bulletin and The Gridley Wave, will also be hosting an art show inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs from 12 to 2 pm in the Chestnut Room at the DoubleTree.
Our daily auction preview will run from 3:30 – 4:40 PM. We’ll be selling over 200 lots of material from the estate of the late Carl Joecks, a consignment from Scott & Linda Edwards of Dearly Departed Books, and member submissions. The auction will take place on Saturday, August 5, beginning at 9 pm. The general public is welcome to attend and bid. To learn more or to download an auction catalog, click here.
Tonight’s evening programming begins at 7 pm with a short business meeting concerning our plans for PulpFest 2024.
Next, our salute to the centennial of Weird Tales continues with Those Weird Men’s Adventure Magazines and, later in the evening, Weird Editors, featuring two former editors of “The Unique Magazine.” We’ll also have another panel on Robert E. Howard’s Conan — Illustrating Conan for the Commercial Market — an ERBFest presentation — J. Allen St. John — Master of Fantasy Art — and the first of our salutes to the centennial of Street & Smith’s Sport Story Magazine — The Sports Stories of Rod Serling.
Friday evening will close with a Barsoomian Bull Session in the Ember & Vine lounge at the DoubleTree, part of the fun at this year’s ERBFest.
You can find additional details about all of our programming by clicking the schedule button found at the top of our website. Or click here to link to our PulpFest 2023 mobile schedule. Each event on the schedule is linked to a post that provides further information on that 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 our programming, free of charge.
If you are not from the Pittsburgh area and have yet to book your room for PulpFest 2023, you can try calling call 1-800-222-8733 or 724-776-6900 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 just a few miles away from our host hotel. Click here to learn more.
Our featured image is excerpted from T. Harris’ cover art for Man’s Conquest dated March 1957, illustrating “Attack of the Flying Snakes.” Join us tonight for an entertaining discussion of creature features and other weird phenomena in the men’s adventure magazines, part of our salute to the centennial of Weird Tales.
Our PulpFest 2023 webcard was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from Walter M. Baumhofer’s front cover art for the March 1933 issue of Doc Savage Magazine. We’ll be celebrating the magazine’s 90th anniversary at this year’s PulpFest. Bill also designed the FarmerCon logo.
Our last image was adapted by William Lampkin from Frank Kelly Freas’ cover art for the Fall 1990 issue of Weird Tales.
You’ll find our complete schedule for Friday, August 4, below. You can also access our schedule via your mobile phone or tablet, by visiting pulpfest.com/schedule/.
Friday, August 4, 2023
Dealers’ Room
9:00 am – 9:30 am — Early Registration and Dealers’ Room Set-Up
9:30 am – 4:45 pm — Dealers’ Room Open to All PulpFest Members
9:30 am – 4:30 pm — Submit Your Auction Items (open to all PulpFest members)
Afternoon Programming
2:00 pm – 2:55 pm — FarmerCon XVIII — Doc Savage — The Man — and Myth — of Bronze (Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert)
3:00 pm – 3:55 pm — ERBFest — It’s a Jungle Out There (Henry G. Franke III and Ed Hulse)
Art Show
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm – ERBFest — Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs (hosted by Henry G. Franke III)
Auction Preview
3:30 pm – 4:40 pm — Auction Preview (in auction set-up rooms)
Evening Programming
7:00 pm – 7:10 pm — What About Next Year? (Jack Cullers and Mike Chomko)
7:15 pm — 8:00 pm — 100 Years of Weird Tales — Those Weird Men’s Adventure Magazines (Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle)
8:05 pm – 8:50 pm — 90 Years of Pulp Heroes — Illustrating Conan for the Commercial Market (Mark Schultz and Mark Wheatley, with Don Simpson)
8:55 pm – 9:40 pm — ERBFest — J. Allen St. John — Master of Fantasy Art (David Saunders)
9:45 pm – 10:30 pm — 100 Years of Weird Tales — Weird Editors (John Betancourt and Darrell Schweitzer, with Tony Davis)
10:35 pm – 11:20 pm — The Centennial of the Sports Pulp — The Sports Stories of Rod Serling (Nicholas Parisi)
11:30 pm – ?? — ERBFest — Barsoomian Bull Session — Socialize at Ember & Vine
