PulpFest is not only lauded for its fine programming but also for its large dealers’ room.
Beginning on Thursday, August 7, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry will be home to thousands of collectible pulp magazines and digests, vintage paperbacks, first-edition hardcovers and series books, original art, genre fiction, B-movies and serials, collectible comic books, and much more.
What dealers are we expecting at PulpFest 2025? In our posts this week, we’ll be profiling our dealers, telling you a little bit about each of them.
PulpFest welcomes Rommin Adl of Pulpfantic2, and Greywolf’s Comics and Curves to this year’s dealers’ room. A long-time collector and top-rated eBay seller, Rommin has been in the pulp business since 2009, originally drawn in by the thrilling pages of Weird Tales, especially the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard and Margaret Brundage’s iconic covers. Over the years, his interests have expanded to include all genres of pulp magazines, as well as vintage girlie magazines. Most recently, he has added a strong selection of 1950s men’s adventure magazines to his inventory. Rommin is especially passionate about pulp cover art and is always on the lookout for eye-catching gems. He lives in New Canaan, Connecticut.
John and Maureen Gunnison of Adventure House will be offering their usual extensive stock of pulp magazines as well as High Adventure and the many pulp replicas and collections they have published under the Adventure House banner. John will also be one of our auctioneers during this year’s PulpFest auction on Saturday, August 9. To learn more about Adventure House and its regular auctions, please visit www.adventurehouse.com/.
Since 2007, Age of Aces Books has published high-quality, affordably-priced reprints of classic pulp aviation stories. Chris and David Kalb have scoured hundreds of issues of titles like Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Birds, Flying Aces, and other air pulps to present to a modern audience the most thrilling air stories featuring the most unforgettable forgotten heroes — The Black Falcon, Captain Philip Strange, The Three Mosquitoes, and others! You can learn more by visiting their website at ageofaces.net. Chris Kalb is one of our nominees for the 2025 Munsey Award.
Chicago’s Mark Alvarado, a longtime collector of books and pulp magazines, will once again be exhibiting at PulpFest. Although we don’t know yet what he’ll have at this year’s convention, he usually brings something that’s very exciting. He’ll be sharing a table with Steven Spilger. Please welcome Mark back to yet another summertime pulp con!
A familiar face at PulpFest, Jim Beard is co-publisher (with John Bruening) of Flinch! Books. He’s also the publisher of Becky Books, a small press that he founded in 2022. Becky Books publishes a mix of fiction and nonfiction books, including essay collections on Star Trek and Jack Kirby, the “King of Comics,” plus Treble Swift and the Solar Symphony, a new space opera in the vein of Captain Future and Doc Smith. Visit the Becky Books Facebook page to learn more.
Please welcome Brian Belanger of Belanger Books to his first PulpFest! A publisher, editor, narrator, graphic designer, and actor, Brian specializes in Sherlock Holmes adventures, August Derleth’s pulp detective Solar Pons, the psychic detective tales of Carnacki the Ghost Finder, anthologies set in the worlds of H. G. Wells and H. P. Lovecraft, and more! Brian will debut the 80th anniversary edition of the first Solar Pons adventure, In Re: Sherlock Holmes, at this year’s convention. To learn more about Brian and his work, please visit belangerbooks.com.
Robert J. Mendenhall is retired Air Force, a retired police officer, and a former broadcast journalist for the American Forces Network, Europe. Over the years, more than fifty of his short stories and five novels have been published, and he’s edited eleven collections and anthologies. A member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, he writes across genres including science fiction, adventure, crime and suspense, and, occasionally, horror. His latest endeavor is the Code Name: Intrepid pulp-style action and adventure series for Blue Planet Press. Visit his website RobertJMendenhall.com. He lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and fellow writer, Claire Jennings.
Please welcome Brian Bohnett back to another PulpFest. Author of Them Was the Days: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the History of the Michigan Military Academy, Tarzan Big Little Books, and The Remarkable Enid Markey: First Lady of the Tarzan Films, Brian has researched and collected memorabilia from the old Michigan Military Academy (MMA) for over a decade. An active member of the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society and The Burroughs Bibliophiles, he is currently writing a bibliography of Charles King (a former staff member of the MMA); a written and illustrated history of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ formative years (including the Brown School, Harvard School for Boys, Phillips Academy, and the MMA); and a biography of silent film actresses, Evelyn Greeley and Vivian Reed. Visit Mad Kings Publishing to learn more about Brian and his work.
Steve Ericson and Books from the Crypt have been very supportive of PulpFest over the years. A family-owned business that has been selling collectible science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery magazines, paperbacks, and first editions for over 25 years, Books from the Crypt will have many items at PulpFest 2025 that are not available through their website. We want to thank Steve and Books from the Crypt for helping to promote PulpFest over the years, distributing thousands of postcards at conventions and via their mail order business.
PulpFest 2024 is glad to have Michael Brenner of Brenner’s Collectable Books back at our convention. Michael specializes in science fiction and mystery books, signed first editions, vintage paperbacks, books into film, and more. He has been buying, selling, and passionately collecting books for over thirty years and is a member of the ABAA, ILAB, and IOBA.
The Burroughs Bibliophiles is a nonprofit literary society devoted to studying and promoting interest in the works, creations, and life of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The group will be represented at this year’s PulpFest by John Hood of the Carolina Calots chapter of the Bibliophiles and other members of the organization. To learn more about The Burroughs Bibliophiles, visit burroughsbibliophiles.com/ or email the organization at BurroughsBibliophiles@gmail.
A former pharmaceutical research scientist and teacher, Wayne Carey is the author of the Johnny Falco adventures from Bold Venture Press. These mysteries, set in China during the 1930s, bring back the thrill of the old pulps. They include Death Waits in Shanghai, Death Comes to Hong Kong, and The Gold Buddha. Wayne has also continued H. Rider Haggard’s classic fiction with Allan Quatermain and the Beast Men and Allan Quatermain and the Lightning Bird for Airship 27 Productions. He has written thrillers (Falco and Company and Executive Gambit, Airship 27), a supernatural (Company of Shadows, Airship 27), and several science fiction novels (Erin, Speaker of the Mihn’d, Bold Venture Press; Zombie Island, Pro Se Productions; El’aris and Yokai, both from Airship 27), and has also contributed to several anthologies, including the award-winning Legends of New Pulp Fiction (Airship 27) and Tales from Plexis, edited by Julie Czerneda for DAW.
A dealer since 1976, Nick Certo always manages to unearth many rare and desirable items. A resident of Newburgh, New York, he brings choice selections of pulps and related items — including original artwork — to the conventions where he exhibits. Be sure to stop by his table. In the meantime, please visit the Nicholas J. Certo website at AbeBooks.com.
Our 2010 Munsey Award winner, Mike Chomko, will be representing Stark House Press and Steeger Books at PulpFest 2024. He’ll have various titles from the Stark House catalog and the latest offerings from Steeger Books. He’ll also have a selection of other books and periodicals — including back issues of The Pulpster — and a selection of Sanctum Books reprints featuring The Shadow and Doc Savage. To learn more about the many books that he carries, please visit the Mike Chomko Books website and download a copy of his latest catalog. Mike is also the marketing and programming director for PulpFest.
Please welcome Edgar Rice Burroughs fan and collector Mike Conran back to PulpFest as a dealer. A resident of Michigan, Mike has been collecting since the early 1960s. A charter member of the ERB-APA, Mike received the prestigious Edgar Rice Burroughs Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. To learn more about Mike, please read his biography on Bill and Sue-On Hillman’s ERBzine.
Although he has been attending PulpFest and Pulpcon for years, this is Scott Cranford’s first PulpFest as a dealer. A resident of Tennessee, Scott created the first Doc Savage website in 1994 after fruitlessly searching the web for information on Doc Savage. The owner of Walter M. Baumhofer’s iconic painting of The Man of Bronze, we’re anxious to see what Scott will be offering at this year’s PulpFest. You can be assured that it won’t be Baumhofer’s Doc Savage painting.
PulpFest Chairman Jack Cullers is the person to see if you’re looking for pulps, digests, and out-of-print paperbacks, collectible fanzines, pulp reprints, and hardbound fiction and non-fiction. Find your way to Jack’s table and you’ll be treated to a wide variety of materials at very reasonable prices. You may just come across something you’ve been hunting after for years. Jack and his wife Sally were the winners of our Rusty Award in 2012.
Ray Walsh of the Curious Book Shop has been selling a broad array of paper collectibles – pulps, paperbacks, original artwork, collectible hardcovers, vintage comic books, and more — for over fifty years. Out of East Lansing, Michigan, Ray has been selling at PulpFest and Pulpcon for decades. We appreciate his long support. Ray is one of the founders and organizers of the Michigan Antiquarian Book & Paper Show, the Midwest’s largest book and paper show.
If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, our dealers’ room is full. However, we are adding a limited number of tables in the pre-function hallway outside of the dealers’ room. These tables will cost $125 each and will be guarded by security overnight. If you are interested, please write to Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com to sign up for a spot.
If you want to visit our dealers’ room, you have to be a member of PulpFest 2025. To join the convention, click the registration button at the top of this page. Your PulpFest membership also includes memberships in DocCon XXI, ERBFest 2025, and Farmercon XX. That’s four conventions for one price!
If you’re from outside the area, don’t forget to book a room. Due to cancellations, our host hotel, the beautiful DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry may have a few rooms left at the convention rate. Try clicking here to make your reservation. You may also reserve a room at our host hotel by calling 1-724-776-6900 or 855-610-8733. To receive the special convention rate of $136 plus tax per night, you must mention that you are a PulpFest attendee or use the code CDT91R. To get the convention rate, you must book your room by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, July 15.
You can click here for nearby hotels if all of the rooms at the DoubleTree are no longer available.
If you’re looking for a roommate, write to Jack Cullers at his email address above.
We’ll be profiling more of our PulpFest 2025 dealers through Friday, July 18. Please visit our site on Tuesday, July 15, for our next profiles.
Detective fiction fan Pete Collins joined our staff in September 2024. That month, he contributed an overview of Detective Fiction Weekly to salute the magazine’s centennial. He also wrote our profile on Edgar Wallace in March 2025. We look forward to Pete’s continuing contributions to our website.
Our featured image is a newsstand in Nashville’s Union Station, circa 1935-36. We’ll be running photographs of vintage newsstands and magazine racks all week. Special thanks to ThePulp.Net for sharing their collection of pulp photos from the early 20th century with us.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Margaret Brundage’s cover for the August 1935 issue of Weird Tales, illustrating Paul Ernst’s “Doctor Satan.” We’ll be celebrating the evil doctor and other pulp villains at this year’s PulpFest.
Almost ten years after killing Sherlock Holmes off at the Reichenbach Falls, Arthur Conan Doyle brought his character back in “The Adventure of the Empty House.” In the United States, the story would appear first in the September 26, 1903 issue of Collier’s, featuring a cover illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele.
This year marks the sesquicentennial of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ birth and the centennial of the first hardcover edition of The Cave Girl, published by A. C. McClurg in 1925. Our third image was adapted by William Lampkin from Clinton Pettee’s cover for the July 1913 number of The All-Story, illustrating Burroughs’ serialized version of “The Cave Girl.”
Our final image is Doc Savage Magazine for March 1933, with cover art by Walter M. Baumhofer, illustrating Lester Dent’s first Doc Savage novel, “The Man of Bronze.”
