Our PulpFest 2026 Saturday Night Auction is shaping up to be a doozy. Along with several early issues of Weird Tales in good to very good condition, plus copies of New Worlds Science Fiction, long the leading British science fiction magazine, we’ll have a very nice selection of hero pulps and aviation magazines.
Largely purchased by George A. Rawling (1921-2012) from American drugstores and newsstands of the 1930s and early 1940s, our hero pulps include Captain Future, Doc Savage Magazine, and The Shadow Magazine. The air pulps are Air Trails, Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, Flying Aces, and Sky Birds.
Rawling’s father was the chief chemist for the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company. The family moved about southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Maryland, where the company’s plants were located. George purchased his pulps at drugstores, newsstands, and used magazine shops scattered throughout the area. Given that his father was employed creating all the paper that went into them, there was little family opposition to George reading pulp magazines.
During the 1970s, George’s son, Steve, eagerly read his father’s pulps. In 2025, Steve visited PulpFest before deciding to turn the collection over to PulpFest for our annual auction. Numbering over 400 magazines, we will be selling this single-family collection of pulp magazines over the next few years.
Do you have a piece of art or a pulp collection you want to sell? Wouldn’t it be nice to see your collection stay with people who appreciate what you or your departed loved one has enjoyed? Why not have PulpFest sell it through our annual auction?
Besides a large and active dealers’ room and highly respected programming, PulpFest is known for its enjoyable auctions. In recent years, the convention has sold several major collections of pulps, books, digests, fanzines, and related materials, as well as several works of original art.
PulpFest welcomes large and small collections, from a single item to thousands of books, pulps, comics, digests, fanzines, and related collectibles. If you’re ready to sell that collection, consider using the PulpFest auction. You don’t have to be a member of the convention to participate. If what you have is somehow related to the pulp magazines of the early twentieth century and related pop culture collectibles, we’re interested!
Although we will accept any submissions up through the day of the 2026 PulpFest auction, you are encouraged to submit your lots before the start of the convention. This will allow PulpFest to list your lots — including photographs and descriptions — on our online auction page. Online bids will be accepted for all lots that have been submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday, July 5, 2026.
All auction lots must have a value of $20 or more. The convention will charge a 16% commission based on the selling price for anything sold in the auction. For example, if an item sells for $100, the seller will receive $84.
To minimize the submission of what most people term “junk” to our auction, PulpFest will charge $5 for those auction lots that receive no bids.
PulpFest reserves the right to reject any material that does not meet our standards. Sexually explicit material — including Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui — cannot be submitted to the auction.
Of course, all PulpFest 2026 members can also submit items to our auction. We will accept materials up through noon on the day of the auction. But the sooner you can get your items to us, the better. Auction lots listed online often receive higher bids than those lots listed at the last minute.
Still not convinced? Here’s what some of our previous consigners have said about their experiences with the PulpFest auction:
“Selling through Pulpfest brought me a much better return than I expected. Frankly, I don’t think I could ever have sold them for nearly as much on my own — and I think I’m a pretty good salesman!”
“I want to let you know that Mike and the PulpFest team have a passion for what they do. Mike has always been honest, kept me in the loop, and has been very kind. I appreciate all that he and the PulpFest team have done for me!”
“If you do have PulpFest handle it, it’s in good hands.”
Please write to PulpFest auction coordinator, Mike Chomko, at mike@pulpfest.com or 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104 for further information about placing material in the next PulpFest auction.
Our featured image is excerpted from George Rozen’s cover art for the March 1, 1936 issue of Street & Smith’s The Shadow Magazine, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s classic novel, “The Voodoo Master.”
Our lead image is Walter M. Baumhofer’s cover for the June 1933 number of Doc Savage Magazine. Also published by Street & Smith, the lead novel is “The Polar Treasure,” written by Lester Dent.
Frank Tinsley contributed the cover art for the September 1934 issue of Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, illustrating Charles Spain Verral’s lead novel, “The Vanishing Dirigible.” The magazine was published by Street & Smith.
Copies of all three issues are part of the Rawling collection of hero and aviation pulps.
Our PulpFest logo was designed by William Lampkin.
Derek Starr is a writer and popular culture enthusiast who began contributing to our website in 2022. He particularly enjoys the Fiction House pulps. One of his favorites is Planet Stories, the publisher’s legendary science fiction pulp. He’s also a fan of their air pulps and Action Stories. He also has a soft spot for historical fiction.
