PulpFest is not only lauded for its fine programming but also for its large dealers’ room.
Beginning on Thursday, July 30, 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 2026? In our posts this week, we’ve been profiling our dealers, telling you a little bit about each of them.
World Fantasy Award winner Darrell Schweitzer has been a regular at Pulpfest for several years now. A former editor of Weird Tales, a prolific author, and an anthologist, he’ll be selling his own books, plus a variety of new and used books — mostly science fiction and fantasy — and Wildside Press titles, including some of their pulp reprints. Of particular interest to PulpFest attendees will be Cold War Cthulhu and The Best of Weird Tales 1924, a new anthology he co-edited with John Gregory Betancourt. Darrell will also have some pulps, vintage digests, and paperbacks for sale. Along with John Betancourt, Darrell was an assistant editor at Amazing Stories during the 1980s. Together, they’ll be presenting “Amazing Stories: The Scithers Years” at this year’s PulpFest.
Since their inception in 2021, the staff of The Shadowed Circle has been dedicated to Walter B. Gibson’s spectral sleuth and his appearances in pulp novels, comic books, radio episodes, film & television, and more. They publish The Shadowed Circle journal and various non-fiction books about The Shadow, including The Second Shadowed Circle Compendium, new for 2026. This year, in addition to their dealer table at PulpFest, The Shadowed Circle is celebrating the 95th anniversary of The Shadow by hosting Shadow Con 2026. Representing the organization are consulting editor Tim King, in-house illustrator Joe Booth, and online coordinator Sam Oatley. Tim will also be discussing “The Haunted Shadow” at PulpFest on Saturday afternoon, August 1. And if you’re looking for cover art for your next project, please talk to Joe, a freelance artist operating as The Illustration Booth.
Please welcome Lauren Stump, the curator of the Korshak Collection and the Vinson Family Collection. She will be attending her second PulpFest, representing Shasta/Phoenix Art. A publisher of art books featuring well-known and lesser-known fantasy and science fiction illustrators, Shasta/Phoenix also offers illustration artwork for sale, and valuation and brokering services. The company has represented several notable collections and continues to serve as a trusted resource for enthusiasts of imaginative literature and art. Lauren is a fine art appraiser and owner of Hollingsworth Fine Arts. She has over a decade of experience in painting restoration and collection management. Please welcome Lauren and Shasta/Phoenix Art back to our gathering.
Steven Spilger, from South Bend, Indiana, has been collecting and selling both Silver and Golden Age comics, pulps, books, fanzines, and more for over thirty years. Recently, he’s added illustrative art to the mix. He calls his business Mr. Polyester Books & Comics. The name came from his college friends, who watched him wear the same polyester leisure suit for all of his college yearbook photos. Steven has been a regular PulpFest dealer and supporter for many years. He’ll be sharing a table with Mark Alvarado.
A regular dealer at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention, please welcome Terry O’Neill of Terry’s Old School Comics to his fourth PulpFest. A comic book dealer, as well as a comic book collector, Terry’s specialty is vintage comic books, including Gold, Silver, and Bronze Age comics. He also sells original art, pulps, vintage hardcover books, paperbacks, and fanzines. Terry exhibits at many shows and is always looking to buy collections. You can check out Terry’s extensive catalog at terryscomics.com.
Bill Thade will be one of the dealers joining Todd McDevitt of New Dimensions Comics and other local dealers at this year’s PulpFest. Please welcome Bill back to the convention and check out what he has available for sale at his tables. He’ll be pushing his usual Golden Age and Silver Age comics, plus who knows what else at PulpFest 2026! Perhaps The Shadow knows.
Tim Paxton of Grand Rapids, Michigan specializes in paperbacks and small-press, first-edition hardcovers, dealing mainly in high-grade science fiction, fantasy, and horror as well as mysteries and pulp-related material. Tim has been selling at PulpFest for many years. You’ll find the Tim’s Books website at AbeBooks.com.
Please extend a hearty welcome to Sean McGraw, the editor-in-chief of Typhoon Tales, a brand-new digest of high-seas danger, jungle peril, and adventure! Within these pages thunder the stories that civilized men whisper about only after nightfall — tales of fog-shrouded islands, mutinous crews, lost temples, storm-torn seas, cannibal tribes, sun-scorched beaches, and iron-nerved heroes who refuse to die quietly. So, pull up a stool at Sean McGraw’s PulpFest table, light your lantern, and brace yourself for an adventure!
Sheila Vanderbeek has been a pulp collector for over fifty years. Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, she’ll have pulp magazines from all genres for sale or trade. Of course, the more she sells, the more she’ll be able to buy from the many fine dealers who will be attending PulpFest 2026. A longtime member of the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society, Sheila is one of our nominees for this year’s Munsey Award.
Formerly, the multi-State Director of the Mutual UFO Network for 11 years, John Ventre is the author of 14 books on a range of topics. An occasional columnist for many different UFO magazines, John has made numerous televised appearances, including Anderson Live in 2012. He’s also appeared on 20 episodes of the History Channel’s Hangar 1, four times on Coast to Coast AM, and other venues. Watch for his table in the foyer outside our the dealers’ room. John will be presenting a look at “The Amazing Ray Palmer” on Friday evening, July 31.
Veritas Entertainment is a production company and publishing house specializing in Men’s Adventure and Pulp Fiction. Founders and authors L. S. Goozdich and Nathanael Hummel, who are also the hosts of the Men’s Adventure Fiction Podcast, will be selling at PulpFest for their second time. They are both incredibly passionate about telling great stories that are filled with action and heart, trying to do their part to bring Pulp and Men’s Adventure back to the forefront of fiction! Please welcome them to PulpFest 2026. And be sure to catch the three short films they’ll be sharing on Thursday evening, July 30, immediately before our showing of Ray Harryhausen’s 20 Million Miles to Earth.
Please welcome Bill Wagner to his first PulpFest as a dealer. We’ll be celebrating the centennial of Amazing Stories at this year’s PulpFest. Hopefully, Bill’s stock will be equally amazing! But for now, we’ll have to wait and see what he brings to this year’s PulpFest. Watch for his table in our dealers’ room.
Inducted into The Overstreet Hall of Fame in July 2017, Mark Wheatley is a longtime Edgar Rice Burroughs fan and admirer of the work of Philip José Farmer. He’s painted covers for Norvell W. Page’s The Spider: Satan’s Murder Machines and Amazon Nights by Arthur O. Friel. In collaboration with G. D. Falksen, Mark created the book Doctor Cthulittle. He also illustrated Songs of Giants: Poetry of Pulp, a collection of the very best horror, dark fantasy, and heroic sword and sorcery poetry written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and H. P. Lovecraft. More recently, he’s contributed cover art to Meteor House, the Robert E. Howard Foundation, and First Fandom Experience. Mark and his wife Carol will have several art prints for sale at PulpFest 2026, and some of Mark’s books, including Nucleus X. The book features several portfolios of Mark’s art, including his Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs portfolios. He’ll also have some of his original art for sale, including pieces created for The Land That Time Forgot, forthcoming from ERB Books. On Wednesday evening, July 30, Mark will be joining Henry G Franke III to discuss “A Century of Robert K. Abbett.”
At PulpFest 2026, you’ll find author, screenwriter, comic scripter, radio personality, podcaster, and television producer John Wooley sharing a dealer’s table with his buddy, John McMahan. The winner of the 2006 Lamont Award, John will have copies of Hard-Boiled Christmas Stories, the anthology he edited with McMahan, and other books at this year’s PulpFest. Stop by his tables and pick up a copy of Beauty and the Bund, the action-packed supernatural sequel to The Cleansing Trilogy, the highly regarded series that John co-authored with the late Robert A. Brown. Check out our profile of John by reading “PulpFest Profile: Seven Senses of John Wooley” on our website.
Please welcome Derek Woywood back to PulpFest for another go-round. The organizer of the bimonthly Philadelphia Comic-Con in the Presidential ballroom of the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Essington, PA, will be exhibiting in the foyer right outside our dealers’ room. The owner of Collectors Comics of Clementon, New Jersey, Derek will have vintage comic books, including Gold, Silver, and Bronze Age comics, as well as collector’s supplies at this year’s PulpFest.
If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, our dealers’ room is full. If you would like to be added to our waiting list, please write to Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com.
If you want to visit our dealers’ room, you have to be a member of PulpFest 2026. To join the convention, click the register button on our website. Your PulpFest membership also includes memberships in Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026, celebrating its first year. 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. Please call our host hotel at 1-724-776-6900 or 855-610-8733. Unfortunately, the deadline to get the convention rate was 11:59 pm on Tuesday, July 7.
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.
Join us on Monday, July 13, as we discuss “Pizza at PulpFest,” a favorite event for regular attendees and dealers alike. Stay tuned for this and more at pulpfest.com in the coming week.
Our featured image is a display rack in Evansville, Indiana, circa late summer 1945. This week, we’ve been running photographs of vintage newsstands and magazine racks. 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 George Rozen’s cover for the November 1, 1936 issue of The Shadow Magazine, illustrating Theodore Tinsley’s “Partners in Peril.” We’ll be celebrating “The Master of Darkness” at The Shadow con 2026, taking place alongside this year’s PulpFest. We’ll also have quite a few early issues of the Street & Smith hero pulp up for bids in our 2026 auction.
In addition to collectible pulp magazines and digests, you’ll also find vintage paperbacks, first-edition hardcovers and series books, original art, genre fiction, B-movies and serials, collectible comic books, and much more in the PulpFest dealers’ room and foyer. Perhaps you’ll even find a copy of Doc Savage Comics #5, with cover art by Jack Binder, published by Street & Smith and dated August 1941.
That’s “The Amazing Ray Palmer” kneeling in H. W. McCauley’s cover for the July 1943 issue of Amazing Stories. It was adapted by William Lampkin to promote John Ventre’s discussion of the former editor of Amazing, Fantastic Adventures, and other Ziff-Davis pulp magazines.
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 and has a soft spot for historical fiction.
