Now that the hustle and bustle of PulpFest 2026 is behind us, we’ll be settling down to a much slower pace for the rest of August and the months that follow. Until May of next year, expect to see one post each week, going live on our website every Monday.
We hope you’ll join us from August 5 to 8 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania, for PulpFest 2027.
We’ll be saluting the 90th anniversary of the debut of The Shadow radio drama, featuring a young Orson Welles in the role of the title character.
Following its premiere as a half-hour radio series on September 26, 1937, The Shadow was heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System until December 26, 1954.
Sponsored by Blue Coal, the show ran for 18 seasons and 677 episodes before its final episode appeared. Although different from the character featured in the Street & Smith magazine, The Shadow radio drama was an important avenue for many people to discover the pulps. It was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.
PulpFest 2027 and Doc Con 2027 are also pleased to announce that William Preston, author of “The Old Man” stories for Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, will be the guest of honor at both conventions. The winner of the Zoetrope: All-Story annual short fiction prize in 2006, Bill Preston is an educator and author of speculative fiction. He’s best known for his series of “pulp” stories referred to as “tales of the old man,” concerning a Doc Savage-like hero. These have recently been collected in the book, A Work of Human Hands.
We’ll be fleshing things out in the months ahead. Not only will we be lining up the rest of our programming for PulpFest 2027, but also for our associated conventions — Doc Con 2027, FarmerCon XXII, and The Shadow Con 2027, the first convention to be dedicated to the “Master of Darkness.” PulpFest will also host the 2027 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship Gathering, an informal summer celebration by Burroughs fans.
Watch for our planned programming schedule in mid-December.
Be sure to bookmark pulpfest.com and sign up for the occasional PulpFest E-letter, focusing on the “behind-the-scenes” planning for next summer’s convention. Click here and provide your name and email address. Once you click the “submit” button, you’re subscribed.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Xitter! Be sure to follow Doc Con, FarmerCon, and The Shadow Con. They all have their own pages on Facebook. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our videos on Weird Tales, Black Mask, and, of course, The Shadow.
While you’re there, please subscribe.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from George Rozen’s cover art for The Shadow for May 1, 1938, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s novel, “Cards of Death,” and celebrating The Shadow on the Mutual Broadcasting System. An excerpt from Rozen’s cover also serves as our featured image.
