PulpFest 2026 ended on August 2, but you can relive our latest gathering through the reports, videos, and recordings that have been posted online.
If you couldn’t make PulpFest this year, you missed a fantastic five days of pop culture programming, buying and selling vintage collectibles and original art, and much more.
Hopefully, the links listed below will encourage you to make the trip to Mars, Pennsylvania, in 2027 for next year’s PulpFest. We’ll be back at the DoubleTree from August 5 to 8 for PulpFest 2027.
BookTubers at PulpFest 2026
One of the most encouraging developments at this year’s PulpFest was the growing number of BookTubers who made the trip to Mars. These YouTube creators share their enthusiasm for books — old and new — with thousands of viewers. Increasingly, that enthusiasm includes vintage paperbacks, pulp reprints, and the original magazines themselves.
At least 11 BookTubers attended PulpFest 2026, several for the first time. They toured the dealers’ room, hunted for books and magazines, met other collectors and readers, and, of course, recorded plenty of video along the way.
Bill Lampkin took a closer look at this growing corner of pulp fandom in his Yellowed Perils post, “Pulps in a Postliterate World.”
Here’s some of what the BookTubers had to say about PulpFest 2026 — and what they carried home with them:
- Richard Rempel of Vintage SF provided some of the most extensive coverage of the convention. He starts with “Arriving at PulpFest 2026, the hotel, a session on Bob Abbett and Tor Doubles”, followed by “Friends, fun and books! Thursday at PulpFest 2026.” His coverage continues with “Free magazines? Friends, shopping and an interview about artist Bob Abbett with Henry G. Franke III” and concludes with “A cemetery, a livestream, an auction, cool books and cooler friends. Saturday at PulpFest 2026!” Richard later picked his favorite finds from the journey in “Top 10 PulpFest Road Trip Finds! 5000 km, 8 bookstores, 3 libraries and 1 convention. Books!!!!”
- Nick Anderson of The Book Graveyard combines his thoughts on the convention, a tour of the dealers’ room, interviews, and nearly 40 minutes devoted to what he brought home in “PulpFest 2026! Tour and Haul.”
- Bryan Raines of Bad Taste Books concentrates on the treasures he brought home in “Pulpfest 2026 Book and Magazine Haul!”
- Andreea of Infinite Text starts with her first visit to the convention in “Pulpfest 2026 Vlog.” There was apparently too much loot for one follow-up video, so she divided her haul between “Pulpfest Haul | Part 1 (The Pulps)” and “Pulpfest Book Haul | Part 2 (The Books).”
- Chris of Liminal Spaces documents the convention itself in “PulpFest 2026 – Incredible Pulps, Horror, Science Fiction, and a ton of Booktubers!” He followed that with some thoughts on the convention and the people he met in “It Was All About the Friends I Made Along the Way.” And PulpFest continued providing material for his channel, including “Insane Early Fantasy Book Haul! They’ve Got Everything at Pulpfest!,” “Insane Pulp Haul!,” “Rare Tanith Lee DAWs and More from Pulpfest!”, and “Books My Friends Gave Me at Pulpfest!”
- Rob of L-Space Archives began buying almost immediately, as you can see in “PulpFest – Day 1 Book and Pulp Magazine Haul.” He followed that with a broader look at the weekend — and the BookTubers he met there — in “Friends + Books = PulpFest.”
- Jake Swick of Pulp Mortem brought many of the BookTubers together Saturday for the appropriately titled “LIVE from Pulpfest 2026 Chaos-Stream!” The hour-long live broadcast features a rotating collection of BookTubers talking about the convention and showing off some of their finds. Back home, Jake continued unpacking those finds in “PulpFest 2026 Book Haul pt 2 LIVE!!!”
- Lee of The Retired Book Guy mixes convention footage with a look at the books and pulp magazines he purchased in “Pulpfest 2026 Recap and Book Haul.” It was also his first time participating in a joint BookTube livestream, joining 11 other BookTubers during the convention.
- T.H. Brandt of Secret Fire Books offers a look at the convention and the people who attended in “Adventures at Pulpfest 2026! (Best Weekend Ever).” Then comes the haul — lots of it — divided between “PulpFest 2026 Haul – Part 1 (Pulp Magazines)” and “PulpFest 2026 Haul – Part 2 (All the Books).”
- Samuel Oatley of Shady Sam’s Shelves provides a day-by-day account of his trip in “PulpFest 2026 Report.” He follows that with the feature-length “PulpFest 2026 Haul Video,” covering everything from Doc Savage and Edgar Rice Burroughs to Philip José Farmer, Sax Rohmer, comics, paperbacks, and pulps.
- Brandon Purvis of The Book Rapport returned to PulpFest as both a BookTuber and dealer. He’s posted “Frank and Dave Talk PulpFest 2026”. Brandon also turns up throughout the other BookTubers’ coverage and joined Jake Swick and the others for the “LIVE from Pulpfest 2026 Chaos-Stream!”
Judging from the size of some of those hauls, the dealers’ room did its job.
Read All About It!
- Lewis Forro, posting as “The Leader,” always takes a creative approach to his convention coverage on his blog, The Leader’s Chronicles, and his report on his visit to PulpFest 2026 is no exception.
- Mike Glyer has posted about this year’s Munsey Award winner, Chris Kalb, on his award-winning File 770 blog.
- Age of Aces Books reports that PulpFest 2026 was its best convention yet, with record book sales and both of its new titles selling out. But the big news in “And the Winner is…” was co-founder and designer Chris Kalb receiving the 2026 Munsey Award.
- Super Stuff in the Bronze Age offers a report on the author’s 1,200-mile road trip to PulpFest 2026, the convention’s Amazing Stories centennial programming, and some of the treasures found in the dealers’ room.
- The Robert E. Howard Foundation reports that PulpFest 2026 attendees donated more than $300 toward repairs and preservation of the Robert E. Howard House in Cross Plains, Texas. The collection was organized at the convention by Glockensig while Foundation members John Bullard and Jeff Shanks were attending as fans.
- Michael R. Brown, who writes The Pulp Super-Fan blog at ThePulp.Net, recounts his fourth visit to the convention in Con Report: PulpFest 2026.
- Bill Lampkin offers “A Look Back at PulpFest 2026” at Yellowed Perils, along with photographs from the convention.
- Bill — and others — also posted photographs from PulpFest to ThePulp.Net’s Instagram feed during the convention.
- Various folks were posting photos to Instagram using #pulpfest2026. Follow the link to see pictures from PulpFest 2026 — along with the inevitable few random images.
For Your Viewing and Listening Pleasure . . .
There was plenty of other video and audio coverage of PulpFest 2026:
- Gary Lovisi, longtime author, collector, and publisher of Gryphon Books and Paperback Parade, takes viewers on a “PulpFest 2026 – July 30-Aug. 2, Pittsburgh-Cranberry, PA” video tour of the dealers’ room. He follows that with “PulpFest 2026 Book Haul!!”
- Rock Savage of the Savage Film Group took a different approach, asking people at PulpFest 2026 a simple question: What was the last book you read?
- Nathanael Hummel and L.S. Goozdich of Veritas Entertainment recap their weekend in “Pulpfest 2026 Recap – Men’s Adventure Fiction Podcast E106.”
- New Texture gathered several of the convention videos together in “Video Memories of PulpFest 2026,” including videos from The Book Graveyard, Rock Savage, Gary Lovisi, and The Retired Book Guy.
- On the PulpFest YouTube channel, you can watch the “2026 Munsey Award Presented to Chris Kalb.” While you’re there, be sure to subscribe.
- ThePulp.Net recorded most of the presentations from PulpFest 2026. Watch for them later this fall through its Pulp Tales podcast.
Subscribe today to our YouTube channel and stay tuned! Click here and sign on the dotted line. It’s free!
Spice Up Your Wardrobe with a PulpFest T-Shirt!
If you were not able to attend the convention, or were too late before your size sold out, you can purchase a PulpFest t-shirt courtesy of Nick Anderson of Streetlight Printing. Simply click the T-shirts link at the top of our homepage. The shirts were one of many hits at this year’s convention.
What about Next Year?
Although PulpFest 2026 may be over, there’s plenty of time to plan to attend our 2026 gathering. The convention returns to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, just north of Pittsburgh, from Thursday, August 5, through Sunday, August 8. We’ll also have early dealer set-up on Wednesday evening, August 4, beginning at 6 pm.
We’ll be celebrating the the 90th anniversary of the debut of The Shadow radio drama, featuring a young Orson Welles in the role of the title character. We’ll also welcome William Preston, author of “The Old Man” stories for Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, as our guest of honor.
And don’t forget about Doc Con, FarmerCon, and The Shadow Con, a convention dedicated to the first Pulp Hero. PulpFest will also host the 2027 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship Gathering, an informal summer celebration by Burroughs fans.
We hope you’ll join us at the DoubleTree for PulpFest 2027.
We’ll be releasing our planned programming schedule in mid-December.
Our featured image is excerpted from Robert Gibson Jones’ cover art for the June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, a special “Shaver Mystery” issue of the magazine.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Ed Valigursky’s cover art for the March 1956 issue of Amazing Stories. We celebrated the centennial of the magazine and more at our 2026 PulpFest.
