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Kenneth Robeson Coming to PulpFest

Doc Savage, Kenneth Robeson, Programming, pulp, Will Murray Comments Off

Feb 022013

Following the astounding success of their first single-character pulp, The Shadow Magazine, Street & Smith publishing set out to duplicate its good fortune in the adventure magazine market. Working with the company’s business manager, Henry W. Ralston, Shadow editor John Nanovic spent a year developing a scientist adventurer who would travel the globe, righting wrongs and punishing evildoers. They were joined in late 1932 by Lester Dent, a former telegraph operator turned pulp writer. Soon thereafter, Doc Savage, the world’s first superhero, was born.

Doc Savage Magazine premiered early the next year with its first issue dated March 1933. The lead novel, “The Man of Bronze,” introduced Clark Savage, Jr. to a disheartened country thirsting for heroes amidst the dark days of The Great Depression. The magazine was an immediate success, soon rivaling the popularity of The Shadow Magazine on America’s newsstands.

Although the first tale of Doc Savage and his five trouble-busting assistants was credited to Kenneth Roberts, a name belonging to a former journalist and author of historical novels, later novels in the series would be said to be the work of Kenneth Robeson, a house name that hid the identity of Dent as well as Laurence Donovan, Ryerson Johnson, William Bogart, and other writers.

PulpFest is pleased to announce that the current “Kenneth Robeson,” Will Murray, will be one of its presenters at the 2013 convention for fans of pulp magazines and pulp fiction. The author of a dozen Doc Savage novels for Bantam Books and Altus Press, Will hopes to be Kenneth Robeson for a long time to come. Click on Will Murray under the Programming link of our home page for more details on our guest, one of the leading historians of the pulp era as well as one of the best adventure authors of our day.

The March 1933 issue of Doc Savage Magazine featured front cover art by pulp great Walter M. Baumhofer, illustrated Lester Dent’s novel, “The Man of Bronze.”

Murray, Will. “Doc Savage: The First 75 Years” in Windy City Pulp Stories #8. Normal, IL: Black Dog Books (2008).

Murray, Will. “The Duende Doc Savage Index” in Duende Vol. 1. North Quincy, MA: Odyssey Publications (1977).

Murray, Will. “Intermission” in Doc Savage #14. Encinitas, CA: Sanctum Productions for Nostalgia Ventures, Inc. (2008).

Enter the Phantom

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Jan 302013

In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated the 32nd president of the United States of America, proclaiming that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Adolph Hitler was named the Chancellor of Germany, amid promises of a parliamentary democracy. San Francisco broke ground for the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. King Kong premiered in New York City and the game of Monopoly was invented. Prohibition came to an end. And the hero pulp revolution began.

The tremendous success of Street & Smith’s The Shadow Magazine prompted the return of the single-character periodical. The first of these hero pulps was The Phantom Detective. Launched by Ned Pines’ Thrilling Group, the Phantom was the alter ego of man-about-town Richard Curtis Van Loan. A veteran of the first world war, this moneyed playboy was bored with life until a family friend recommended he “try his hand at solving a mysterious crime which had stumped the police.” His initial success led Van Loan to dedicate his life and fortune to combat crime, making the Phantom “a name known and admired by the police of every nation.”

The first issue of The Phantom Detective was dated February 1933. It would be followed that year by other single-character pulps including Doc Savage, The Spider, and Pete Rice Magazine. The Summer 1953 issue would be the final number of The Phantom Detective. It was the longest-lived of the hero pulps, lasting for just over twenty years.

Join PulpFest in July for a celebration of “The Hero Pulps of 1933.”

The cover art for the February 1933 issue of The Phantom Detective is by Bertram Glover, illustrating “The Emperor of Death,” written by D. L. Champion, a.k.a. Jack D’Arcy.

Hutchison, Don. The Great Pulp Heroes (Revised Edition). New York: Book Republic Press, 2007.

Johnson, Tom, et al. The Phantom Detective Companion. Boston: Altus Press, 2009.

Celebrating the Pulp Heroes of 1933

Doc Savage, G-8, Lone Eagle, Nick Carter, Pete Rice, Phantom Detective, Programming, pulp heroes, THE SPIDER Comments Off

Jan 242013

Eighty years ago, following the great success of The Shadow, the pulp industry created a tremendous splash in the publishing world with the reintroduction of the single-character magazine. The Phantom Detective, Doc Savage, Nick Carter, The Lone Eagle, G-8 and His Battle Aces, The Spider, and Pete Rice all debuted in their own magazines in the glorious year of 1933. Join PulpFest on Thursday, July 25th as we begin our celebration of “Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933.”

Happy Holidays from PulpFest

Doc Savage, hero pulps, Promotion, PulpFest Comments Off

Dec 222012

Here’s wishing everyone the happiest of holiday seasons. As we near 2013 and the eightieth anniversary of the “hero pulp explosion,” when characters such as Doc Savage, G-8, The Spider, and The Phantom Detective were introduced to the reading public, let’s hope there’s a copy of your favorite pulp magazine tucked into Santa’s sack to help tide you over until April 12th, when the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention will begin in the Chicago area.

After you’ve finished celebrating the winter holidays, please stop back at the PulpFest website as we gear up for next Summer’s Great Pulp Con. Better still, sign up for our email updates by filling in the little gray box titled “E-Mail List” right here on our home page. And while you’re at it, why not “like” our facebook page as more than 500 others have done. You can also follow PulpFest on Twitter.

Many thanks to Keith “Kez” Wilson for allowing us to use his Rescuing Rudolph fantasy Doc Savage cover, based on James Bama’s painting for the Bantam edition of Quest of Qui. You can see more of Kez’s great cover spoofs at his Doc Savage Fantasy Cover Gallery.

Many Thanks

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Nov 152012

Thanksgiving will soon be celebrated here in the USA. So now is the perfect time for the PulpFest Organizing Committee to thank the people and organizations whose invaluable assistance helped to make PulpFest 2012 a tremendous success. We could not have done it without you:

Our all-volunteer front desk staff–Maura Childers, Sam Childers, Aaron Cullers, Jack Cullers, Sally Cullers, and Samantha Cullers; our panelists, presenters, and auctioneers–Jim Beard, Rusty Burke, Christopher Paul Carey, REHupa editor Bill Cavalier, Win Scott Eckert, Ron Fortier, Henry G. Franke, III, Greg Gick, John Gunnison, Stephen Haffner, Ron Hanna, Don Herron, Ed Hulse, Jim and Ruth Keegan, Damon Keen, director of Last Flight, Rick Lai, Brian Leno, William Patrick Maynard, Will Murray, guest-of-honor Mike Resnick, Garyn Roberts, Joe Saine, David Saunders, Mark Schultz, Dr. Art Sippo, Paul Spiteri, Duane Spurlock, Gail Sussman and Albert Tonik, and Anthony Tollin; our behind-the-scenes help, Mike Chomko, Peter Chomko, Mike Croteau of FarmerCon, Ohio State’s Eric Johnson, Chris Kalb, Lohr McKinstry, Michael Neno, Bruce Rosenberger Rick and Renee Thomas, Barry Traylor, Chuck Welch, Dan Zimmer, and the staff of the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

The Organizing Committee would also like to thank the people who helped to create The Pulpster #21:

Tony Davis and Bill Lampkin, plus Monte Herridge, Morgan Holmes, Don Hutchison, David Rajchel, Don Ramlow, Mike Resnick, George Vanderburgh, Kez Wilson, John Wooley, and the magazine’s sponsors–Age of Aces, Jeff Canja, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Andy Fish and TheGreenGhost.Us, The Korshak Collection, Meteor House, Murania Press, The Pulp Factory, Damon Sasser, Radio Archives (who also provided the door prizes for PulpFest 2012), the “Take Me Back to Barsoom!” Facebook Group, Lance Thingmaker, Titan Books, Vanguard Press, and the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention.

Many thanks as well to the nominators and Lamont Award and Munsey Award winners who helped to select the winner of this year’s Munsey, Matt Moring, as well as the winners of the first Rusty Hevelin Service Award, Jack and Sally Cullers. Congratulations to our three award winners and to all of the nominees for our 2012 awards.

Finally, thanks to all of the conventions, book and paper fairs, bookstores, web sites, magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets that helped to promote our show as well as the dealers, attending members and supporting members of PulpFest 2012. It was due to your encouragement and support that our convention was a great success. We hope to see you all back next summer along with a good many newcomers for PulpFest 2013. Details will be forthcoming in the months ahead. So please subscribe to our PulpFest email list through the small gray box found along the right side of our home page. You’ll also be able to find information at our Facebook site and through our Twitter account.

If you’d like to volunteer to help with PulpFest 2013, please email Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse, or Barry Traylor.

Many thanks to Laurie Powers of Laurie’s Wild West for providing the cover scan for the November 20, 1921 issue of The Popular Magazine, published by Street & Smith.

Falling Leaves and Pulp Cons

Classicon, Doc Con, Gotham Pulp Collectors, Gryphon Books, Promotion, Pulp Adventurecon, pulp cons Comments Off

Oct 062012

While awaiting the arrival of PulpFest 2013, there are several regional conventions that will help satisfy your pulp interests during the autumn months. Scattered around the country, these more intimate gatherings of pulp fans are a great deal of fun and are very deserving of your support.

The 24th Annual NYC Collectable Paperback & Pulp Fiction Expo will be held on Sunday, October 14th at the Holiday Inn, 440 West 57th Street in New York City. This show, sponsored by Gary Lovisi’s Gryphon Books, always features a long guest list.

Doc Con 2012 will be held in Glendale, Arizona fr0m October 19th through the 21st at Comfort Suites University of Phoenix Stadium. Enthusiasts from around the country will be at this convention dedicated to Lester Dent’s Doc Savage.

Rich Harvey’s Pulp AdventureCon will take place Saturday, November 10th from 10 AM until 5 PM. This one-day show is a very enjoyable event, held once a year at the Ramada Inn in Bordentown, just off Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike.

On November 17th, one week after Pulp AdventureCon, Ray Walsh will be holding the 42nd Classicon at the University Quality Inn in Lansing, Michigan. It is one of the longest running pulp and paperback gatherings in the country.

On the second Saturday of each and every month, the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club meets to talk about pulps and pulp collecting at the Hudson Park Library in Manhattan.

And please continue to visit the PulpFest website regularly for exciting news about next year’s convention.

Many thanks to the Fantasy Ink blog for providing the cover scan for the January 1931 issue of Macfadden‘s Ghost Stories.

Start Making Plans for PulpFest 2013!

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Aug 122012

PulpFest 2012 is drawing to a close, but there is still time to get in on the action. The dealers’ room will be open from 9 AM until 2 PM today. With most of our dealers getting ready to head for home, our admission for the day is only $5. There are no programming events scheduled for Sunday.

If you were not able to attend PulpFest in 2012, start making your plans right now to join the 42nd year of “The Summer’s Great Pulp Con” in 2013. The PulpFest committee will start making plans for next year’s convention within the next month.

To keep informed about PulpFest 2013, bookmark http://www.pulpfest.com/ and visit often. News about the convention can also be found on the PulpFest Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/PulpFest. And for those who prefer their news short and sweet, follow our Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/pulpfest. Finally, there’s our email list. It’s the gray box to the right of this post. Subscribe to our list and be the first on your block to get news about PulpFest.

Many thanks to all those who attended this year’s convention. We hope everyone will be able to make it to PulpFest 2013!

And the Winner Is…

Altus Press, award, awards, David Saunders, Jack Cullers, Lamont, Matt Moring, Munsey, Rusty Hevelin, Sally Cullers Comments Off

Aug 122012

Matt Moring has been named the winner of the 2012 Munsey Award. Nominated by the general pulp community, Matt was selected by a panel consisting of all the living Lamont and Munsey Award winners. The award is a fine art print by Dan Zimmer of a painting by David Saunders. It is presented annually to a deserving person who has given of himself or herself for the betterment of the pulp community.

In relatively few years, Matt’s Altus Press has published many rare pulp stories as well as non-fiction books dealing with the characters and history of the pulps. To date he has published all of Kendell Foster Crossen’s Green Lama stories, half of the adventures of Secret Agent X, Les Savage’s Senorita Scorpion stories, Fred Nebel’s Tough Dick Donahue private eye adventures, and collections of lesser known characters such as Johnston McCulley’s The Man in Purple, Paul Ernst’s Seekay, and Lester Dent’s The Blond Adder. His Dime Detective Companion is a superb reference to one of the leading detective magazines of the pulp era, while The Revised Complete Chronology of Bronze, written by Rick Lai, dissects the adventures of Doc Savage. Recently issued is the thirtieth anniversary issue of Echoes, one of the best pulp history fanzines of all time. Together with Will Murray, Matt revived the Doc Savage series, publishing brand new stories featuring “The Man of Bronze” after a twenty-year absence. The Altus Press website is also an excellent reference source featuring links to The Pulp Superhero Index and The Echoes Index. Such energy needs to be recognized and rewarded. Matt Moring and others like him are the future of the pulp collecting hobby.

The voting for the 2012 Munsey Award actually ended in a tie. The other select individual, David J. Cullers, better known as Jack Cullers, is the chairman of the PulpFest committee. Jack has worked quietly and tirelessly for the pulp community for decades. A longtime volunteer for any number of pulp conventions, Jack has ferried guests of honor to and from airports and made sure they had a friendly face with whom to dine. He has stuffed and addressed envelopes, arranged for advertising, organized auctions, and done many other behind-the-scenes tasks, selflessly and without seeking accolades. Time and again, he has welcomed newcomers to the hobby, even inviting them to his home for dinner during their earliest pulp conventions. He has offered space at his dealer tables for down-on-their-luck pulpsters unable to attend conventions.

As PulpFest chairman, Jack has worked to assure that convention guests, dealers, presenters, and attendees are treated fairly and respectfully, helping everyone to feel welcome and comfortable at the convention. Of course, Jack could not have done all that he has done without the support of his wife, Sally, herself a longtime pulp con volunteer, often helping with registrations and auctions. His children and friends have also lent a hand. Come convention time, the “Cullers Clan” is hard at work, making sure things run as smoothly as possible.

Not wishing to diminish Matt Moring’s “day in the sun,” Jack asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration. However, the remaining members of the PulpFest committee felt that it was well past time that Jack and Sally Cullers’ devotion to the pulp community be recognized.

With this in mind, it was determined to issue a second award, The Rusty Hevelin Service Award, designed to recognize those individuals within the pulp community who have worked long and hard for the pulp community with little thought for individual recognition. It is meant to reward especially good works and is thus reserved only for those individuals who are most deserving. And no individuals are more deserving than Jack and Sally Cullers who have labored long and hard for our small community of pulp lovers.

Congratulations to Matt Moring, the 2012 winner of The Munsey Award, and to Jack and Sally Cullers, the 2012 winners of The Rusty Hevelin Service Award. All three individuals are most deserving of these honors.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2013 Munsey and/or Rusty Awards. If you have someone in mind that you feel worthy, please let us know. Send the person’s name and a brief paragraph describing why you feel that person should be honored to Mike Chomko, 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542 or to mike@pulpfest.com. Previous winners of the Lamont, Munsey, or Rusty Award are not eligible for the award. The deadline for nominations is May 31, 2013.

PulpFest 2012 Continues

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Aug 112012

There’s still time to get in on the action. The dealers’ room will be open today from 9 AM to 5 PM and from 9 AM to 2 PM on Sunday. Admission to PulpFest is $15 for Saturday and $5 for Sunday.

Today at 1 PM, Ron Fortier of Airship 27 will host a forum on “new pulp fiction.” An author reading and a memorial for artist David Burton and author Howard Hopkins will follow.

Our evening programming begins at 7 PM. PulpFest 2012 will celebrate the 80th anniversary of Conan of Cimmeria, the creation of Robert E. Howard, with a panel on the author and his character and a presentation on the illustrators of Conan, offered by artists Jim & Ruth Keegan and Mark Schultz.

The presentation of the annual Rusty Hevelin Service Award, more commonly called The Munsey, and an auction featuring the collection of pulp historian Albert Tonik will also take place during the evening hours. A highlight of the auction will be a pulp cover recreation by Rafael DeSoto, one of the leading artists of the pulp era. Visit our programming page for further details.

Don’t let PulpFest 2012 slip by. Come to Columbus and join up!

PulpFest 2012 Underway

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Aug 102012

PulpFest 2012 got underway on Thursday evening with a full slate of programming starting at 8 PM. Then, just a few minutes ago, the doors to the PulpFest dealers’ room opened. Upon entry to the Hyatt’s spacious exhibition hall, collectors were greeted by more than 100 tables filled with pulps, books, original artwork, vintage comics, and other collectibles. And the frenzy began!

There’s still plenty of time to join in on the fun. The dealers’ room will be open until 5 PM today and from 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday. Sunday will be a bit shorter, from 9 AM to 2 PM. Friday’s programming includes three author readings in the afternoon. The evening programming will begin at 7 PM. There will be presentations concerning the Burroughs-related work of Philip José Farmer, a panel presentation on Mars in the pulps, an examination of the life and work of aritst J. Allen St. John, and a film program that includes the U. S. premier of Last Flight, a short film directed by Damon Keen.

The highlight of the evening will be a talk by the award-winning Guest of Honor, science-fiction author Mike Resnick. A wonderful raconteur, Mike will talk about his years as a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including his association with ERB-dom and his early Burroughs pastiches. He’ll also explore his years as a pseudonymous author and as a science-fiction professional and committed science-fiction fan.

Saturday’s programming will center around Conan, the character created by Robert E. Howard. There will be a panel on the author and his character and a presentation on the illustrators of Conan, offered by artists Jim & Ruth Keegan and Mark Schultz. An auction featuring the collection of pulp historian Albert Tonik will end the night’s festivities. A highlight of this auction will be a pulp cover recreation by Rafael DeSoto, one of the leading artists of the pulp era. Visit our programming page for further details.

Admission to the convention is $15 per day or $35 for all three days, allowing entry to all convention activities. The general public is very much welcome to attend.

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