Frank Munsey in 1910.

The PulpFest Organizing Committee has announced the fifteen 2018 Munsey Award nominees. Named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first pulp magazine, the award recognizes someone who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest pulp magazines. The winner will be selected by a committee made up of all the living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award recipients and named July 28 at PulpFest in Pittsburgh.

• Author, bibliographer, critic, editor, and historian MIKE ASHLEY has a special expertise in the history of magazine science fiction, fantasy, and weird fiction. In 2002, he received a Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the study of science fiction. He is the author or co-author of numerous works related to the pulps, science fiction, and fantasy. …Mr. Ashley has also edited many anthologies and single-author collections, often drawing work from the pulps. He is currently working to compile an index to the most important British popular fiction magazines between 1880 and 1950.
• The Collections Librarian at the University of Connecticut, RICHARD BLEILER is a bibliographer and researcher in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. In 2002, he was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction for the second edition of SUPERNATURAL FICTION WRITERS: FANTASY AND HORROR. With his father, Everett Bleiler, Richard compiled SCIENCE-FICTION: THE EARLY YEARS and SCIENCE-FICTION: THE GERNSBACK YEARS, both published by Kent State University Press.
• CAMILLE CAZEDESSUS has been publishing a fanzine devoted to pulp fiction for more than fifty years, first as ERB-DOM and later as THE FANTASTIC COLLECTOR. All told, he has edited and published almost 250 issues, as well as several books. In its earliest incarnation, Caz’s magazine focused on the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, presenting background information and bibliographic details about the author’s work as it appeared in magazines, books, comics, and movies. ERB-DOM won a Hugo Award in 1966. In the late nineties, Caz rechristened his fanzine as PULPDOM, a publication devoted to “studying the authors that wrote for the pulps and reprinting the ‘fantastic adventure’ type stories from pulp magazines.” With the help of various writers and indexers including Gary Lovisi, Al Lybeck, Jerry Page and, most recently, Mike Taylor, PULPDOM has explored nearly every pre-1932 general fiction pulp ever published, including ARGOSY, ALL-STORY, BLUE BOOK, CAVALIER, and THE POPULAR. Caz continues to publish PULPDOM today as an online pulp fanzine.
• Probably best known for the SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND WEIRD FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX that he originally compiled with Steve Miller, WILLIAM CONTENTO has assembled other works that have become essential tools of reference. These include his INDEX TO SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGIES AND COLLECTIONS, INDEX TO CRIME AND MYSTERY ANTHOLOGIES (with Martin H. Greenberg), THE SUPERNATURAL INDEX (with Mike Ashley), and others. In the last seventeen years, he and Phil Stephensen-Payne have built up the online FictionMags Index into a research juggernaut. It currently lists the contents of over 75,000 issues of thousands of different magazine titles. Pulps are heavily represented, of course, but pulp writers turn up in other magazines, too, and the FictionMags Index allows them to be discovered. A huge endeavor, the FictionMags Index has been a tremendous boon to pulp-magazine research.
• RON FORTIER has been a professional writer for three decades. In 2007, Ron teamed up with illustrator Rob Davis to start Airship 27 Productions and build a home for new adventures featuring long moribund pulp characters such as the Green Lama, the Masked Rider, Secret Agent X, and Fortier’s own version of Ace Periodicals’ Captain Hazzard….
• The late JOEL FRIEMAN worked for many years in the publishing industry. He was the person most responsible for taking The Shadow to a new paperback house — Pyramid/Jove — after it had failed at Bantam Books. It was Joel who worked to have Jim Steranko do the covers for the new Shadow line. Joel was also responsible for the Pocket Books editions of The Spider in the 1970s and, as the fiction editor at Freeway Press, he reprinted several Operator 5 adventures in paperback, featuring cover art by pulp illustrator George Gross. In 1981, Joel purchased Popular Publications from Popular Publications International. Joel was directly involved with every Popular Publications reprint in any format ever since….
• STEPHEN HAFFNER — The “Big Poobah” of Haffner Press — has been returning the work of a number of well-regarded pulp fiction writers into print for nearly twenty years. Specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery fiction, Stephen has brought back the early work of Leigh Brackett, Fredric Brown, Howard Brown, Edmond Hamilton, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Manly Wade Wellman, and Jack Williamson in a series of beautifully designed hardcovers….
• Although pulp reprints abound in our day and age, such was not only the case. Along with John Gunnison of Adventure House, RICH HARVEY was one of the first small publishers to get the pulp reprint movement off the ground. He started in the pages of his fanzine, PULP ADVENTURES — begun in 1992 — where he published stories from COMPLETE NORTHWEST NOVEL, DIME DETECTIVE, .44 WESTERN MAGAZINE, NEW DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, and other pulps. …Along with his current partner, Audrey Parente, Rich manages the twice-a-year Pulp AdventureCon in two locations, New Jersey and Florida. These one-day events help to bring the world of pulp to a wider geographic range of fans….
• CHRIS KALB is known in pulp circles for his hero pulp websites, like The 86th Floor and The Spider Returns, ventures that have helped to attract people who are new to the pulps….
• WILLIAM LAMPKIN is a freelance writer/editor and publication designer who has spent much of his work life in the newspaper field, much like Rambler Murphy (but without the cool nickname and crime-solving). …A resident of Florida, he has designed THE PULPSTER since 2008, and beginning with its 22nd issue, became editor of the award-winning program book. The first twenty-one issues of the magazine were edited by Tony Davis, winner of the 1999 Lamont Award. Tony calls Bill: “One of the unsung heroes of contemporary pulp fandom.” In late 2013, Bill also began to design PulpFest‘s print advertisements, badges, and other materials. He is a member of the PulpFest organizing committee, serving as the convention’s advertising director and webmaster.
• …A pulp collector since a teenager, SHEILA VANDERBEEK began attending pulp conventions in 1975. She has attended 62 of the 63 major pulp conventions since her first. She helped with all the radio recreations that were performed at Pulpcon. A member of the Battered Silicon Press pulp advisory committee, Sheila has helped on many books for the publisher….
• GEORGE VANDERBURGH has published over 600 books through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, many of them directly related to the pulps. …Along with the late Robert Weinberg, George served as the co-editor of Arkham House Publishers until the death of April Derleth. A regular attendee of pulp conventions, George has helped both longtime and new fans to collect the tales of some of the most fantastic heroes from the pulps.
• Although some may believe he is old enough to have purchased pulps off the newsstand, CHUCK WELCH is a mere whippersnapper. As one of the original Internet Fans of Bronze, Chuck started attending the summer pulp convention in the late 1990s. …When the Internet began to take off, Chuck began Flearun, a Doc Savage group now at Facebook. He is also the creator of the Hidalgo Trading Company — perhaps the closest anyone has come to presenting an online Doc fanzine — and the current editor of the Doc Savage fan magazine THE BRONZE GAZETTE.
• For twenty-five years, HOWARD WRIGHT was the publisher of the Doc Savage fan magazine THE BRONZE GAZETTE….
• DAN ZIMMER has been working to promote greater awareness of pulp artists by producing and distributing ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE since 2001. …Dan has also published illustrated biographies of pulp artists Walter Baumhofer, H. J. Ward, and Norman Saunders through his book-publishing arm, The Illustrated Press….

Munsey Award print. Art by David Saunders.

Philip Stephensen-Payne is the winner of the 2017 Munsey Award, announced at PulpFest 2017 on July 29. The award is presented annually to a person who has worked for the betterment of the pulp community.

Philip Stephensen-Payne is a prolific bibliographer and pulp researcher based in the United Kingdom. For many years, he has been compiling extremely useful “working bibliographies,” (often in collaboration with the late Gordon Benson, Jr.) of speculative fiction writers, many of whom got their start writing for the pulps. These bibliographies, numbering about sixty, are some of the best reference resources available today in the area of science fiction and fantasy. Additionally, his Galactic Central website contains an online checklist of all known fiction magazines that is attempting to include the cover to every such magazine ever published. It also indexes bibliographies, pulps, science fiction magazines, and other genre magazines. Stephensen-Payne is also a significant contributor and host to the FictionMags Index — principally edited by William G. Contento — and co-author (with Stephen T. Miller and William G. Contento) of the CRIME, MYSTERY, AND GANGSTER FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX, originally released on CD-ROM by Locus Press in 2011.

Nominations come from the general pulp community, and the winner is selected by a vote cast by all the living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award winners. The award is a fine art print created by Dan Zimmer of a David Saunders painting.

The award was accepted by Walker Martin as Phil, a retiree in the United Kingdom, was unable to attend the convention.

Munsey Award print. Art by David Saunders.

Laurie Powers is the winner of the 2016 Munsey Award, given annually by PulpFest to “a person who has worked for the betterment of the pulp community.”

The granddaughter of pulp author Paul S. Powers, Laurie was introduced to the pulp community in 2007 through the publication of PULP WRITER: TWENTY YEARS IN THE AMERICAN GRUB STREET, an autobiography and appreciation of her grandfather. She has also edited several collections of her grandfather’s work in various genres, releasing a number of previously unpublished stories. In 2013, she helped to arrange the donation of her grandfather’s personal papers as well more than 400 pulp magazines featuring his work to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Ohio State University in Columbus. Laurie also publishes Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site that has become a favorite destination for those interested in the pulps.

Powers was selected by a vote of all living winners of PulpFest’s Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Awards.

The Munsey Award is a fine art print created by Dan Zimmer of a David Saunders painting.

Frank Munsey in 1910.

The Pulpfest Organizing Committee has announced the 2016 Munsey Award nominees. Named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first pulp magazine, the award recognizes someone who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest pulp magazines. The winner will be selected by a committee made up of all the living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award recipients and named July 23 at PulpFest.

No one was nominated for a 2016 Rusty Award, the convention’s service award named for Rusty Hevelin. The 2016 Lamont winner is reported in another post.

FINALISTS

CAMILLE CAZEDESSUS has been publishing a fanzine devoted to pulp fiction for more than fifty years, first as ERB-DOM and later as THE FANTASTIC COLLECTOR. All told, he has edited and published almost 250 issues, as well as several books. ERB-DOM won a Hugo Award in 1966. In the late nineties, Caz rechristened his fanzine as PULPDOM, a publication devoted to “studying the authors that wrote for the pulps and reprinting the ‘fantastic adventure’ type stories from pulp magazines.” Caz continues to publish PULPDOM today as a free, online pulp fanzine.

RON FORTIER has been a professional writer for three decades. In 2007, Ron teamed up with illustrator Rob Davis to start Airship 27 Productions and build a home for new adventures featuring long moribund pulp characters such as the Green Lama, the Masked Rider, Secret Agent X, and Fortier’s own version of Ace Periodicals’ Captain Hazzard.

JOEL FRIEMAN worked for many years in the publishing industry. He was the person most responsible for taking The Shadow to a new paperback house, Pyramid/Jove, after it had failed at Bantam Books. It was Joel who worked to have Jim Steranko do the covers for the new Shadow line.

CHRIS KALB is known in pulp circles for his hero pulp websites, like The 86th Floor and The Spider Returns, ventures that have helped to attract people who are new to the pulps. There isn’t anyone out there making better use of all the new technology while still preserving the “oldness” of pulps and popular culture.

WILLIAM LAMPKIN is a freelance writer/editor and publication designer who has spent much of his work life in the newspaper field, much like Rambler Murphy (but without the cool nickname and crime-solving). Like many from his generation, Bill discovered the pulps through paperback reprints of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider. He bought his first actual pulp in the seventies. Bill runs The Pulp.Net, which he created in 1996, and also writes the Yellowed Perils blog. He founded the Facebook group Southern Pulpsters in 2015.

LAURIE POWERS is the granddaughter of pulp author Paul S. Powers, Laurie was introduced to the pulp community in 2007 through the publication of PULP WRITER: TWENTY YEARS IN THE AMERICAN GRUB STREET, an autobiography and appreciation of her grandfather. Laurie also publishes Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site that has become a favorite destination for those interested in the pulps.

PHIL STEPHENSEN-PAYNE is a prolific bibliographer and pulp researcher based in the United Kingdom. For many years, he has been compiling extremely useful “working bibliographies,” (often in collaboration with the late Gordon Benson, Jr.) of speculative fiction writers, many of whom got their start writing for the pulps. These bibliographies, numbering about sixty, are some of the best reference resources available today in the area of science fiction and fantasy. Additionally, his Galactic Central website contains an online checklist of all known fiction magazines that is attempting to include the cover to every such magazine ever published. It also indexes bibliographies, pulps, science fiction magazines, and other genre magazines.

GEORGE VANDERBURGH has published over 600 books through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, many of them directly related to the pulps. Along with Robert Weinberg, George served as the co-editor of Arkham House Publishers until the death of April Derleth.

HOWARD WRIGHT has been publishing the Doc Savage fan magazine THE BRONZE GAZETTE for the past 25 years. His final issue of the GAZETTE was published at the beginning of this year. The magazine will be continued by Terry Allen, Kez Wilson, and Chuck Welch, creator of the Hidalgo Trading Company and a member of the PulpFest organizing committee.

DAN ZIMMER has been working to promote greater awareness of pulp artists by producing and distributing ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE since 2001.

Munsey Award print. Art by David Saunders.

Stephen T. Miller is the winner of the 2015 Munsey Award given by Pulpfest to a person who has worked for the betterment of the pulp community. Miller was selected in a vote of all living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award winners (awards also given by Pulpfest).

The award is a fine art print of the David Saunders painting above.

Stephen T. Miller has been helping to index the magazines for years. Along with Michael Cook, he compiled Garland Publishing’s MYSTERY, DETECTIVE, AND ESPIONAGE FICTION: A CHECKLIST OF FICTION IN U.S. PULP MAGAZINES, 1915-1974, an exceptional resource for collectors of not only detective pulps, but also hero and adventure magazines. With Phil Stephensen-Payne and William G. Contento, Stephen recently revised this classic index, issued on CD-ROM by Locus Press as CRIME, MYSTERY AND GANGSTER FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX, 1915-2010. Also with Bill Contento, Steve compiled SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND WEIRD FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX, 1890-2008, a guide to more than 900 different magazines, again published on CD-ROM by Locus Press. Additionally, Steve has helped with much pulp-related research, sharing his knowledge as well as his collection with researchers.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2016 Munsey and/or Rusty Awards. Send the 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 [email protected]. Those who have already won a Lamont, Munsey, or Rusty Award are not eligible. The deadline for nominations is May 31, 2016. Additional details are here.

Frank Munsey in 1910.

The 2015 nominees for Pulpfest’s Munsey Award have been announced. The annual award, named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first pulp magazine, recognizes someone who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest pulp magazines. The winner will be selected by a committee made up of all the living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award recipients and named August 15 at PulpFest.

RON FORTIER has been a professional writer for nearly three decades. In 2007, Ron teamed up with illustrator Rob Davis to start Airship 27 Productions and build a home for new adventures featuring long moribund pulp characters such as the Green Lama, the Masked Rider, Secret Agent X, and Fortier’s own version of Ace Periodicals’ Captain Hazzard. Ron’s books have inspired contemporary writers and artists to turn out new adventures featuring many of the characters long remembered by the pulp community. They have also served as ports of entry for new people to become involved with the world of pulps. In 2009, Ron helped develop the Pulp Factory Awards, inaugurated to support and encourage the creation of new pulp fiction and art. The first PFAs were awarded at the 2010 Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Recently, Ron and Jaime Ramos announced the publication of LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION, an all-new anthology to benefit new pulp publisher, editor, and writer Tommy Hancock, recently hospitalized and diagnosed with congestive heart failure. All proceeds of the book will help Tommy to defray some of his medical bills.

JOEL FRIEMAN was the person most responsible for seeing Street & Smith’s The Avenger reprinted in paperback. In 1979, Joel purchased Popular Publications from its foreign owners, PARIS MATCH. Joel has been directly involved with every Popular Publications reprint in any format ever since.

CHRIS KALB is known in pulp circles for his hero pulp websites, like The 86th Floor and The Spider Returns,  He is also the lead designer for Age of Aces Books, a pulp reprint house that specializes in air war fiction. In 2010, Age of Aces received two National Indie Excellence Awards for Chris’ work on the bestselling THE SPIDER VS. THE EMPIRE STATE.

WILLIAM LAMPKIN runs The Pulp.Net, which he created in 1996, and also writes the Yellowed Perils blog.

STEVE MILLER has been helping to index the pulps for years. Along with Michael Cook, he compiled Garland Publishing’s MYSTERY, DETECTIVE, AND ESPIONAGE FICTION: A CHECKLIST OF FICTION IN U.S. PULP MAGAZINES, 1915-1974, an exceptional resource for collectors of not only detective pulps, but also hero and some adventure magazines. With Phil Stephensen-Payne and William G. Contento, Steve recently revised this classic index, issued on CD-ROM by Locus Press as CRIME, MYSTERY AND GANGSTER FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX, 1915-2010. Together with Bill Contento, Steve also compiled SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND WEIRD FICTION MAGAZINE INDEX, 1890-2008, a guide to more than 900 different magazines, published on CD-ROM by Locus Press and updated periodically by the publisher.

LAURIE POWERS in 2013 helped to arrange the donation of her grandfather’s personal papers as well more than 400 pulp magazines featuring his work to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Ohio State University in Columbus. Laurie also publishes Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site that has become a favorite destination for those interested in the pulps. She has published articles on “Who Read the Pulps?,” female pulp writers, a series of articles put together by various pulp fans entitled “My Favorite Pulps,” and many other topics. She is currently working on a biography of pulp editor Daisy Bacon, editor of LOVE STORY MAGAZINE.

CHRIS STEINBRUNNER, who passed away in 1993, received a posthumous nomination. An American author, broadcaster, and historian who specialized in detective film and fiction, Mr. Steinbrunner was a long-time member of the Mystery Writers of America, receiving its Edgar Award for co-authoring the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYSTERY AND DETECTION. Steinbrunner also wrote a monthly column for ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE and was a silent partner in Centaur Press, a small publisher that brought back into print Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane.

MIKE TAYLOR sold his first mystery short story in 1978 and wrote various pieces in that genre, including ghosting for the Mike Shayne series and for several pulp-related novelettes set in the 1930s. Mike returned to writing about the pulps in the late 1990s when he began reviewing a variety of pulp magazines for Camille Cazedessus’ fanzine, PULPDOM. His many articles have appeared in the PULPDOM, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in May 2010.

GEORGE VANDERBURGH has published over 600 books through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, many of them directly related to the pulps. Along with Robert Weinberg, George served as the co-editor of Arkham House Publishers until the death of April Derleth.

DAN ZIMMER has been working to promote greater awareness of pulp artists by producing and distributing ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE since 2001. Additionally, he has supported the pulp community by drawing his readers’ attention to various pulp conventions, including the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, Pulpcon, and PulpFest. Dan has also served as the sponsor of Windy City’s annual pulp art exhibit and created the limited edition print of David Saunder’s Munsey Award painting without cost to the PulpFest organizing committee.