Tag Archives: Pulpfest

Richard Clear (1943-2015)

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Richard Clear shows off an original Brundage Weird Tales cover painting at PULPcon (year unknown). Photo by Robert Weinberg.

Richard Clear shows off an original Brundage Weird Tales cover painting at PULPcon (year unknown). Photo by Robert Weinberg.

Book dealer and former Pulpcon committee member Richard Clear passed away March 21. He was 71 and had been ill for a number of years.

He began collecting magazines and in 1973 opened the Dragon’s Lair comic book store in Dayton, Ohio.

He became a valuation expert, compiling the Old Magazines Collector’s Price Guide (1974) and serving as an advisor to the magazine portion of Time-Life Encyclopedia of Collectibles (1979).

In 1983 he moved to Tampa and opened Merlin’s Books.

The 1988 Pulpcon gave him the Lamont Award, for outstanding effort in keeping alive the memory and spirit of the pulp magazine era.

He later moved back to Ohio and continued his book business online. Having been involved with Pulpcon in its early years, around 2008 he resumed participating on the con committee, however, the event soon became moribund. His historic role was acknowledged in a death notice posted by Pulpfest.

The family’s memorial is here. Clear is survived by his longtime companion Nancy McAnespie, grown children Richard Clear, Barbara Curry, Lisa Lawson, and Michael Clear, and many grandchildren.

Nominations Sought for Pulp Interest and Service Awards

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The 2015 Munsey Award nominations are open through May 31. The annual award, named for the publisher of the first pulp magazine, Frank A. Munsey, recognizes an individual who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge about the pulps, through publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest in the pulps.

This is also the time to nominate someone for the Rusty Hevelin Service Award, which recognizes people “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 for only those individuals who are most deserving.”

The winners of both awards will be selected by a panel of judges and presented at Pulpfest, being held August 13-16 in Columbus, OH.

All members of the pulp community, except past winners of the Munsey, Hevelin or Lamont Awards are eligible. Names should be sent to Mike Chomko along with a brief paragraph describing why that person should be honored, to 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542, or via e-mail to mike [at] pulpfest [dot] com.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

2015 Pulp Convention Schedule

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Pulps SMALLA rundown of 2015 pulp collector conventions is available at Yellowed Perils. The article lists a baker’s dozen which have confirmed dates.

The first of the season is Pulp AdventureCon on February 21 in Ft. Lauderdale.

The other highlights include the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show on March 22, the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention near Chicago on April 17-19, and PulpFest 2015 from August 13-16 in Columbus, OH.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.].

Cox and Traylor Honored at PulpFest

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J. Randolph Cox
J. Barry Traylor

The Munsey and Hevelin Awards for achievement in the pulp collecting field were presented at PulpFest in August.

The Munsey Award is named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first all-fiction pulp magazine, is presented to a deserving person who has contributed to “the betterment of the pulp community.”

The 2014 Munsey Award went to J. Randolph Cox, editor-publisher of Dime Novel Round-Up for over 20 years. He has also produced invaluable research such as the bibliography, Man of Magic & Mystery: A Guide to the Work of Walter B. Gibson, about the man who created The Shadow; Flashgun Casey: Crime Photographer, co-authored with David S. Siegel, about the character originally created for Black Mask by George Harmon Coxe; Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography;  and The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book.

Cox recently donated his collection of comic books and newspaper strips, fanzines, pulps, and other materials to the University of Minnesota Libraries, and his extensive collection of Walter Gibson books and Shadow pulps and comics to Gibson’s alma mater, Colgate University.

The Rusty Hevelin Service Award, named for the guiding light behindPulpcon,the convention that helped to keep the memory of the pulps alive for many years, recognizes individuals who have worked long and hard for the pulp community with little thought for individual recognition.

The 2014 Rusty went to J. Barry Traylor who has been organizing convention auctions for 25 years. He does a wide variety of “grunt work”– contacting comic shops and book stores to help with promotion activities; and managing the links on the PulpFest website.

The Genesis of Magazine SF

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Pulps SMALLMike Chomko is retelling the history of science fiction pulps in an excellent series of short articles for Pulpfest —

Science and Invention

In early 1923, perhaps in an effort to boost circulation of Science and Invention or to test the waters in the growing market for specialized fiction magazines, Gernsback began publishing more stories and fiction that was meant to entertain including works by H. G. Wells, George Allan England, and Ray Cummings. Later that same year, Gernsback released a “Scientific Fiction Number” of his science magazine. The August 1923 issue of Science and Invention featured six “scientifiction” stories. It would not be long before Hugo Gernsback would found the first science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.

Amazing Stories

Within months, the new specialty magazine was selling over 100,000 copies of each issue. In establishing the first specialized science-fiction magazine, Gernsback had tapped a vein of wonder, shared by lonely individuals prone to “imaginative flights of fancy.”

The Sense of Wonder (Stories)

Soon after losing his small publishing empire to bankruptcy, Hugo Gernsback was back in the publishing business. Within months, he had returned to the stands with a pair of science-fiction magazines–Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories. 

Stories of Super Science

The brainchild of Harry Bates, editor of Clayton’s Wide World Adventures, the new magazine was meant to entertain rather than educate. “Astounding. As a name it lacked dignity, but no matter: it was gutsy and would compel attention, and it generally resembled Amazing and could be counted on to attract the eye of that magazine’s readers while pleasantly promising others that the stories would stun them.”

An Astounding Resurrection

Like Hugo Gernsback had done before it, the demise of Astounding Stories was shortlived. Sold to Street & Smith, the powerhouse publisher of The Shadow, Wild West Weekly, Love Story Magazine, and other pulps, the magazine was back on the racks in September 1933. The new Astounding Stories was edited by F. Orlin Tremaine who seemed to have great faith in the future of science fiction.

Campbell’s Astounding

Although the outpouring of exceptional fiction continued in the new year with stories such as Simak’s “Cosmic Engineers” and Williamson’s “One Against the Legion,” it is the July 1939 issue that is cited most often as the start of the Golden Age of Astounding and in turn, of science fiction. Behind a very effective cover by artist Graves Gladney, the reader would find the first prose fiction by A. E. van Vogt as well as Isaac Asimov’s first story for Campbell’s magazine.

For the rest of Chomko’s series about early fantasy magazines, click on Pulpfest’s history link and keep scrolling down.

2013 Munsey Award

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Garyn G. Roberts was named the winner of the 2013 Munsey Award at Pulpfest on July 27. The award is presented annually to a person who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community. Roberts was picked by a vote of living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Award recipients.

Garyn has worked in the field of higher education for many years, teaching English and popular culture studies. He is also an unabashed fan of the pulps. Garyn has written extensively about the pulps, both professionally and as a fan. He has edited or co-edited some of the best collections from the pulps including A Cent a Story: The Best from Ten Detective Aces, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps, The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of Don Diavolo, and The Compleat Great Merlini Saga. His insightful essays in these books and elsewhere have led to a greater understanding of the pulps both inside and outside of the pulp community. His collection, The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, a college level textbook, is notable for the attention paid to the pulp magazines. Additionally, Garyn has helped other researchers with various pulp-related projects and is a regular attendee of pulp conventions where he often serves as a presenter and panelist. Last year’s Munsey Award winner, Matt Moring, publisher of Altus Press, recently said about Garyn: “He’s been nothing but helpful and outgoing with anything I’ve ever asked of him.” That pretty much describes how Professor Roberts reacts to all the requests made of him by the pulp community.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Resnick GoH at PulpFest 2012

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Mike Resnick will be PulpFest 2012’s Guest of Honor. While Resnick’s record as an award-winning writer and spellbinding raconteur is all the reason any con needs to crown him GoH, among his latest projects  is one PulpFest members will certainly applaud.

A recognized authority on the works of Burroughs, Mike is currently editing, with Bob Garcia, The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, an anthology of mostly original stories inspired by Burroughs and his creations. It will be published by Baen Books.

The PulpFest committee concludes:

With this year being the hundredth anniversary of the start of Burroughs’ writing career, it is fitting that our guest of honor is an author who, early in his career, “wanted nothing more than to write books in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs.”

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Pulpfest Creates the Rusty Award

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Pulpfest, the pulp magazine convention held annually in Columbus, Ohio, has renamed its service award — formerly called the Munsey — in honor of Rusty Hevelin. Hevelin died December 27. Writes Jack Cullers, one of the organizers of Pulpfest:

The Munsey is a prestigious award given each year at PulpFest to the person deemed most worthy by the majority of his or her peers. It recognizes the efforts and ongoing involvement of the recipient in the improvement, elevation, and continuance of keeping the pulps alive and well. As a result of the recent death of one of the organizers and stalwarts of the hobby, PulpFest is announcing that henceforth the award will be called The Rusty Hevelin Service Award, or, in short, the Rusty. Hopefully, this will be accepted as a tribute and memory to a man who was influential in making PulpFest and its predecessors as successful as they are today.

I’m not sure how Rusty would receive this development, though I mean only that I’m not sure. Today’s PulpFest was launched a few years ago after a division among the conrunners who used to put on Pulpcon. Two rival groups announced events for 2009 both named Pulpcon. Litigation resulted in the newer – and now, only surviving – one being renamed PulpFest. Rusty, to my knowledge, had a stronger bond with the people whose attorney prevented the offshoot group from using the Pulpcon name (but whose event did not survive).

However, it’s self-evident that the honoree of a memorial award isn’t around to have an opinion. A better question is what will fans think of renaming the award for Hevelin? My guess is they will be pleased that Rusty’s memory will be honored at an important event in the specialized field which held his interest for a lifetime.

Pulpfest will be held August 9-12 at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

2011 Munsey Award Nominees

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PulpFest has announced 11 nominees for the 2011 Munsey Award. Past winners of the Munsey and Lamont Awards will select this year’s winner, who will be announced July 30 during PulpFest’s evening program.

  • Stephen Haffner, the “Big Poobah” of Haffner Press, has reprinted the early work of Leigh Brackett, Edmond Hamilton, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, and Jack Williamson in handsomely-produced volumes.
  • Stephen T. Miller, (with Michael Cook) compiled Garland Publishing’s Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U. S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974. With Bill Contento, he compiled Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index (1890-2006), a guide to more than 900 different magazines, published on CD-ROM by Locus Press and updated periodically by the publisher.
  • Matt Moring has published more than fifty books dealing with the pulps. He runs Altus Press.
  • Laurie Powers wrote Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street, an autobiography and appreciation of her grandfather Paul S. Powers. She also started Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site for those interested in the pulps.
  • Garyn Roberts is the Chair of the Communications/English Discipline at Northwestern Michigan College. He has edited or co-edited some of the best collections from the pulps including A Cent a Story: The Best from Ten Detective Aces, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps, The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of the Green Ghost and The Compleat Great Merlini.
  • Phil Stephensen-Payne has produced many “working bibliographies,” (often in collaboration with the late Gordon Benson, Jr.) of speculative fiction writers. His Galactic Central website contains an online checklist of pulp magazines.
  • Anthony Tollin convinced Conde Naste to license authorized reprints of Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, and The Whisperer. His regularly issued Sanctum Books are some of the most popular reprints in the field today.
  • George Vanderburgh through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, has published nearly 400 books.
  • Dan Zimmer promotes greater awareness of pulp artists through his Illustration Magazine.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

2010 Munsey Award Nominees

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Pulpfest has announced the list of contenders for the 2010 Munsey Award. Past winners of the Munsey and Lamont Awards will select the winner from among the following nominees:

  • Anthony Tollin convinced Conde Naste to license authorized reprints of Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, and The Whisperer. His regularly issued Sanctum Books are some of the most popular reprints in the field today.
  • Chris Kalb has become the person to go to for publishers who want a retro-design for their books or website.
  • Dan Zimmer promotes greater awareness of pulp artists through his Illustration Magazine.
  • Don Herron has written or edited numerous pulp-related books including The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard (1984), the five-volume Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick (1991-1997), The Barbaric Triumph: A Critical Anthology on the Writings of Robert E. Howard (2004), The Dashiell Hammett Tour: Thirtieth Anniversary Guidebook (2009), and others.
  • Garyn Roberts is the Chair of the Communications/English Discipline at Northwestern Michigan College. He has edited or co-edited some of the best collections from the pulps including A Cent a Story: The Best from Ten Detective Aces, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps, The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of the Green Ghost and The Compleat Great Merlini.
  • Gene Christie has extensively studied and indexed the magazines of the pulp era.
  • George Vanderburgh through his Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, has published nearly 400 books.
  • Howard Wright Howard has been publishing the Doc Savage fan magazine The Bronze Gazette for nearly twenty years.
  • John DeWalt’s self-published Key to Other Doors: Some Lists from a Pulp Collector’s Notebook, is a reliable source of information about pulp fanzines, pulp reprints, pulp conventions and the single-character pulps.
  • Laurie Powers wrote Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street, an autobiography and appreciation of her grandfather Paul S. Powers. She also started Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site for those interested in the pulps.
  • Mike Chomko, with Jack Cullers, Ed Hulse, and Barry Traylor, helped to organize the first PulpFest in 2009.
  • Mike Taylor has been writing about the pulps since the late 1990s when he began reviewing a variety of pulp magazines for Camille Cazedessus’ Pulpdom, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in May 2010.
  • Ron Fortier helped start Airship 27 Productions for new, pulp-inspired fiction. In 2009, he helped develop the Pulp Factory Awards.
  • Ron Hanna’s fanzine Lost Sanctum published material by both people who love pulps, and now his Wild Cat Books presents new pulp fiction and art. He recently revived the classic science-fiction magazine, Startlng Stories.
  • Stephen T. Miller, (with Michael Cook) compiled Garland Publishing’s Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U. S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974, an exceptionally useful resource for collectors of not only detective pulps, but also hero and some adventure magazines. With Bill Contento, he compiled Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index (1890-2006), a guide to more than 900 different magazines, published on CD-ROM by Locus Press and updated periodically by the publisher.
  • William Contento (with Steve Miller) compiled the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index (1890-2006). He has also assembled several other works that have become essential reference tools.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]