Pulp Tales features fascinating stories of pulp magazines and the creative minds that brought them to life — the fictioners, the artists, the editors, and others — recorded live at PulpFest and other events in the United States, as well as The Tonik Tapes, a series of historic interviews recorded by pulp historian Al Tonik.
The Pulp Tales is available on these services:
Or, if you’d like to listen to the Pulp Tales in your web broswer, follow the links below. Links are grouped alphabetically by event.
The Tonik Tapes
Longtime pulp fan, collector, and historian Al Tonik took his cassette recorder along during interviews with pulpsters and to PulpCon, the precursor to PulpFest. These episodes preserve those recordings, digitized from his cassette tapes.
- Pulp Artist Jerome Rozen
- In 1983, Al talked with artist Jerome Rozen about his career in the pulp magazines, which included several early covers of The Shadow Magazine.
- PulpFest 2025
- Three days of programming — 14 events — from PulpFest 2025 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2024
- Three days of programming — 13 events — from PulpFest 2024 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2023
- Three days of programming — 15 events — from PulpFest 2023 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 50 (2022)
- Three days of programming — 15 events — from PulpFest 2022 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2021
- Three days of programming — 15 events — from PulpFest 2021 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2019
- Three evenings of programming — 11 events — from PulpFest 2019 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2017
- Three evenings of programming — seven events — from PulpFest 2017 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2016
- Three evenings of programming — nine events — from PulpFest 2016 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2015
- Three evenings of programming — over 10 hours of recordings — from PulpFest 2015 are available for listening.
- PulpFest 2014
- Three evenings of programming — a dozen events — from PulpFest 2014 are available for listening.
- Pulpcon 36 (2007)
- Four recordings — Rusty Hevelin’s farewell, “The Future of Pulp Collecting,” and Guests of Honor David Saunders and Glenn Lord — were made by Chris Kalb during Pulpcon 36.
- Pulpcon 35 (2006)
- Two panels — pulp reprint publishing and Guest of Honor Phil Klass (William Tenn) — are available for listening from Pulpcon 35.
- Pensacon 2014: From Pulps to Comics
- On Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, Jeffrey Shanks, Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, and David Earle discussed “From Pulps to Comics” at Pensacon, in Pensacola, Fla.
PulpFest
Since 2009, PulpFest has been the preeminent annual gathering for pulp fans and collectors. These episodes were recorded live in the programming room.
Pulpcon
Pulpcon ran annually from 1972 to 2009 and was the original convention for pulp collectors. These episodes were recorded live at Pulpcon 35 and 36.
