While a long-time pulp fan, sadly most of my interactions with fellow fans as been through online forums. Years ago a Usenet forum called alt.pulp was created, and I was pretty active there. But most of my interaction at the time was through the occasional email or posting there.
When I got back into pulp fandom after dropping out due to time and other issues, my main interaction with other fans was on places like the various pulp-related groups on Facebook. As I read stuff, I also posted reviews on Amazon, all of which later lead to this blog.
I would read of the various long-standing pulp shows out there (Pulp AdventureCon, Pulp Con and the later Pulpfest, the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, etc.), but was never able to attend one.
Until recently when Rich Harvey moved to my area and decided to bring his Pulp AdventureCon with him to South Florida. And just a 15-minute drive from where I lived. And on a day I should be free. Cool!
I knew from the info that as a first-time event, this would be smaller than others. It looked to be mainly a dealer room and not much else. No panel discussions or movies being shown or the like. Maybe those will come soon. So I had no delusions of what I would find. Bill Lampkin has already posted a report with details of the con, so this will be a more personal posting.
For me, the main attraction was to be able to meet people I only knew from the online world, have some good conversations and the like. I figured I’d pick up a few items, but knew I couldn’t go overboard and spend alot. I mainly picked up some pulp fanzines and got a few other items (much appreciated!).
It was great chatting with several people. I know I didn’t catch everyone’s names, but among those I recall were Joseph Lovece who has some neat Dime Novel related works out that should be fun (more on those here soon). It was nice to chat with Bill, and Mike Hunter. Enjoyed chatting with both Rich and Audrey Parente. As they are local to the area, maybe there may be some local gathering of pulpsters/pulp fans? I hope I didn’t bore Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson. I knew something of her grandfather, but it was neat to learn more. I might get that collection of his works sometime.
I wish I had made it for the informal dinner on Friday, and too bad I missed out on the dinner on Saturday. I would have come back for that.
I hope we will see this show come back next year, as I want to go again.
