The 2024 Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention was held in April, and the new Windy City Pulp Stories #23 is out. For the first time, I was able to attend the convention. The program book is again available through Amazon, as are most going back to #8, and published by Black Dog Books.
This year, the focus was on Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Basically, it’s 100 years of REH in print and the 150th birthday of ERB. As such we get a great selection of fiction and non-fiction related to both. In addition, we get information on artist Gary Gianni.
As to the show, it ran over three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In addition to the large dealer room, there were movies and several panels, as well as an auction. I came in Thursday night and joined in with things from Friday on. I ran into several people I knew from meeting them at PulpFest, etc. I touched base with several publishers and authors including Will Murray, Haffner Press, Airship 27 |(Ron Fortier and Rob Davis), Ed Hulse, Black Dog Books (Tom Roberts), Van Allen Plexico, Jonathan Sweet, Robert Mendenhall, Brian K. Morris, Anthony Tollin, et al. I’m glad I was finally able to come to this show, having only been able to go to a couple of PulpFests. I dropped a lot of money on many books, though I wasn’t able to fill my fanzine needs as I had hoped.
As to the Windy City Pulp Stories for this year, as noted its focus was mainly on REH and ERB. So first up with REH. We get a nice article on Morgan Holmes on him. This is followed by a trio of letters he wrote to Adventure magazine’s “Ask Adventure” column, with the answers he got. Clearly, he was doing research for upcoming works. Then we got a section of Howard family photos, docs, and clippings. This included obituaries of Howard and his mother, many photos, and info on REH’s father.
Then we get some of REH’s first published fiction and verse. His first professionally published poem and his first five submitted and published stories in Weird Tales. This includes his caveman tale, “Spear and Fang,” his first in WT. Editorial notes give information on when these were submitted, and you can see that it was sometimes years after submission that they got published.
As for ERB, we get an article from Will Murray on writing his Tarzan novels, especially with the two set on Mars. From Tom Roberts is a brief note on what might be the rarest Burroughs collectible, as no copies have been found. This was a booklet he did to promote a golf club. I would think that ERB Inc. would have a copy.
Next up are several short articles by Burroughs that have rarely been seen. One explains his personal bookplate. Another is on writing. One I think I’ve seen before is on is many failures before writing Tarzan.
For artist Gary Gianni, we get a biography of him and a gallery of character sketches of Conan and Solomon Kane.
As always, it’s a great volume, and I will add it to the rest of my volumes.
I highly encourage everyone to try to attend a Windy City Show or PulpFest at least once. Both events are a great experience. I will be attending PulpFest later this year.
In 2026, I will see if I am able to attend Windy City again, as they are shifting the date. I’m uncertain about PulpFest whether it falls on the same time as another event I will be going to. I’ll have to see.
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