Pulpcon is people! Pulpcon is people!

Pardon the paraphrase, but I came to the same revelation that Charlton Heston did in the movie Soylent Green (except for the cannibalism part, of course).

Pulpcon is really about the people, rather than the boxes and boxes of vintage pulp magazines lining the dealers’ tables or the pristine new reprints displayed for sale on racks.

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• Click for photos and audio from Pulpcon 35

Being a Pulpcon novice, I wasn’t sure what to expect at the convention. Beforehand, I focused on the easiest thing to imagine: the dealers’ room. And, true, I was overwhelmed by the amount of material for sale in there the first day or so. I circled the room several times each day, searching for items on my “want list.”

But even in the dealers’ room, as we carefully looked and re-looked through the pulps, it was the conversations with other fans, with dealers behind their tables or with their guests that proved most enjoyable.

One of the highlights for me was meeting many of the old “Internet Fans of Bronze,” who first turned up at Pulpcon around 1997 and ’98, and have been attending frequently since then. You’ll recognize their names from their Web sites and participating on the many pulp newsgroups and mailing lists. I’ve mentioned them previously because they graciously allowed me to tag along with them wherever they went: Bill Mann, Chris and David Kalb, Scott and Patrick Cranford, Bill Thinnes and Duane Spurlock. I’d “known” them online, now here they were in solid form.

Thanks, guys, it was great spending time with you, getting to know you all better. I can’t wait until we meet at another con.

(I only wish some of the former IFOBs were still participating, such as Jeff Sines – who Bill Mann attempted to track down one night via cell phone. And Cat Jaster, whom I met back in ’98 at a pulp and paperback show in Tampa. Or that Chuck Welch and Catherine LavallÈe-Welch had been able to attend this year.)

Also, I had a chance to talk a bit with great folks such as Ron Fortier, Ed Hulse, Ron Hanna, John Gunnison and Leigh Mechem. I wish I’d had the chance to spend more time with each of them, learning more about their pulp interests. Lohr McKinstry joined a group of us for dinner on Friday night. It was fun talking “shop” (newspapers) with him, as well as learning about his pulp projects.

The same applies to the many pulp “elder-statesmen” at Pulpcon, such as Al Tonik, Wooda “Nick” Carr, John DeWalt, Rusty Hevelin and Robert Weinberg. A few minutes chatting when them was just not enough, with all of their knowledge and stories about the pulps. Maybe next time.

Thanks, everyone, it was a terrific Pulpcon!

So, if anyone asks me why they should go to Pulpcon, I’ll know what to say: You’ll meet some fantastic people.

– William

P.S. I’m still planning to slog my way through my 150+ photos and post more over the next week.