I was reminded again this past weekend how pulp fandom is the people, not just the pulps.
Saturday morning a half-dozen of us Arizona Fans of Bronze gathered at a local burger restaurant for one of our “Doc Days.”
We use planning for the next Doc Con as an excuse to get together for a Doc Day (which is really just a couple of hours or so). We do talk about the upcoming con, but we also catch up on what’s going on in the world of Doc Savage and the pulps, and more importantly, what’s going on in each other’s lives.
Yes, we never get together as often as we should. But our Doc Days have always given us a chance to reconnect every few months.
Sadly for me, this past Doc Day will be my last for a while. Our family is getting ready for a move back to Florida, which will make it hard to attend the irregular get-togethers in the Phoenix area.
It’s really been fun living so near such a great group of pulp fans. There have been the core of the group, others who come when they can, and those who’ve drifted away — Rob Smalley, Jay Ryan, Courtney Rogers, Phil Matthews, Kevin Dumcum, Curt Elam, Lew Corlew, Steve Ringgenberg, J.R. Burgin, Paul Cook and Fred Forino. (And that’s not mentioning the folks from out of state who’ve joined us for the annual Doc Con.)
As much fun as it is to read stories from the pulps or admire their vivid covers, the friends who are drawn together by their love of the pulps are the real treasures. I’m going to miss my fellow Arizona Fans of Bronze.
Rob, who is one of Doc Con’s co-founders, says that the Arizona Doc Con was never intended to be The Doc Con. But rather, it was to be the model for other fans to look to when starting their own gatherings. He has always envisioned Doc Cons scattered around the country (and probably the world).
I can’t take the Arizona gang along to Tallahassee, but I can take Rob’s vision.
If you live in Florida (or in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) would you be interested in getting together with other pulp fans?
We could set up a traveling pulp collectors’ group that meets in various towns and cities in the area. All we need to do is find a place — a restaurant, a bookstore or library meeting room, a coffee shop — where we could meet for an hour or two. Once I get settled in Tallahassee, I will be looking for such a place. And you’ll be hearing more about it here, at Yellowed Perils.
If you think you’d be interested in participating, let me know either via a comment below or an email.
Most of us grew up reading reprinted pulp stories, not know many other pulp fans who we could talk to about the literature that we love. Now’s your chance.
Hi. I have used my husband’s email address. He wrote as Charles Beckman, Jr. starting in 1945. His genres were detective, crime, and suspense plus westerns.
He is now 91 and discovered only a year or so ago that there are pulp lovers scattered
all around the country. We are in the process of putting together an anthology of some of his suspense and crime stories and will have it on Amazon in the near future.
The title is SUSPENSE, SUSPICION & SHOCKERS. We know how devoted pulp lovers are and just wanted to let you and others you may know to look for this book soon if you would like to get a copy.