Friday, the first full day of PulpFest 2014, turned out pretty busy.
The dealers’ room reopened at 10 a.m. All the dealers were set up by opening time. I spent most of the morning circling the room just to get a feel what what dealers’ had watch pulp material.
For someone who doesn’t come across boxes and boxes and boxes of pulp magazines very often, it’s a bit overwhelming at first. Where do you start looking?
I took a deep breath, pulled out my phone and opened Google Docs, where I had stored my want-lists for pulp fanzines, reference books and pulps.
Besides browsing the dealers’ tables, Friday was also a chance to say hello to pulp collectors that I know from email, pulp newsgroups or The Pulpster, or that I’d met before at Pulpcon in 2006.
On Thursday, I’d reconnected with Scott Cranford and his brother, Patrick; the Age of Aces gang, brothers Chris and David Kalb, and “publisher emeritus” Bill Mann; pulp artist expert — and artist in his own right — David Saunders; Lohr McKinstry; and Murania Press‘ Ed Hulse. (Forgive me if I’ve left someone out; the five hours of sleep the past couple of nights combined with the activity of PulpFest make everything seem like a whirl.)
After working with Mike Chomko for few years on The Pulpster, it was great meeting him face-to-face. The same with PulpFest’s Jack Cullers and Chuck Welch, who also spearheads the Hidalgo Trading Co. websites and groups, and Jason Aiken, who does the Pulp Crazy video/podcast.
Friday offered more opportunities to spend some time talking with many, many pulps fans, collectors and experts, including Don Hutchison, Walker Martin, Laurie Powers, John Gunnison, Win Scott Eckerd, Ron Fortier — the list goes on and on.
I skipped the afternoon readings by New Pulp fictioneers to continue visiting with folks. The boxes and boxes of pulps at PulpFest are great, but it’s even better to spend time talking with folks who share your love of the classic fiction magazines.
After a dinner break, and after a few brief “Welcome to PulpFest” comments by Jack Cullers, the evening programming began about 7:45 p.m. Mike Chomko, Ed Hulse and Barry Traylor launched into a talk on “1939: Science Fiction’s Boom Year.” Followed by “Startling Stories: An Overview,” with Ed; a FarmerCon panel, “A Feast of Farmer, Philip José Farmer’s Early Science Fiction,” with Art Sippo and Michael Croteau; “Pulp Premiums and Promotions,” a continuation of a presentation Chris Kalb did last year; “80 Years of Terror: The Weird-Menace Pulps,” with Ed, Walker Martin and Garyn Roberts; and “1939: The Golden Year of Astounding Stories,” with Ed, Garyn and Tom Krabacher.
Things were running behind, so I skipped the second night of episodes from the “Buck Rogers” serial to spend more time visiting with folks until the wee hours.
It’s Saturday morning now. The dealers’ room reopened a short while ago. Time to start it all over again.
