PulpFest 2016, days 3-4

I got home last evening from my 1,750-mile round trip to PulpFest 2016. It’s a long drive, but well worth it.

I apologize again for not getting a report on day 3 of the convention posted Sunday. I didn’t get up early enough, then had too much to do before hitting the road for a seven-hour drive, which was the first half of my trip home.

Now that all that’s taken care of, let’s jump back to Saturday.

After breakfast with fellow PulpFest committee members Mike Chomko, Barry Traylor, and Chuck Welch, it was on to the dealers’ room for the second full day of PulpFest.

New folks continued to show up, and I ran into others that I had missed the day before.

In all, it looks like this year’s convention had about the same attendance as last year. The dealers’ room had been moved from a windowless great room of the previous few years to a much more open, brighter room, thanks to a wall of windows. The renovations at the hotel and convention center continued this year, and another, larger convention group managed to get the old dealers’ room location for their event.

Because of scheduling conflicts and other issues with the Columbus hotel, it’s uncertain when or where PulpFest will be held next year. Please keep an eye on the PulpFest website, here, or Pulp Coming Attractions for details as soon as plans are finalized.

Guest of Honor Ted White arrived Friday evening, but didn’t make an appearance until Saturday afternoon. He spent time at one of the circular tables near the dealers’ room entrance signing books and talking with fans, before browsing tables in the room. His presentation later in the evening was one of the highlights of the day.

I find it hard to break away from the dealers’ room to catch the programming during the day. On Friday and Saturday, it was New Pulp readings. Saturday also included a panel discussion on “The Amazing World of New Pulp” and “Ten Years in The Shadow‘s Sanctum — Sanctum Books,” featuring Anthony Tollin and Tony Isabella. I did record the Sanctum Books program, so keep an eye out for it once I get the programming edited and uploaded to the Pulp Event Podcast.

From 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., PulpFest’s gaming track was held in one of the convention rooms. More than two dozen signed up to play pulp-related roleplaying games.

The Saturday group dinner was held at Dick’s Last Resort, a short walk down the road near the Nationwide Arena. It was the first PulpFest group dinner for me. The food was good, and Dick’s looked like an entertaining place for a fun outing, but it was noisy and difficult to talk to those sitting around you.

The PulpFest committee opened the evening events with the annual business meeting. We talked about difficulties with the hotel, in both placement of the dealers’ room and programming locations, and confusion over hotel room availability for attendees. We’re considering moving to the outer perimeter of Columbus, Ohio, or to another city. We hope to have something finalized as soon as we can.

After the business meeting, the 2016 Munsey Award was presented to Laurie Powers by the 2014 Rusty Award-winner Barry Traylor. The Munsey is awarded annually to a person who has worked for the betterment of the pulp community, and is chosen by vote of all living Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty award winners.

The Guest of Honor, Ted White, took the stage next to talk about Amazing Stories and his career as a writer, editor, and musician.

Next was PulpFest cake time, an annual tradition featuring pulp-themed cakes. Then Doug Ellis presented a look at “120 Years of The Argosy — The World’s First Pulp Magazine.”

After a short break, it was time for the auction, with John Gunnison of Adventure House wielding the gavel.

There were 110 lots in the auction, including around 38 from an estate. Items ranged from reading copies of pulps, to first issues, and pulp reader premiums, artwork, and books. Most items went for less than $50, and many for less than $100.

The highest bid was $1,500 for an Arkham House printing of The Outsider and Others by H.P. Lovecraft. It was the first book published by Arkham in 1939 and went out of print in 1944 after 1,268 copies. Despite the high bid, it failed to sell; the reserve was $4,500.

The item garnering the top dollar at the auction was another Arkham House book by Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, from 1943. It met its reserve of $650.

Because I had a long drive ahead, Sunday morning was spent packing up my table and helping disassemble and pack the PulpFest backdrop and banners. Many dealers were also packing up their tables by mid-morning. After I’d loaded my car, I made a quick round of the dealers’ room to bid good-bye, then hit the road.

PulpFest was a blast. It’s great to see everyone each year. My only complaint is that there’s never enough time, even though I would leave my hotel room by 8 a.m. and not return until after 1 a.m.

I’ve got to unpack now, and then start looking forward to next year’s PulpFest.