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Friday 8 August 2025

Bill Thade Bill Thade is another veteran dealer who does several shows a year. I was told he has done about nine shows since I saw him last at the Windy City show last April. Check out all those cool Silver Age comics on the display wall.	Bill Thade At left is original art of Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet and his chauffeur Kato. At right is a color print from the artwork.	Amanda Peebles Amanda Peebles of Heartwood Books with some rare hardcover horror books. Amanda had some of the highest grade condition Weird Tales pulps at the show. Some of these pulps she had at the Windy City show last April probably because it's not easy to sell a pulp that costs over $1,000.

Rick Santman Veteran dealer Rick Santman always attends Windy City and Pulpfest and always has unusal items for sale including these rare comic book printing plates. At left is the Classics Illustrated cover for Don Quixote and and at right is the plate for The Illustrated Story Of The F.B.I. Both published by the Gilberton Publishing Co. Rick is holding two of Russ Cochran's EC portfolios circa 1970s / 1980s which contain color prints of the covers of theses comic book titles.	Rick Santman Rick holding a piece of Humorama orginal art. Humorama digest magazines contained sexy cartoons by famous cartoonists Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel, Dan DeCarlo and others along with cheesecake photos of female models like Jayne Mansfield, Bettie Page, June Wilkinson and the like. They were part of the publishing empire of Martin Goodman who published Marvel comic books. In Rick's other hand is The Big Strange Tales Annual #1, 1962. This was Marvel's first collection of reprints of the science fiction and fantasy stories they been publishing since 1958. Speaking of those type of Pre-Marvel comics, in the foreground are Tales To Astonish #30, 1962 with the usual Jack Kirby cover. Also, Journey Into Mystery #51, 1958 with an eye-catching cover by Russ Heath. The cover illustrates an interior story drawn by Steve Ditko. I still have my low grade copy of this comic I bought in the 1960s from some forgotten mail order dealer. I've never been able to afford to upgrade it.	Doug Schmidt Here's Doug with three copies of the pulp Thrilling Wonder Stories with the usual outlandish covers pulps were noted for. If I had been a kid in the 1940s with .15 in my pocket any of these pulps likely could have pried it loose from me.

Manny Maris Manny Maris of Manny's Vintage Mintage had a wide assortment of popular culture items. Here's Manny with something really rare, an uncut printers proof for comic book covers from the 1950s. The Battle cover art is by Joe Maneely and the Marvel Tales cover art is by Bill Everett. Once the comic books were printed there was no reason to keep these proofs around and what few survived don't turn up often.	The Meteor House Men Mike Croteau, Win Scott Eckert, Paul Spiteri always attend Pulpfest. Their publishing company Meteor House Press specializes in promoting the books of famous science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer.	Paul Spiteri, Mike Croteau Paul and Mike with some more hardcover Meteor House books.

Kathie Wilbanks Kathie Wilbanks of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. with some recent hardcover reprint books. The Jane Porter books weren't written by Burroughs but ERB Inc. licenses out the rights to modern authors to write novels on established Burroughs characters. Kathie is holding a recent reprint hardcover of the Burroughs Martian novel The Chessmen Of Mars originally published in 1922. I wasn't around then to buy it but I still have my Ace paperback edition from the 1960s with cover art by Roy Krenkel.	Michael Brenner Michael Brenner is another rare book dealer I see at Pulfest each year. Here's Mike showing off his large inventory of hardcover and paperback books. The Lancer Books paperback edition of The Fantastic Four is from the mid 1960s and is part of series of Lancer paperbacks that were the first to reprint in book form Marvel comic book stories. The stories were reprinted in black and white but the covers were in eye-catching color. I dabble in collecting Life and Look magazines that have movie and TV star covers. While looking through them I never noticed any interest in those magazines publishing science fiction or fantasy stories. Apparently, a similar magazine The Saturday Evening Post did have some interest in that as attested by this Post Fantasy Stories paperback.	Michael Brenner Mike with a hardcover of one of the sequels to Robert Bloch's famous novel Psycho that the even more famous Alfred Hitchcock movie was made from. Also, a hardcover anthology of reprints from the digest magazine The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction.

Larry Hallock I first me Larry Hallock of Ygor's Books at the Windy City show last April and was glad to see him make it to Pulpfest. Larry is holding a hardcover copy of book on the art of famous science fiction artist Ed Emshwiller, known for his cover illustrations of many digest magazines in the 1950s and 1960s. Like any respectable rare book dealer at Pulpfest, Larry also had some books on H.P. Lovecraft.	George Hagenauer George Hagenauer with a piece of cheesecake orignal art. George told me he didn't know who the artist was or where the art appeared but he was searching to solve the mystery.	Tim Kupin Koop with an Edgar Rice Burroughs fanzine and a Fantastic Adventures pulp with a nice cover.

Tim Paxton Tim is another one of those rare book dealers with a knack for finding rare and esoteric books. Of the six paperbacks shown here, four of them are by the famous hardboiled crime writer Jim Thompson. When I was living in San Bernardino, CA in the 1980s the Los Angels Times ran an article on Jim Thompson which made me curious about him. So, I started calling around to the used bookstores in Los Angeles to see what Thompson books they had. But, I wasn't the only person to read the article. All the bookstores I called said they sold all their Jim Thompson books right after the article came out. So I waited a few months for the Jim Thompson hysteria to subside and managed to buy two recent hardcover reprints Hardboiled and More Hardboiled that had been mentioned in the article. I still have them in perfect condition and may even find time to read them someday.	Paul Herman Paul Herman had one of the largest paperback book collections at the show. Here's Paul holding a digest magazine with the usual half naked woman on the cover and a Planet Stories pulp with the usual scantily clad woman in peril cover. This particular woman is trapped in a plastic tube. The Galaxy Novel #35 The Forever Machinie has a nice cover by famous comic book artist Wally Wood. He drew a handful of covers for Galaxy digest magazines and some of the interior art. Man In The Shadows is a movie tie-in adapted from the movie of the same name starring Orson Welles and Jeff Chandler. I like both those actors so I bought the Blu Ray of this movie when it came out several months ago.	Mark Hickman I last saw Mark at the Windy City show last April. Mark's father Lynn Hickman promoted Pulpcon for many years starting in the early 1970s before it changed its name to Pulpfest. Here's Mark holding a piece of original science fiction art. In the foreground at left is a typical digest magazine with the obligatory sexy cover. At right is the pulp magazine Astonishing Tales with the usual pulp elements: woman in peril, fearsome monster, valiant spaceman hero to the rescue.

Martin Swiatkowski Martin is a devoted collector of pulps and paperbacks that I see each year at Pulpfest. This year I asked Martin how many paperback books he had. I expected him to say about two or three thousand. I was set back on my heels slightly when he said 20,000. Ray Walsh should be finished setting up by now so lets see in the next photo at right what pop culture treasures he has found since yesterday.	Ray Walsh Ray with two pieces of original science fiction art. Tim Kupin told me he was interested in the piece in Ray's left hand but was a little hesitant due to the $1,000 price tag. But, Ray told me later he and "Koop" worked out a deal. At left is an extremely rare hardcover movie tie-in of the famous science fiction movie This Island Earth, 1955. Martin Swiatkowski said he was intrigued but couldn't manage Ray's price of $250. I can't afford the book either but at least I can watch the movie on my Blu Ray disc. At right is the Avon paperback Into Plutonian Depths, 1950. I first saw this paperback at a science fiction convention in Tampa, Florida hosted by David T. Alexander of DTA Collectibles in the late 1990s. I couldn't afford the then high price of $18 but I was galvanized into searching out and trying to buy other Avon science fiction / fantasy titles. A few years ago I did acquire a high grade copy of Into Plutonian Depths off ebay and it costs a lot more than $18.	Tom Martin Popular culture impresario Tom Martin is one of my favorite dealers at Pulpfest. Here's Tom consummating a cash transaction with book dealer Tim Paxton.

Tom Martin The two Amazing Stories Quarterly pulps the foreground are extra thick issues that reprinted earlier pulp stories. At top at left is a movie-in for the comedy horror movie Comedy Of Terrors, 1963 starring horror movie veterans Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and buxom Joyce Jameson. I'll try to add the paperback to my movie-in collection someday. The Belmont paperback High Camp Superheroes, 1966 features characters from Mighty Comics, an imprint of Archie comics. It was obviously published to cash in on the mid 1960s increased interest in "camp" culture that was being stimulated by the popularity of Marvel Comics, Andy Warhol art and the Batman TV show. This book fits nicely into the category of comic book companies trying to copy Marvel comics that Marvel's editor Stan Lee called "Brand Ecch." Lets take a closer look at the Atlas comic Tom is holding in the next photo at right.

Tom Martin Tom with Mystery Tales #4, 1952 with the type of lurid cover Atlas was known for. The Men's Adventure magazine Real Adventure obviously features one of the better examples of what Men's Adventure magazine collectors call "animal attack covers."

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