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Saturday 9 August 2025

Brendan Faulkner Veteran dealer Brendan Faulkner at the far end of his large selection of movie posters, magazines and books. He's talking with Alex Daoundakis. I last saw Brendan and wife Robin at the Columbus Moving Picture show last May and I'll likely see them and Alex this September at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Con.	Lauren Stump Lauren with her collection of original art by Edgar Rice Burroughs book artists, including one of the most famous ones, Roy G. Krenkel. I first met Lauren at the Windy Show last April and encouraged her to come to Pulpfest. I'm glad she made it.	Lauren Stump Lauren with an original painting of Tarzan, probably for a Gold Key comic book cover.

Craig Poole Craig Poole of Richmond, VA had the largest selection of original art at Pulpfest this year since his main rival Doug Ellis was a little short on inventory this year. Craig specializes in collecting ACE Books paperback covers which is why you don't see many of those in his booth. He keeps most of them for himself.	Craig Poole Craig with the original art to an Amazing Stories pulp magazine cover. Craig told me this painting was a modern reproduction and therefore more affordable.	Craig Poole Craig with the original cover art to the 1960s era Ballantine paperback book Tarzan And The City Of Gold. The artist is Richard Powers who one of the most famous of the science fiction book cover artists from the 1950s and 1960s. His best work was not on these Ballantine Tarzan series books but on the many science fiction paperbacks with the surrealistic covers. Nobody else could paint like that, except maybe Salvador Dali and he wasn't available for paperback work.

Bob McGeeney Bob with a page of orignal comic book art from a story about the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez conquering the Aztecs. I'm guessing the comic book was the Classics Illustrated The Conquest Of Mexico.	Doug Simms The success of satire magazine Mad in the 1950s inspired lots of mostly ephermeral imitators. Here's Doug holding two of them: Lunatickle #1, 1956 and the Atlas magazine Bunk #1, 1956. The creator of Mad, Harvey Kurtzman, in 1957 talked the publisher of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner, into publishing his own satire magazine, Trump. This magaizne had the same plush production values as Playboy so it was expensive to produce and lasted only the two issues you see here. These have been reprinted in hardcover if you don't want to spend the time and money chasing down these rare original issues.	Chris Maffei Chris Maffei always sets up at Pulpfest and has the largest selection of vintage "girlie" magazines and books. The paperback book The Revolt Of Mamie Stover is a movie tie-in from the 1956 movie of the same name starring Jane Russell and Richard Egan. I'll next see Chris at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Con in Maryland this September.

Michael Stradford Michael Stradford of Gizmoe Press is a dealer I had never seen before. He was at Pulpfest promoting his new book on the most famous of the male magazine and paperback book models, the hunky Steve Holland. Holland is best known as the model for the square jawed virile male heroes on the cover of Martin Goodman's Men's Adventure magazines like Stage, Male, For Men Only etc... But Holland also posed as Doc Savage for the 1960s Bantam paperbacks with cover art by James Bama.	Michael Stradford Michael with his Steve Holland book. Doc Savage is the only popular culture character who may have had more torn shirts than the Marvel comics character U.S. Army sergeant Nicholas Fury.	Doug Ellis Doug Ellis is a major player in the pulp and original art hobby. He promotes the Windy City Pulp and Paper Show in Lombard, IL which I attended for the first time last April. Doug agreed to give me another free pass for next year's show so I will most likely be there.

John Gunnison John Gunnison of Adventure House publishing is another big player in the pulp magazine collectibles hobby. He always has a huge selection of inventory and also is one of the auctioneers, along with Joe Saines, at the Pulpfest evening auction. He was really busy at this show but he managed to peek up from furiously working on his Apple Mac computer long enough for me to snap this photo.	Todd Warren Pulp and rare book dealer Todd Warren holding his personal copy (not for sale) of the first issue of Weird Tales from 1923. Todd told me this was the last issue he needed to complete his entire run of Weird Tales. I asked Todd how many other people had a complete collection of Weird Tales and he said he knew of a few others. At left is a signed copy of the first edition hardcover of Dark Carnival, 1947 by Ray Bradbury which was the first Bradbury book published by the venerable dark fantasy publisher Arkham House. At right is The Outsider And Others which is the first book published by Arkham House and the first collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories in hardcover. I asked Todd the price of these two books and his answer reminded me of the old saying "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." Let's move on to the dealers in the lobby next to the dealers' room.	Terry O'Neill Terry O'Neill always has impressive pulp and comic book inventory. He also had a large collection of sexy digest magazines and paperbacks at this show. The paperbacks in the Pulpfest link photo on the Main Introduction Page belong to Terry.

Terry O'Neill Terry with some of his digest magazines. At left is some original art and some Frank Frazetta prints from the 1970s.	Henry Franke Henry Franke of Yorktown, VA is the editor of the long running Edgar Rice Burroughs fanzine The Burroughs Bulletin and wise in the ways of all things pertaining to Burroughs. If you have questions about the legendary writer who created Tarzan, John Carter, David Innes, Carson Napier etc... just ask Henry.	Derek Woywood Derek promotes the Philadelphia Comic Con which Derek tells me the longest running comic con in that city. He used to setup with comic book dealer Gene Carpenter at Pulpfest and even though Gene has been absent of late Derek still makes it to Pulpfes on his own. Derek is holding a hardcover book Super Boys about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the teenage boys from Cleveland, OH who invented Superman. In the foreground at left is Weird Tales October 1933 with the famous "Bat Woman" cover by Weird Tales's top cover artist Margaret Brundage. Derek told me the enticing cover makes this the most desirable and expensive issue of this pulp title. Having stories by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard doesn't reduce the price any either. At right is Thrilling Wonder Stories August 1948 with cover art by noted artist Earle Bergey. Here's a copy of this issue I sold on ebay in 2007 for $23.50.

Wyatt Doyle Wyatt Doyle and his partner Bob Deis who couldn't make it to Pulpfest this year specialize in publishing books about a little known niche in popular culture - Men's Adventure magazines. At left is their newest book on one of the important artists for these magazines, Gil Cohen. Most Men's Adventure magazines were published by Marvel comics publisher Martin Goodman from the early 1950s through the mid 1970s or so. They were marketed to a male, working class audience with their stories of heroic men in exotic locations fighting evildoers and seducing as many women as possible. In the 1960s in my hometown of Savannah, GA at the 7-11 store where I bought my Marvel comics I used to see copies of Stag, Male etc... on the magazine shelves next to the comic book spinner rack. I was attracted by their garish painted covers but I couldn't buy any because I had to spend all my allowance money on comic books.	Anthony Cardino "The Fans Of Bronze" is a fan club founded in 1998 to appreciate and promote the legendary pulp magazine hero Doc Savage. Doc had his own pulp magazine in the 1930s and 1940s and reached a larger audience in the 1960s with the superb Bantam paperback covers painted by James Bama. After a long absence from Pulpfest Doc's fans returned to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the only Doc Savage movie ever made Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze from 1975 starring tall, hunky TV Tarzan actor Ron Ely. Despite being produced by the great sci-fi movie maker George Pal, the movie was a critical and box office flop which is why, sadly, no more Doc Savage movies were made. Here's Anthony with a rare uncut card sheet from the movie.	Anthony Cardino Anthony holding a dvd about Doc Savage fans entitled We Are Doc Savage. In the foreground are two paperbacks about Doc Savage by Philip Jose Farmer. I remember several years ago seeing in the Diamond Distributors catalog for comic book stores a listing to order the Doc Savage bust seen at right. Because I liked the Bantam Doc Savage paperback covers, I was interested in this nice looking bust; but not enough to pay $200. I'm a little sorry I didn't buy it then anyway because I can't afford it now at today's prices.

Eric Blackburn, Wyatt Doyle, Lewis Forro It's late Saturday afternoon and I've finished taking all my photos for the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 2025. But there is still a little more to tell. See the photo at right.

Richard Huey, Daryl Morrissey, Lewis Forro, Glen Held, John Duckett After the day's work and dinner I always look forward to sitting in main hotel lobby talking with Wyatt Doyle, Eric Blackburn and other Pulpfest luminaries about our shared interests until late into the night. I was doing just that with Wyatt and Eric when one of the Doc Savage fan club members asked about the Doc Savage dye sublimated shirt I was wearing. I replied "I'm glad you asked that question!" I knew Doc Con was part of Pulpfest this year so I came loaded for bear. I figured if I couldn't sell my Doc Savage shirts to members of the Doc Savage fan club I should get out of the dye sublimation shirt business. Photo taken by Ron Hill.

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Click here to see the Leader's Report on the Steve Ditko Murals and Museum