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Your narrator, the Leader
The Leader attended Pulpfest in Cranberry, Pennsylvania slightly north of Pittsburg, 26 - 28 July 2018. The Leader enjoyed meeting comic book dealer John Hauser of Wisconsin who he had met briefly over 20 yeas ago at a comic book convention in Virginia Beach, VA. The Leader was also pleased to meet for the first time veteran comic book dealer Buddy Saunders of Texas. Of course the Leader also enjoyed seeing his friends from past Pulpfests and other comic book shows: Gene Carpenter, George Mihalik, Brendan Faulkner, Mark Hickman, Martin Grams, Paul Spiteri and Martin J. Swiatkowsk.

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Dealer Set Up and Early Bird Buyers, Thursday, 26 July 2018
Buddy Saunders
In the late 1960s I briefly subscribed to a comic book fanzine Rocket’s Blast - Comicollector or RB&CC published by G.B. Love in Miami, Florida. While reading RB&CC in those days the names James Van Hise, Raymond Miller, Howard P. Siegel and Buddy Saunders kept popping up. In later years I heard that Buddy Saunders was a major comic book dealer in Texas but I never saw him at the San Diego Comic Con I attended in the 1980s or any other comic book conventions. Buddy was attending Pulpfest for the first time (on a buying trip) and I was glad to chat with him for a few minutes. I mentioned to him his name was familiar to me from reading those 1960s RB&CC fanzines and he told me he had been an artist in the earliest issues of RB&CC and also frequently ran ads there selling comics, starting in 1961. I can’t think of any other comic book dealers still active today who have been in business since 1961.
Brendan Faulkner
Brendan Faulkner of Danbury, CT always has interesting science fiction and movie material for sale. I see him every year at Pulpfest and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Con in Maryland. He got set up early the first night of the show so I was able to photograph him with this recent acquisition from an estate auction. Brendan said it was the original art to a book cover but he didn’t know the book or the artist.
Brendan Faulkner
Brendan taking a minute to survey the large Pulpfest dealer’s room. Men’s Adventure magazine experts Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle are sitting with their backs to the camera.
Wyatt Doyle, Bob Deis
Bob Deis of Key West, Fl is one of the leading authorities on a type of magazine known to collectors as Men’s Adventure magazines. This was his first year setting up at Pulpfest with his publishing partner Waytt Doyle. They were published from the 1950s up through the 1970s and targeted a working class male audience with their lurid cover paintings and stories featuring brave, square-jawed American heroes battling bad guys (usually Nazis, Japanese soldiers, Communists) with lots of scantily clad sexy babes in attendance. Marvel Comics owner Martin Goodman published many of them with titles like Stag, For Men Only, Male, Men and so on. Check out Bob’s Facebook group page on these magazines: The Men’s Adventure Magazines & Books Facebook Group.
Derek Woywood, Gene Carpenter, Mark Hickman
The Leader’s favorite comic book dealer Gene Carpenter and his partner Derek Woywood arrived late Thursday afternoon and weren’t set up until late that night. Watching them at far right is science fiction book and art dealer Mark Hickman. I’ve seen Mark at the last four Pulpfests I’ve attended. His father was a major science fiction fan, Lynn Hickman, who helped found Pulpcon in the early 1970s which later mutated into Pulpfest.
Eric Blackburn, Lewis Forro, Wyatt Doyle
When I was heading back to my hotel I ran into Bob Deis, Wyatt Doyle and their friend, Eric Blackburn, having dinner in the Doubletree hotel where Pulpfest is held. Bob snapped this photo of Eric, me (wearing blue science fiction paperback covers shirt) and Wyatt.
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