Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 3-5 August 2023

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Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Savannah Comic Con and the Virginia Comic Con

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Friday 4 August 2023

Ray Walsh Ray is the owner of the Curious Book Shop in Lansing, Michigan. He has been setting up at Pulpfest for many years and always has a large assortment of pulps, paperbacks and other popular culture artifacts. The digest magazine Peter Gowland's Glamor Camera features the famous model Diane Webber on the cover. She was a Playboy Playmate under the name Margaret Empey and appeared in lots of girlie and nudist magazine pictorials in the 1950s and 1960s. I sold one of these on ebay 11 years ago and saved the file as I usally do so Click here if you want to see more of what is inside this magazine.	Ray Walsh Ray with a print by well known fantasy artist Hannes Bok. At left is a copy of Amazing Stories which was the first pulp magazine to feature science fiction stories or "scientifiction" as it was also called in the 1920s. These oversize pulps are known as "bedsheets."	Ray Walsh Ray with two issues of the blue chip pulp Astounding Science Fiction. When editor John W. Campbell took over in 1937 he made Astounding the leading science fiction pulp with most of the best writers such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak, A.E. van Vogt, Arthur C. Clarke working for him. Astounding maintained this preeminent position until the mid 1950s when digest magazines like Galaxy and The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction gave it some real competition.

Timothy Kupin Timothy Kupin aka Koop, owner of Koop's Comics, is a veteran dealer I used to see at the Virginia Comic Con in Richmond, Virginia several years ago. I was pleased to see him again after all these years.	Timothy Kupin Koop with a recently published hardcover book of Frank Frazetta paintings. The cover art is from the paperback book Rogue Roman. The comic book is House Of Secrets #92, 1971 featuring the first appearance of the Swamp Thing. I've only owned one copy of this comic. About 20 years ago in my town of Virginia Beach, Virginia my friend Rick Krippendorf bought some Bronze Age comics from a collector who was selling his collection. After Rick got what he wanted to told me about the collection so I went over to the collector's house and went through his comic boxes. When a high grade copy of House Of Mystery #92 jumped out at me I thought to myself: "Here's one Rick missed!" I stole it for a few dollars and sold it not long afterward for a very handsome profit. But now looking at Koop's price on his copy maybe I should have waited but how could I know the CGC service was going to be invented?	Martin Grams, Jr. Marty is a prolific author of books on vintage radio and TV shows. Here he is with the newest book he has worked on, Maverick. His best known book about The Twilight Zone is at left. I'll see Marty again in early September at the show he promotes, the Mid-Atlantaic Nostalia Con in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Cathy Wilbanks Cathy is Vice President of Operations for Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Here she is presiding over some recently published books about Burroughs's fictional characters. For the benefit of the uninitiated, Jane Porter was the wife of John Clayton aka Lord Greystoke and Tarzan of the Apes.	John McMahan John McMahan had some of the best Silver Age comic books at the show but also had some nice looking pulps like these examples. Many pulps had covers showing a man whipping a sexy woman but this Wu Fang pulp cover shows the reverse. The Spider pulp has an intriguing story title on the cover "Hell's Sales Manager." More about The Spider Master of Men when we get to author Will Murray's photo on page 3 of the Leader's Report.	Rick Santman Rick with two examples of original art from the Humorama digest magazines of the 1950s or 1960s. Humorama was one of the companies owned by Men's Adventure magazine and Marvel comic books publisher Martin Goodman. A relative, Abe Goodman, ran the Humorama division. The Humorama digest magazines had titles like Breezy, Gee-Whiz, Snap, Gaze and others. They had some pinup photos but mostly contained full page risque cartoons from Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel and many other artists. According to legend, when Abe Goodman he went through a divorce many years ago he sold all the Humorama original art so you do see various dealers with Humorama original art from time to time on the show circuit.

Rick Santman Rick with a Weird Tales pulp from 1947 with a cover by Matt Fox. Fox had a quirky art style I like. In the 1950s he drew some stories for Atlas comics and the early 1960s for Marvell comics inked some science fiction and fantasy stories drawn by Larry Leiber. A new book from Tomorrows Publishing is coming out this October The Chillingly Weird Art of Matt Fox and I've already ordered my copy from my local comic book store. Rick also is showing an original edition (not the later reprint)from the early 1940s The Adventures of Superman.	Joe Saines Joe with two examples of spicy paperbacks. Just Once has a cover by famous pinup artist Bill Ward. Pick Up 1955 was written by Charles Willeford who is known as one of the best hard-boiled crime/detective writers.	Tim Paxton Veteran book dealer Tim Paxton always has some of the best hardcover and paperback books at Pulpfest. That's Tim sitting in his booth talking to another dealer. In the foreground in the glass case is an Amazing digest magazine featuring a novelization of the Ray Harryhausen movie 20 Million Miles to Earth. I spent three years tire-kicking Tim over this item but I couldn't afford his $200 asking price. At last year's Pulpfest he sold it and then immediately bought this copy from dealer Mark Hickman.

Tim Paxton Tim with three paperback novels by Jim Thompson who is just as famous as Charles Willeford or any other hardboiled crime writer, except Mickey Spillane. The Killer Inside Me is probably his best known novel and has been made into three movies. In the 1980s while living in San Bernardino, California I learned who Jim Thompson was from reading the Max Allan Collins commentaries in the Crime Suspense Stories hardcover books that reprinted the EC comic books. Plus, I often prowled among the used bookstores in Los Angeles where I first saw this first edition paperback The Killer Inside Me in a glass case with a big price. I didn't normally read The Los Angeles Times newspaper but somehow I got hold of a copy that had an article on Jim Thompson. I was even more intrigued now and started calling around to some of the used bookstores in Los Angeles to see what Thompson books they had. The problem was I wasn't the only person who read that article and I was told by all the book store owners they were all sold out of Jim Thompson novels. But, happily still later in the 1980s I did manage to snag two Thompson omnibus hardcovers, Hardcore and More Hardcore. I never read them and they are still in mint condition sitting in my glass bookcase.	Paul Spiteri, Michael Croateau Paul and Mike are my two favorite Meteor House men. The Meteor House publishing company specializes in keeping in print the books of science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer. Here's Paul and Mike with their new Doc Savage books. Farmer didn't invent Doc Savage but he did write a fictional biography about him in the 1960s.	Paul Spiteri Paul with another new book Jesus On Mars.

Craig Poole Original art connoisseur Craig Poole of Richmond, Virginia always sets up at Pulpfest and he and Doug Ellis always have the best selection of original paintings. Doug's offerings were a bit less than normal so this year Craig had the largest display.	Craig Poole Craig with a painting of the cover to a book about the Spanish Conquistadors and the 1943 hardcover book to go with it.	Craig Poole Craig with a painting of the cover for the paperback book Lord And Master which notes on the cover the movie it was made into, Elephant Walk, starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Craig Poole, Bob Deis The Men's Adventure magazine impresario Bob Deis stopped by to admire Craig's paintings. I'm sure the original painting to the magazine Real Men visible behind Craig caught Bob's eye.	Walter Albert and Jim Albert Walter and Jim have been collecting pulp magazines for a very long time.

Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 3-5 August 2023

Click here for Page 3 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 3-5 August 2023

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Savannah Comic Con and the Virginia Comic Con