Click here for Page 2 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 2026.

Click here for Page 3 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 2026.

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Virginia Comic Con 12 September 2026.

Click on any image below to see it much larger with more detail.

Thursday 30 July 2026

Hallway The doors on the left of the hallway lead into the Pulpfest main dealers' room. Pulpfest has been growing in recent years and puts some of the dealers who can't be fit into the main room in this hallway. At right is the check-in desk. At left behind the "Talks" sign are vendors Wyatt Doyle and Eric Blackburn of New Texture which publishes books about Men's Adventure magazines. But what's that sign at left in the foreground? Let's take a closer look in the next photo.	Robert E. Howard House If 1930s small town Texas writer Robert E. Howard didn't invent the Sword & Sorcery literary genre he certainly put in on the map with his fictional creations Conan, King Kull and others. As a kid in the 1960s I was vaguely aware of Howard but had never read any of his books. Then one day in the late 1960s at a Walden's bookstore in Oglethrope Mall in my hometown of Savannah, GA a Lancer paperback book cover jumped out at me; it was Howard's Conan with the fantastic Frank Frazetta cover illustrating the Howard Conan story "Rogues In The House." I enjoyed reading it and so read the rest of the Lancer paperback Conan books in the following months before the Marvel comic Conan The Barbarian #1, 1970 accelerated Conan's rebirth into modern popular culture.	Robert E. Howard House

Mike Chomko Here's Pulpfest mover-and-shaker Mike Chomko preparing notes for Pulpfest's upcoming Saturday night auction. If you need any back issues of The Pulpster magazine see Mike.	Bill Cunningham Bill and his partner Bob Deis design books pertaining to Men's Adventure magazines including the Men's Adventure Quarterly softcover book. Here's Bill showing off their hardcover book on the most famous magazine and paperback book cover model, Steve Holland. If you ever wonder why so many Men's Adventure magazine covers feature the same hunky, square jawed hero on the cover it's because Steve Holland was the model for the cover artists.	Bill Cunningham Bill with two Frankenstein monster books.

Ron Hill Ron Hill holding down the Doc Savage fan club table. The Doc Savage fans held their first DocCon meeting at Pulpfest last year and returned again this year. As a kid in the 1960s I enjoyed looking at the Doc Savage Bantam paperback covers with the great James Bama art on the drug store paperback spinner racks.	Derek Woywood Veteran collector Derek Woywood promotes the Philadelphia Comic Con which is the longest running comic show in that city. Derek used to setup at Pulpfest with Gene Carpenter. Gene hasn't been to Pulpfest in recent years but I'm still glad to see Derek make it to the show. Here's Derek with art portfolios of two of the most famous pulp magazine artists - Virgil Finlay and Hannes Bok. Derek also had this example of the legendary pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction, known for having the best writers from the late 1930s up through the mid 1950s.	Derek Woywood Derek with the DC comic book Action Comics #50, 1942. Even in rough shape like this one these Golden Age comics still bring big money.

Wyatt Doyle, Eric Blackburn The publishing company New Texture managed by Bod Deis and Wyatt Doyle specialize in books devoted to Men's Adventure magazines. Here's Wyatt and his assistant Eric Blackburn showing off some of their books.	Wyatt Doyle Wyatt showing off a new art book on Morton Kunstler. The Men's Adventure and similar blue-collar magazines in the 1950s and 1960s had many fine artists and Mort Kunstler was the best of them.

Garyn Roberts After the dealers' room closes Pulpfest offers nighttime programing. Here's vendor and science fiction expert Dr. Garyn Roberts giving a slide show presentation on publisher Hugo Gernsback's tenure at Amazing Stories. Gernsback invented the modern era of literary science fiction with his creation of the first modern pulp science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories in 1926. Amazingly enough, Amazing Stories is still being published today. The only other pulp science fiction magazine from the old days still being published is Astounding Stories renamed Analog.

Garyn Roberts One of the issues of Amazing Stories pulps in Garyn's presentation. If I had been a kid in 1929 instead of the 1960s and saw this magazine on a newsstand I would have been glad to spend a quarter on it. It would have been easy since comic books hadn't been invented yet.

Click here for Page 2 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 2026.

Click here for Page 3 of the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 2026.

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Virginia Comic Con 12 September 2026.