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Dealer Setup Thursday 3 April 2025

Mark Hickman Mark Hickman in the lobby of the Westin-Lombard hotel with his Windy City goodies. Mark will have to wheel his dolly cart around to the loading dock to the dealers' room or wait in the long line you see behind him. While waiting for the dealer's room to open I enjoyed talking with Mark and his friend and Harlan Ellison fan Scott Norris. Let's see what is at the front of this line in the next photo.	Dealers and Early Bird Shoppers As soon as the dealers' room opened at 7 p.m. this long line of dealers and Early Bird shoppers quickly appeared. The dealers' room is at left. Let's take a look at some of the Windy City dealers and their pop culture treasures in the rest of the photos on this page.	Bill Thinnes Bill is holding two of his several metal small posters with Jack Kirby art taken from the pinup pages of the early 1960s Marvel comic book The Fantastic Four Annual #1.

John Hauser John Hauser is a veteran comic book dealer who I sometimes see at Pulpfest; he doesn't attend every year. I don't see him at comic book shows because he doesn't often attend the comic shows near the East Coast that I go to. We do have one mutual friend, George Mihalik who had done lots of business with John over the years. John stopped me briefly later during the show and commented that he remembered me from the San Diego Con in the early 1980s where I showed him the original art to a Steve Ditko story from Tales To Astonish #1, 1959 that I had just bought. I certainly remember buying the story and who I bought it from but I had completely forgotten talking to John about it. He obviously has a good memory.	Jon Wehler At Pulpfest each year Jon usually has lots of pulps and pulp magazine original art. This year at Windy City he only had this selection of interesting vintage paperback books.	Franz Kraljic & Anastasia Here's Franz and Anastasia with a large and very rare advertising poster for True Detective magazine. I don't know where these large posters would have been displayed. Perhaps in a bus or train station? Detective magazines were once plentiful but like pulp magazines and other types of pop culture magazines, they are no longer with us.

Rick Santman & Bill Thade Rick Santman is a veteran comic book and book dealer that until this show I had only seen at Pulpfest. Bill Thades always has a big selection of Silver Age comics books. I've seen Bill a few times over the last few years at Pulfest, HeroesCon and the Baltimore Comic Con. We'll check them tomorrow when their display walls are set up.	David Ritter & Daniel Ritter I first saw this father and son team of dealers at Pulpfest a few years ago and I was definitely intrigued by their hardcover books on the history of early science fiction fandom. The books' production values are very high with crisp photography of old timey science fiction fanzines, letters and related memorabilia. These books are also of interest to comic book collectors because some of the sci-fi pulp magazine writers noted - Julius Schwartz, Mort Weisinger, Gardner Fox, Edmond Hamilton- later went to work at DC Comics in the 1940s and 1950s. I'll somehow have to cobble together enough money to buy these books one day.	Gene Carpenter I hadn't seen Gene since the Fayetteville Comic Con last October 2024. He has recovered from his recent medical troubles and will be able to resume his duties as the Leader's Favorite Comic Book Dealer. I look forward to seeing Gene again at the Virginia Comic Con in Ricmond this coming 17 May.

Peter Macuga Peter Macuga is another dealer I've seen at Pulpfest in past years. Here's Peter with a big selection of Astounding Science Fiction pulps. Astounding had been around since the early 1930s under publisher William Clayton and editor Harry Bates. A new editor, John W. Campbell, took over in 1937. Campbell nurtured the best science fiction writers in the field (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Simak etc...) and made Astounding the preemenient science fiction pulp until the mid 1950s. This venerable old warhorse magazine is still with us today under the title Analog that you can buy at any large bookstore. Click here for Page 2 of the Leader's Report on the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention 2025 Click here for Page 3 of the Leader's Report on the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention 2025 Click here for Page 4 of the Leader's Report on the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention 2025