Pulpfest 2012 Day Three

My third and final daily report on Pulpfest. If you haven't seen the first two entries, they are: Day One and Day Two.

The bug that's been floating around my house this past week finally caught up to me, so I decided not to go back downtown for the evening panels. Part of what I missed was the presentation of the Munsey Award ("presented annually to a deserving person who has given of himself or herself for the betterment of the pulp community") and the Rusty Hevelin Service Award ("designed to recognize those individuals within the pulp community who have worked long and hard for the pulp community with little thought for individual recognition"). The winners of those awards were:

• Munsey Award - Matt Moring
• Rusty Hevelin Service Award - Jack & Sally Cullers

The Pulpfest committee's writeup of the award presentations provides more details both about the awards themselves and those who won them this year.

I did make it to the convention earlier in the day to take another look at the dealer's room, this time bringing my father (who introduced me to Pulpfest in specific and conventions in general) along. I picked up a few more items for my collection and did a lot of window-shopping. One of the things that I got to look at wistfully from afar was the three volume set of Seabury Quinn's Jules de Grandin stories.

More within my price range was Jim Beard's intriguing collection of stories about the adventures of Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker.

"Part detective, part occultist, Janus is himself a man of mystery whose own past is shrouded and the motivations behind his calling kept hidden. Within this volume you will find eight tales as narrated by his clients, each with his or her own perspective on this uncanny hero and his amazing career."

A glance through this book intrigued me and I'm looking forward to starting to read it very soon.

Jim Beard displays two of his books.

One very nice display in the dealer's room showed various awards and mementos from Rusty Hevelin. Rusty passed away late in 2011. I never knew him to any significant extent, but he was a familiar face when I went to conventions in my younger days and he was in attendance at last year's Pulpfest. The three photos below are from that table.

Display of Rusty Hevelin awards and mementos.

Painting of Rusty Hevelin

A poll (with Phil Foglio illustrations) asking whether Rusty
should grow his beard back out or not. (Date unknown)

The convention's dealer's room will be open tomorrow morning, but I've spent what I planned to spend (and, well, a tiny bit more) so it will be 2013 before I have more of a Pulpfest experience. It was, as always, a good experience this year and I look forward to next year's convention.

Pulpfest 2012 Day Two

Pulpfest continued today with the dealer's room officially opening at 9 AM. I wasn't able to be there right at the open but I did have a chance to stop by on my lunch break since the convention is being held a five-minute walk from where I work this year. There was a lot of activity (as you can see in the picture below) but the room was spacious enough that nothing felt crowded or cramped. I picked up a couple dozen (mostly science fiction) digest magazines for my collection.

Pulpfest 2012 Dealer's Room

After work and a quick run for dinner, I went back to the convention. As luck would have it, Guest of Honor Mike Resnick and I struck up a conversation in the hall and while most of the rest of the convention attendees were off at dinner, he and I had a conversation for 20 or 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun talking with him about various conventions he'd been at, authors we both liked, etc.

Before long, though, it was time to head to the room where the panels are being held. The first panel was part of FarmerCon VII (the Philip Jose Farmer-themed convention running concurrently with Pulpfest). Paul Spiteri moderated a discussion with Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert about the Wold Newton universe, their own experiences collaborating with Philip Jose Farmer, and more.

From left to right: Paul Spiteri, Christopher Paul Carey & Win Scott Eckert

After that, Mike Resnick gave his Guest of Honor presentation to the audience. It was very entertaining with lots of fun anecdotes and reminiscences.

Pulpfest 2012 Guest of Honor Mike Resnick

The next session was a panel discussion about Mars in the pulps. Ed Hulse moderated and four others discussed the subject, with each of them focusing on one particular author. Henry G. Franke on Burroughs, Garyn G. Roberts on Bradbury, Will Murray on Otis Adelbert Kline, and Stephen Haffner on Leigh Brackett. With five people up there, this was a fast-paced discussion with lots of opinions around the room about both the individual writers and their works as well as just why Mars was such an object of attention to pulp writers.

Left to Right: Franke, Roberts, Hulse, Murray and Haffner

The final speaker of the night was David Saunders who presented information about artist James Allen St. John. St. John was the illustrator for many Edgar Rice Burroughs works. Some gorgeous color reproductions displayed as part of the presentation were a highlight.

David Saunders

The final event of the evening was a film program. The first item shown was some test footage from a proposed animated version of the John Carter stories dating back to 1936 with Bob Clampett and John Coleman Burroughs (ERB's son) involved. The project did not get funding, though, so these brief snippets are all which was made. After that, a short movie titled Last Flight, shot in New Zealand and set on Mars was shown. The documentary I, Tarzan was the final screening for the evening, but with midnight fast approaching, I decided not to stay to watch this one.

Another exciting day of Pulpfest 2012 is over but there's more fun yet to come!

Pulpfest 2012 Day One

The annual Pulpfest convention began tonight here in Columbus. I've been attending this show for several years now and I always have a good time at it.

I plan to go on three of the four days this weekend: today, Friday, and Saturday. I thought a brief write-up of what I see at the show might be of interest to some readers so I'll be featuring this over the next several days.

Rick Lai prepares for his panel on
the influence of French literature in the pulp traditions.