Bombay Mail was screened at Cinevent in Columbus, this past weekend. I certainly agree with Steve’s assessment of the film, reviewed here, which is fun but cluttered with too much plot and too little development of the large cast of characters. This might, however, repay a visiting, and Steve, I’d be interested in your take on the film after a second viewing.

   There were several crime films screened, and, of the ones I saw, I was most impressed by The Under-Cover Man, a 1932 Paramount Publix release, that gave George Raft his first starring role. He had no great range as an actor, but the role, that of a small-time crook who goes undercover for the police to help them catch the murderer of his father, nicely suited his talent. It also helped that he had a strong supporting cast that included Nancy Carroll, Lew Cody, David Landau, Gregory Ratoff and Roscoe Karns.

   I was less impressed by a British film, Appointment with Crime (a British National release, 1946), a grim little drama that was marred by a badly written climax that may have been scripted to satisfy a morality code demanding a “suitable” punishment for the criminal lead (Kenneth Harlan). There were some striking performances, most notably that of Herbert Lom as an upperclass villain, standing out among the lowlifes he dealt with.

   An oddity was Blondie Has Servant Trouble, an old house mystery in the long-running Columbia series based on the even longer-running newspaper strip. I’ve seen the movie more than once (and I did see it on its original release) and it’s probably the only one of the series that I would watch again.

   An enthusiastic Variety review is quoted, and, with even a modicum of encouragement, I will pull the film from my box set of the complete series (now you know the probably awful truth about my taste in films) and see if it’s held up for me.

   For the record, the films I most enjoyed at the convention were Dick Turpin (Fox 1925; John G. Blystone, director; starring Tom Mix); The Virginian (B. P. Schulberg Productions, 1923; Tom Forman, director; Kenneth Harlan (The Virginian), Florence Vidor (Molly Woods), Russell Simpson (Trampas), and Pat O’Malley (Steve); and Mare Nostrum (MGM, 1926; Rex Ingram, director; Alice Terry and Antonio Moreno).

   I will add that Ellery Queen’s Penthouse Mystery (Darmour Inc./Columbia release, 1941; James Hogan, director, Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Charley Grapewin, and Anna May Wong, among a cast of familiar faces) seemed to me a silly travesty of the EQ character, with Bellamy dithering through much of the film over Nikki Porter’s “meddling” in a murder investigation instead of sticking to her typewriter and working on his latest novel.

   After the screening, when a friend asked me what I thought of the film, and I told him, it was only then that he told me that, fired by his enjoyment of the film, he had bought a complete set of the Queen films from one of the convention dealers. Not one of my more comfortable moments during the convention.

   Just back from attending this long running one day event that Gary Lovisi has managed to organize for over 20 years on an annual basis. Over 50 sellers in a large dealers’ room selling vintage paperbacks, pulps, new books, and original artwork. Prices seemed very reasonable to me and I managed to find several of my Dime Mystery pulp wants.

   Steve and I had discussed the problems in attending this show because we both were limping around due to overexertion. Steve couldn’t make it, but I manage to survive the train ride from Trenton, NJ to NYC with the help of long time collector Digges La Touche.

   We arrived at the show at a little after 9:00 am Sunday and were immediately met with the delicious aroma of old books and pulp paper. The crowd appeared even bigger than last year and consisted mainly of elderly book collectors of the male gender. There were a few females trying to reign in their husbands and boyfriends passionate love of collecting but it was a losing battle.

   You know what I’m referring to: the age-old battle between the non-collector and the collector. These battles have led to the breakup of many a marriage, and many a collection has been ordered sold by the courts in order to split the proceeds. A collector’s worst nightmare!

   There were numerous guests selling and signing their books. Too many to mention but I do want to give special note to someone I consider the most notable writer present: Ron Goulart. Not only has he been a professional writer for over 40 years but he has written some excellent books on the pulps such as Cheap Thrills, The Dime Detectives, The Hardboiled Dicks and others. C. J. Henderson had a table selling his numerous books and driving collectors nuts by yelling at them to come and visit “The Wonderful of Me”. This of course just scares everyone away.

   As we all know, a great part of the fun of collecting involves the many friends that we make over the years. Here are some notes about the collectors I talked to at the show:

   Tom Lesser. One of the great West Coast paperback collectors who organizes the annual LA Paperback Convention each year. He just had a bypass operation, and I’m happy to report he is up and about and looking better than ever.

   Dan Roberts. Another serious paperback and art collector who has one of the largest collections in the world.

   Paul Herman. Pulp and art collector who always has interesting items at his table.

   Ed Hulse. Publishing and editor of Blood n Thunder magazine which deals with the pulp and movie world.

   Nick Certo. A major pulp, paperback and art dealer.

   Mark Halegua. Organizer of the Gotham Pulp meeting every month in NYC.

   David Saunders. Artist and author of many articles in Illustration Magazine. He is the author of the excellent book on Norman Saunders and the new book on Ward, the pulp artist.

   Rich Harvey. Organizer of the annual Pulp Adventure Con in Bordentown, NJ.

   Chris Eckhoff. Dealer and expert in the field of paperback erotic novels.

   The above are just a sample of the crazed and over the top dealers and collectors that you can meet at this convention. The paperback collecting field is wide open, and most paperbacks are very inexpensive. This show and the LA show should not be missed, especially if you live within two or three hours driving distance. Collecting books has been called the grandest game in the world and this show proves it.

   Marsha Hunt, the female co-star of Kid Glove Killer (1942), reviewed here by Walter Albert, and whose career was discussed at length in the comments that followed, is scheduled to make an appearance at this year’s Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

   Other guests include:

VAN WILLIAMS (Surfside 6, The Green Hornet)
ROY THINNES (The Invaders)
DAWN WELLS (Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island)
MARK GODDARD (Johnny Ringo, Lost in Space)
GERI REISCHL (Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch Hour)
ED NELSON (Peyton Place and tons of TV and Roger Corman films)
WILL HUTCHINS (Sugarfoot, Hey Landlord, Blondie)

   ON DISPLAY! The original 1966 Chrysler Imperial Black Beauty from the Green Hornet TV series! There were only two made and one of them resides in a museum in California. The other is owned by a private collector who fully restored the vehicle and will have it on display at the convention. (This is not a replica!)

   For more information, check out the convention’s website here.

   I wish I could be there, but perhaps you can. From all accounts, the convention is getting bigger and better every year.

   I’m just recently back from one of the most enjoyable four days in my life as a collector. It’s true. I only got four hours of sleep each night and I ate and drank beer to excess, but I hung out with the greatest group of collectors and happily wallowed in a sea of pulps, books, vintage paperbacks, and original pulp art paintings.

   Since I was going to leave for the convention on Thursday, I started to pack up on Wednesday the pulps that I was going to sell at my table. As I sorted through the hundreds of issues I came to the horrifying realization that I simply could not bear to part with any of them, so I put them back on the shelves and decided to just sell canceled checks from the Popular Publications and Munsey files and a box of DVDs. As usual the checks sold well.

   The last few years I’ve driven out to the pulp conventions with Steve Kennedy, a NYC art dealer who is a not an early riser. Thursday morning at 5:00 am, I began the usual ordeal of getting Steve out of bed and into the car so that we could be on the road by 6:00.

   Nine hours and 500 miles later we arrived at the Columbus, Ohio Ramada. Though it was only 3:00 pm, pulp collectors were already showing up and several rang my room to see when we could all get together. Within a couple hours, several of us were chowing down the hotel restaurant food.

   I’ve heard several complaints about the hotel food and the lack of restaurants within walking distance. Frankly, I don’t care if the food or restaurants are good, bad, or indifferent. I’m there for the books, pulps, and artwork.

   Most mornings I ate breakfast in the hotel with such crazy collectors and longtime friends as Scott Hartshorne, Nick Certo, Dave Scroggs, Ed Hulse, and Digges La Touche. The one breakfast that we ate at the Waffle House, I made the interesting discovery that Lollipops, The Gentlemen’s Club was next door. Some of us were going to visit to see if any of the girls were pulp collectors, but there was a Shriners convention also at the hotel and these guys were real party animals without the distraction of books and pulps. Maybe next year…

   The hotel was a real bargain and despite the lack of nearby restaurants, I’ve never seen room rates so low for a hotel which also provided a large dealer’s room, hospitality suite, and meeting rooms. In fact the lack of restaurants is not really a problem at all because the hotel has a nice 15 person shuttle van that will take you and pick you up from any place in town.

   The Hospitality room was excellent, full of beer, soda, and snacks. Also full of knowledgeable collectors talking about pulps into the early morning hours. I would like to thank the great guys who are responsible for stocking the beer. I’m very thirsty after a long day of breathing in pulp chips and talking about the joys of collecting to just about anyone who would stand still.

   The dealer’s room this year was far larger than last year’s room with a lot of space between dealers. The attendance was even better that last year’s 350, reaching at least the 390 mark. This attendance of almost 400 is more than any that the old Pulpcons ever had.

   I would place this year’s show as one of the very best I’ve ever attended, and I’ve been to almost all since the first one in 1972. I rank the 2010 PulpFest with the first Pulpcon in 1972 and the 1981 Cherry Hill event, where I scored over 10 pulp cover paintings for an average price of $200 to $400 each.

   So many great collectors were there that I cannot mention them all. But I will mention two who have excellent blogs and websites that often mention pulps and paperbacks: Laurie Powers of Laurie’s Wild West and of course Steve Lewis of Mystery*File. Besides the PulpMags Yahoo group, these are the only two websites I make a point of visiting every day.

   The evening panels were the best I’ve ever attended, though the Windy City Adventure panel was also outstanding. Friday night we had a panel on The Pulp Western with Guest of Honor William Nolan, Mike Nevins, Don Hutchinson, Laurie Powers, and Ed Hulse.

   This type of panel never happened before because of the constant emphasis on such subjects as the hero pulps. Westerns once were extremely popular and were outsold only by the love pulps, so we need more discussions concerning the western pulps.

   Also on Friday we heard William Nolan’s speech, Stephen Haffner on Leigh Brackett, and Tony Tollin on his favorite subject, The Shadow. During the day, I couldn’t drag myself away from the joys of the dealer’s room but I’ve been told that Mike Nevins gave an interesting talk concerning his new book, Cornucopia of Crime.

   I managed to get an advance copy signed by Mike and can report it is a major publication, collecting many of his essays on mystery authors that he has written over the years.

   As good as Friday was, Saturday was even better, with the business meeting, Munsey Award presentation, Black Mask panel, and the auction.

   The Munsey Award was properly awarded to Mike Chomko but I didn’t hear presenter Tom Roberts mention why Mike was getting the award. Not only has he been one of the major members of the PulpFest committee (the others are Jack Cullers, Barry Traylor, and Ed Hulse), but he used to publish one of the very best of the pulp fanzines, Purple Prose.

   It was a major disappointment when Mike had to suspend the magazine due to his medical studies and I tried to talk him out of it to no avail. Hopefully he will find the time to revive this great magazine. In addition he is the major dealer of pulp related books, selling just about every pulp reprint that’s available. We haven’t had such a dealer since the great old days of Robert Weinberg Books. Congratulations Mike.

The Black Mask panel ranks as one of the very best panels, right up there with the great Adventure panel at Windy City. During an hour Bill Nolan, Ed Hulse, John Wooley, and I managed to discuss every major period of the magazine and many of the writers and editors

   Bill Nolan talked about the Joe Shaw years of 1926-1936 when the very best in hard boiled fiction was published; Ed Hulse covered an over view of the magazine and discussed the Fanny Ellsworth years of 1937-1940; I talked about the Ken White years in the forties and John Wooley discussed the post war period.

   We also covered just about every major writer such as Hammett, Chandler, Carroll John Daly, Horace McCoy, Fred Nebel, Raoul Whitfield, Erle Stanley Gardner, Paul Cain, Merle Constiner, D. L. Champion, Robert Reeves, and Dale Clark, Butler, Norbert Davis, among others.

   Perhaps many of the readers of this report will only recognize such famous names as Hammett, Chandler, Gardner, but believe me these other writers have been unjustly forgotten and some rank right up there with our favorite SF, western, adventure and mystery writers. I say “some” because we did have some critical things to say about Carroll John Daly and Horace McCoy.

   The auction was very well attended and 142 lots went up for bids. Collectors managed to obtain such pulps as The Shadow, Golden Book, Frontier Stories, Western Story, Argosy, Popular, Thrilling Wonder, Adventure, Nick Carter, Pete Rice, Fantastic Adventures, Air War, Startling Stories, Captain Zero, Super Detective, Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Story, Flynn’s, Double Detective, Thrilling Adventures, Dime Mystery, G-8, Detective Tales, and many others.

   The most interesting item was Walter Gibson’s typewriter, or at least one of them, with a letter of authenticity.

   I obtained my usual pile of wants and interesting objects. I’m working on a complete set of Western Story, and I’m somewhere around the 1200 issue mark, so it’s getting very difficult to find the early issues I still need, but I found one from 1922.

   I showed the issue to Laurie Powers and other collectors, and they must of thought I was crazy to be so happy about one issue of Western Story, but that’s the excitement you feel as you near the completion of a lifelong project.

   Another find that impressed everyone was a 1940’s issue of Love Book. Normally you would think such a find to be of very little interest but over 30 years ago I obtained a love pulp cover painting showing a pretty girl typist smiling.

   I’ve hunted decades for the magazine to go with the painting and had just about given up, thinking that I’d never locate the issue among the thousands of love pulps that were published. But at this convention while digging through rows of love pulps, I found not only the issue but a second one as well.

   I proudly showed it to my pulp collecting pals who over the years had become bored with my constant whining about finding the love magazine to go with the painting. They will now be pleased to hear that now I will shut up about the subject.

   I also obtained an original cover painting from Detective Fiction Weekly and an interesting piece of artwork showing the Yellow Peril danger of World War II.

   John Locke’s Off Trail publications just put out an excellent two volume collection of Ghost Story fiction. It also contains a history of the magazine and original research on the writers. This is a must buy because the original magazines are so rare.

   I bought several of Tom Roberts Black Dog Book reprints. I especially am looking forward to reading the first volume of the best of Adventure magazine, edited by Doug Ellis. Also the first three or four of the Talbot Mundy library are out.

   We are living in the Golden Age of pulp reprints and I saw plenty of tables packed with reprints by Black Dog Books, John Locke’s Off Trails, Altus Books, Age of Aces, Girosal, Stephen Haffner’s books, and others.

   The new issue of Blood n Thunder made its debut and it’s a stunner, perhaps the best issue yet, 100 pages long, containing a long article by Tom Krabacher about Gordon Young, an unjustly forgotten writer. The issue is a celebration of Adventure‘s 100th birthday and also contains pieces by Ed Hulse on the Lady Fulvia series, a serial based on a W.C. Tuttle novel, and an article by Adventure editor Arthur Sullivant Hoffman on writing for the pulps.

   There is also a long section titled, “The Campfire: Sumer 2010 Edition.” Reading this section will point you toward some of the best fiction published in Adventure. It’s sort of a “My Favorite Issue” discussion by such collectors as Doug Ellis, Tom Krabacher, Dave Scroggs, Brian Taves, Ralph Grasso, Digges La Touche, Ed Hulse, and myself.

   Many years ago Doug Ellis published one of the great magazines about the pulps, Pulp Vault. I had hoped that the new issue would finally be available at PulpFest but Doug gave me the sad news that it was delayed.

   When this issue is finally published it will be the greatest issue of a magazine ever published about the pulps. I understand it will be over 200 pages with an unpublished Virgil Finlay cover and full of interesting articles such as Mike Ashley’s article on Blue Book, over 15,000 words long. Reader and Collectors, this will be an issue worth waiting for!

   I know I’ve left a lot out and perhaps other attendees can contribute comments or correct any mistakes. I would like to thank the committee members for all their hard work on this convention. I’m referring to Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers and his family, Barry Traylor, and Ed Hulse.

   Also thanks to Chris Kalb for his work, John Gunnison for his voice in the auction room, Tony Davis and others involved with The Pulpster, and the collectors who stocked the Hospitality suite.

   Fellow readers and collectors, this is not a convention to be missed. Start making plans for next year because we have to support this event with our attendance. If it wasn’t for these people, by now we would mourning the death of the summer convention, because the old Pulpcon was on its last legs.

   Paul dropped me off at home yesterday afternoon around four o’clock. Not only did we have a great time, but so (I’m sure) did everybody else who went to this year’s PulpFest. Attendance was up a little, sales were down a little — if the dealers could be believed — but the room was always busy with purchases and other additions to buyers’ collections, or so it seemed to me.

   Once back home I realized that I did not make it around the dealers room as often as I often do, and there were, alas, a few friends I did not spend as much time with as usual. The time went very quickly, and all too soon the convention was over.

   I spent more money on pulps than usual, and this happened in fact before the dealers room was even open. There were as many sellers offering paperbacks this year as there were selling pulp magazines, or so was my impression. I did not see many rare pulps for sale, but I suspect that they were grabbed up before I had a chance to see them.

   I’m hoping that Walker Martin will write up his comments on PulpFest soon, as he’s been doing for other pulp and paperback shows like this one, and by the time he does I expect to have a few photos to post here as well.

   Traveling by air is the only way to go, but it’s no longer easy. We were delayed an hour going when our second plane had to be worked on before taking off. And coming back I lost a pair of reading glasses after going through security. The case fell out of my pocket when I sat down to put my shoes back on. I called Lost and Found at the Columbus airport this morning and luckily they had it. It’s on its way to me by UPS now, so all is well.

   This will be my only post today. It won’t be until tomorrow that I’ll start the blog up again, for real.

   This will be my last post for a few days. Right around 8:30 tomorrow morning, Paul Herman will be picking me up and we’ll be on our way to Columbus and the second annual PulpFest.

   And I won’t be back until Sunday, once again with my satchels full of books and magazines and my checkbook empty. Heck, if I plan it very, very carefully, my checkbook will be empty several minutes after the doors to the dealers’ room open on Friday. It won’t be hard to do, especially with all the wares that’ll be out for display, fully designed to tickle everyone’s fancy. Well, mine, at least.

   Some of you I will see there, I am sure. If not, so long until next week Monday. For the rest of this evening, it’s time to pack.

   The dealers room is, of course, the center of all activity at pulp conventions, whether it be Windy City or Pulpfest. If it’s your first visit, it’s a sight to see. For old-timers, it may be the smell of old musty paper that staggers the senses first:

   I don’t recognize any of the faces in these first three photos, but that’s Walker Martin’s back in the lowermost one (in the white T-shirt).

   The most jaw-dropping display was, as always, behind John Gunnison’s table. Nobody in the room had seen more copies of Danger Trail in one place at one time. Not only that, these were all in Very Good to Fine condition, if not better:

   Another shot of the room. That’s Nick Certo behind the table, making a deal (or small talk) with Paul Herman, whom I traveled to the show with.

   A better shot of Walker Martin, whose back you saw earlier above. I believe this was taken the day after the auction, where he outbid everyone on three large lots of romance or “love” pulps. This is what a collector looks like when he’s cornered the market on an entire category of pulp fiction:

   Walker then obliged me by taking this photo of me:

   If you missed it, you can go back a few posts and read Walker’s report on the convention here.

   Here next are Gene Christie and Tom Roberts, the guys behind Black Dog Books. Gene forgot at the time that he’s no longer in my Squadron and he no longer has to salute me. I wish I’d managed to get some of the books they were selling into the photo:

   The first night’s auction was an estate sale, and the number and variety of scarce and hard-to-find pulps was significantly higher than there’s been in many years. First of all, a copy of the one-shot Underworld Love Stories, a magazine that most people had never seen before:

   I thought the magazine might sell for over a thousand dollars, but I was told that it went for only $720 or so. (If I’m wrong about this, I’m sure someone will let me know.)

   There was also a beautiful run of Real Detective Stories. I took two photos of these, hoping that at least one would come out:

   These were sold in several lots, each of which commanded a sizable stash of money. Next, a long run of Nick Carter pulps (not the dime novels) in very nice condition. Unfortunately I took only one photo of these, and you get a better glimpse of the spines, I’m afraid, rather than the covers:

   Both Snappy Stories and Breezy Stories were in good supply:

   Before heading off to the Art Room, I took a close-up photo of Paul Herman, last seen buying magic carpets from Nick Certo:

   And of course Paul demanded retribution, and he took this photo of me in return. You can see that Paul does not know how to take pictures, as I really do not ever look like this.

   The theme of the convention was the 100th anniversary of Adventure magazine. I failed to take any pictures during the panel discussion, but I did take several in the Art Room. All of original art on display came from Adventure or some of its several competitors. I also failed to take any notes on these, so I’m sorry I can’t tell you either the artists or the magazines:

   And all too sudden, the convention was over.

   I’m back from an eventful four days at the Windy City Pulp convention in Chicago. I got up Thursday at 4:00 am and met a fellow collector for the drive to Ed Hulse’s house where we packed boxes and pulp cover paintings into a 12 passenger van. Then four of us began the 14 hour drive to Chicago, which was completed in one insane burst of speed, with very few stops along the way. We arrived at 8:00 pm and headed for the hospitality room where the festivities were already in full swing. Thank god they had beer and potato chips.

   Despite some pre-con worries about attendance, there were over 400 registered attendees and around 125 tables, packed with pulps, pulp reprints, vintage paperbacks, old movies on dvd, and pulp artwork. Once again I was in pulp heaven and almost overdosed due to pulp fever. Among the people I saw and talked to were the following serious collectors:

   Nick Certo, Mike Chomko, Scott Cranford, Doug Ellis, Steve Haffner, Mark Halegua, Rick Hall, Scott Hartshorn, Paul Herman, Ed Hulse, Chris Kalb, Dave Kurzman, Steve Lewis, John Locke, Bill Mann, Rob Preston, Tom Roberts, David Saunders, Dave Scroggs, Tony Tollin, Al Tonik, Bill Ward, John Gunnison, Frank Robinson and Bob Weinberg. Too many to mention all and forgive me for those I have left out.

   In addition to thousands of pulps, there was the film program hosted by Ed Hulse, a panel discussing Adventure magazine, an art exhibit, and the auction. Not to mention the many meals and drinks shared with fellow collectors over the four intense and stressful days.

   The theme of the convention was Adventure‘s 100th birthday and it was a rousing success. The panel consisted of myself, Doug Ellis, Tom Roberts, and Ed Hulse. In a hour we attempted to cover just about every facet of the magazine’s incredible history: the editors, writers, artists, letter column, and as many other topics that we could think of.

   One thing that almost drove me crazy was the subject of picking one forgotten but excellent author. I couldn’t narrow it down to one and cheated by mentioning three: Leonard Nason, Hugh Pendexter, and Robert Simpson. Others mentioned were Georges Surdez and T.S. Stribling.

   The art exhibit concentrated on Adventure cover and interior art. Doug Ellis had many cover paintings on display and I brought five Adventure paintings to the exhibit. Tom Roberts and others also contributed. Frankly, I was so nervous about driving my paintings over 800 miles to Chicago that I was lucky to avoid a stroke. Only the honor of taking part in Adventure‘s birthday convinced me that I should display the paintings.

   The auction had an excellent number of rare and desirable pulps. I was stunned by the many rare and high quality condition Real Detective Tales. Many other detective titles were auctioned, including some fine condition copies of Nick Carter. One obviously crazed collector was high bidder on several lots of love pulps and the auctioneer gleefully poked fun at him. Several people questioned this demented soul as to why he was buying large amounts of love titles. He mumbled something about having collected everything else except love pulps.

   Something that I noticed was that there was no Guest Of Honor and no one seemed to notice this at all. I did not hear one single complaint and it certainly looks like such a lack is not a problem and has absolutely no impact on attendance. From what I observed, just about everyone was there to sell and buy pulp related items. The lack of a guest was not an important factor.

   The 14 hour drive back was done in another incredible burst of speed. How we managed to cram the big van with boxes, luggage, paintings, and four over-the-top collectors, is beyond me. Next stop PulpFest in Columbus, Ohio. Visit PulpFest.com and register, or you will miss the summer’s pulp collecting event of the year. Fellow readers and collectors, let’s support PulpFest and match the Windy City convention’s attendance of over 400!

   I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve jammed a sizable number of posts into the span of the last two or three days. Ordinarily I might have been spread them out over a longer period of time, but something’s up. Soon after noon tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to Chicago and this year’s annual Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention.

   And I won’t be back until Sunday, with my satchels full of books and magazines and my checkbook empty. Heck, if I plan it right, my checkbook will be empty several minutes after the doors to the dealers’ room open on Friday. It won’t be hard to do, especially with all the wares that’ll be out for display, fully designed to tickle everyone’s fancy. Well, mine, at least.

   Some of you I will see there, I am sure. If not, so long until next week Monday. For the rest of this evening, it’s time to pack.

    I received the following email notice from Barry Traylor yesterday. He’s one of the co-chairs for PulpFest 2010 …

    “Our guest of honor at PulpFest 2010 will be William F. Nolan, best known as the co-creator of Logan’s Run. The author of more than 80 books and 750 magazine and newspaper pieces, Mr. Nolan is best known in pulp circles for The Black Mask Boys, an anthology drawn from and history about Black Mask magazine, celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010.

    “Additionally, he edited and compiled Max Brand: Western Giant, a bio-bibliography of one of the most prolific authors to emerge from the pulp industry, and one of the best biographies of Dashiell Hammett, a founder of the hardboiled detective story. Mr. Nolan was recently named one of the 2010 recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented annually by the Horror Writers Association.”

    PulpFest 2010 will be held at last year’s venue, the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The show will begin on Friday, July 30th, and run through Sunday, August 1st. Clicking the link in Barry’s first paragraph will take you directly to the PulpFest 2010 website, where additional information may be found, including a FAQ page and a registration form.