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Flashback Friday: 1998 Pulpcon

Having just come across some long-buried photos in the Blood ‘n’ Thunder archives, and with nothing better to post here today, I’m attaching a handful of shots from Pulpcon 27, which was held in July 1998. This was either the last or next to last Pulpcon held at the university in Bowling Green; my memory is a little fuzzy as to which. As I recall, that summer in Ohio was hot and humid, but the convention attendees were nice and cool in the auditorium crammed with vintage pulps, books, and related collectibles. I was still a newbie  to pulp fandom but made many new friends that year — folks I still see regularly at PulpFest, the Windy City con, and other events geared to book and magazine collectors.

My friend Rob McKay took the pictures you’ll see below, and many more as well. But the other photos are missing in action. Perhaps I’ll be able to turn them up yet.

To start with, here a bird’s eye view of the dealer room:

I had purchased a dealer table that year but sold all my (limited) wares in fairly short order. The shot below was probably taken on the last afternoon of the show as things were winding down. Jerry Peters (left) and I are listening intently to an unidentified speaker. I’m fairly, but not totally, certain that Joe Rainone is doing the talking.

In the next shot I’m making a trade with veteran dealer/collector Dick Wald, who’s inspecting the quality of my offering. That’s Shadow collector Lisa Kwaterski next to me. As I recall, 1998 was the year that Dick brought a huge stock of recently acquired Shadow pulps. He made the mistake of inviting a friend to his hotel room to check them out the night before the show started. Word got around and before Dick could do anything about it, he had a bonafide feeding frenzy on his hands as collectors swarmed into his room uninvited. I remember forking over $1500 to him that night.

Another bird’s eye view, with me in the middle brandishing my newly acquired treasure from the trade with Dick.

Finally, here’s a shot of my good buddy and Weird Tales/Arkham House specialist Dave Kurzman, looking characteristically mellow behind his table. Dave always brings top-notch stuff to the conventions, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what he’ll unveil at the upcoming Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention.

Hey, this was fun. I’d like to do more “Flashback Friday” posts of this sort, so if you’re willing to share any photos from pulp conventions of the past, please feel free to send me some scans. Meanwhile, I’ll see what else I can dig up….