PulpFest 2014 is the first of the three conventions I’ll be at this year. The convention starts Thursday evening, August 7, and runs to Sunday noon, August 10. It’s held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The hotel is one of my favorite convention hotels and the area around the convention rates high on my list as well.
From the convention website:
At PulpFest, you’ll find science-fiction books and magazines, detective and adventure pulps, westerns, original cover art and interior illustrations, stacks of digest magazines, vintage paperbacks and comic books, unique films, and much, much more! You’ll be entertained and informed by countless presentations and panels featuring leading pop-culture experts. You’ll see old pals and meet new friends.
I’m not a guest of PulpFest. I attend the convention on my own dime so I can hang out with friends I never see anywhere else but at the convention. I will not be appearing on any panels and I won’t have a table. I will be chagrined because I have not written the sure-to-be-terrific pulp adventure novel I discussed with a publisher at PulpFest 2013. However, the novel is near the top of my bucket list of things I want to write before I kick the bucket.
There will be some creators and publishers with credentials in both pulps and comics: Anthony Tollin, Will Murray, Rob Fortier and Rob Davis. They are fine fellows all.
While I will be spending a lot of time at PulpFest, I would love to get away from the show for a few hours here and there to hang out with Columbus comics people. If you’d like to get together with me, e-mail me and we’ll set something up.
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I’ll also be at Wizard World Ohio Comic-Con from Friday, October 31 through Sunday, November 2. The con will be at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The show hours are Friday 3 to 8 pm, Saturday 10 am to 7 pm and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. What can I say? I really like going to Columbus.
At this writing, the event’s guest list is about half TV and movie folks and half comics folks. I’m not scheduled to be on any panels, but I will have a table in Artist Alley. I’ll have copies of 1000 Comic Books You Must Read, a box of other Isabella-written comics and copies of some of my original scripts. I’m happy to sign stuff written by me whether you bought it from me or not. However, I no longer sign non-comics Black Lightning items for which DC has not paid me in full...and that would be all of them. I also don’t sign DC-licensed books of comics history on account of the company and its stooges lie...a lot. Except for those two things, I expect you will find me a friendly, occasionally witty commentator on all sorts of subjects.
I’m always happy to talk to creators and publishers about working with them. If you’d like to set up something in advance of Wizard World Ohio, e-mail me and we’ll make it happen. I’ll be staying at the nearby Drury Inn during the convention.
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The Akron Comicon is my third and final scheduled appearance of the year. It’ll be Saturday and Sunday, November 8-9, at the University of Akron’s Quaker Station. The hours are Saturday 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. The guest list for this comics-driven event includes Tom Batiuk, Mike W. Barr, Gerry Conway, Jose Delbo, Graham Nolan, Joe Rubenstein, Joe Staton and Golden Age of Comics artist Allen Bellman.
I’ll be at the convention both days. I’m not currently scheduled to appear on any panels, but I will have a table from which I will be selling Isabella stuff and some choice items from my garage sales. As always, if you want to get together with me outside the hours of the convention, you can e-mail me to set something up.
Because Medina is not far from Akron, I don’t plan on staying in Akron on Saturday night. That could change depending on what else is going on with the schedule or the convention.
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Looking ahead to 2015, I’d like to make more convention appearances as well as at libraries, schools and stores. That’s in addition to the three events I want to do on my own dime: The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, G-Fest and PulpFest 2015.
If convention promoters want me at their events, they will need to cover my hotel and travel expenses, provide some sort of per diem to cover meals and set me up with a booth/table from which I can sell stuff. As long as the details are discussed in advance, I’d be happy to appear on panels.
Libraries, schools and stores also have to provide hotel and travel expenses. Other details can be discussed on a per appearance basis.
Every now and then, a college contacts me to teach comics history or comics writing. I confess I like the idea, but these talks have yet to go beyond the initial discussions.
Whenever I agree to appear at a convention or anywhere else, I will promote my appearance in the myriad venues available to me. Keep reading the bloggy thing for such announcements.
That’s all for today. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
© 2014 Tony Isabella
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