Another year has passed (why are they passing so quickly?) and it’s time again for a report on this year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, again held at the Westin Lombard, in the Chicago suburbs a couple of weekends ago. It was a busy weekend for pulp and comic fans, as Wondercon was also taking place on the West Coast.
 |
| The Westin Lombard |
Since my first visit to the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con in 2009, I’ve always hugely enjoyed my annual attendance, as much for the conversations as perusing the dealer’s room. This year was the 25th anniversary of the con, and shows no sign of diminished attendance. I signed up for a 3-day pass, which at $35 was a far better deal than the upcoming hugely commercial C2E2 comic con at McCormack Place in downtown Chicago, which is charging $140 for a 3-day pass, with $81 for a single day.
So what does one get for $35 at the Windy City? In addition to receiving the annual convention book issued by Moon Dog press, (this year focused on Argosy magazine), the attendees receive access to the dealer’s room, artwork exhibitions, movies and movie serials featuring pulp heroes, an estate auction, and panels hosted by pulp experts.
The dealers' room comprises two massive ballrooms with the intermediate panel removed. I arrived around midday on Friday to find the room filled with attendees. I headed over to author and pulp historian Will Murray’s table for a long chat, and to pick up up some Doc Savage hardback editions of his Bantam paperback stories from the 1990s he had brought for me.
Will shared with me some information he’d researched on the proposed content for the Marvel Black & White Doc Savage magazine #9, prior to its cancellation in 1976. The full information will be appearing in the 100th issue of Bronze Gazette later this year, so no spoilers, I’m afraid.
.jpeg)
By the close of the dealers' room on Friday, I had only scratched the surface of what was on view, only managing to go around the tables on the room's perimeter. Before the room closed for the day, I picked up four Deadly Hands of Kung Fu issues with Adams covers for $27 in total, and Savage Tales #16, from a dealer with the biggest collection of Marvel Black & Whites I’ve ever seen - bagged, boarded and excellent condition.
I resolved to attend again the following day (Saturday) , having spied a table full of Bronze Age comics priced at $5 each. A quick glance showed the stock was in great condition.
 |
| $5 Bronze Age comics, with Golden Age on display at back |
Following a brief trip to McDonalds, I returned for the evening agenda of a panel discussing the history of Argosy magazine, followed by the presentation of Pulp writers awards for 2025.
----------------------
Saturday dawned, and I made the 40-minute drive back to the Westin for day 2, and to complete my tour of the dealers’ room.
It took me 3 hours to go to every table! I ended up buying a whole load of 1970s DCs to fill in gaps, priced at $5 for Bronze and $10 for silver age - amazing value for decent issues! On another table I bought 6 Silver-age comics priced at $5 each, or 3 for $10!
 |
| 3 for $10! |
Of course, there were lots of Golden Age comics for sale as well.
Fellow SuperStuff scribe Nigel Brown asked me to comment on what I noticed about the slabbing of pulps and comics, and the general attitude to it.
 |
| Slabbed pulps. Note Weird Tales #2 on sale - not slabbed! |
 |
| Embiggen the photos to read the prices. |
Anyway, I also had a long conversation with a couple who had a table purely of slabbed pulps. I was looking at slabbed pulps valued from $1000 to $95,000 and beyond. They said that slabbing is a relatively new thing for pulps and controversial. But CGC have developed a grading system, and Heritage have started a program of pulp-focused auctions of major collections. They said that the focus for slabbing was high-end, rare or key issuess. The attraction of selling through Heritage is that they get it graded and slabbed by CGC, and then the seller only has to pay for the grading and slabbing once it sells at auction.
I’ve included a couple of photos of some of what they had on the table, showing prices if you zoom in. The All-Story from 1912 was the first Edgar Rice Burroughs story, priced at $95,000.
Incredibly, the same table had a copy of Weird Tales #2 (April 1923) for sale, unslabbed (See photo above). That is the rarest issue, rarer than Weird Tales #1. I’m told it is unthinkable for something like that to be for sale at a UK event. I understand that another copy of Weird Tales #2 (graded by CGC at 8.0) is shortly to go up for auction at Heritage.
There were so many Weird Tales for sale - in fact, pretty much any pulp, obscure or not. Nonetheless, the overwhelming number of pulps on sale were in the lowly mylar or polypropylene bag. I’ve included a few photos of pulps up to auction on Friday evening.
Reflecting the sustained interest in pulps, there is an Overstreet price guide equivalent for pulps called Bookery’s Guide To Pulps, with the latest 4th edition just published. (See photo).
.jpeg)
The one thing I did not see were copies of the Ballantine Cornell Woolrich paperbacks from 1982. I’m missing five of them.
——————
Observations:
- More comics on sale than at previous cons, and the subject matter had extended beyond comics featuring purely pulp heroes (eg Conan, Kull, Doc Savage, Shadow, Avenger) or SF-anthology type comics (eg Strange Adventures, etc).
- The quality of the comics on sale was excellent (say 7.x for Bronze Age), far better than I’ve seen at local recent marts held in village halls.
- The pricing on the comics was hugely competitive ; one dealer selling any Bronze Age for $5 and any Silver Age for $10. Marvel Black & Whites in excellent nick for 50% discount. I’m not sure what is happening here. I think there is a bifurcation in the market at the top end of dealers where slabbed pre-1975 comics in 9.x condition are the major focus, and more realistic prices are offered for non-slabbed comics say in 8.x condition and below,
On the pulp side of things, there does seem to be a push towards slabbing of key issues, but the practice is controversial within the pulp community. On the other hand, with the brittleness of pulp paper , slabbing is probably the only way to preserve some of these artifacts.
On the vintage paperback front, prices are still very low for 1960s books, with some exceptions. There also was a large selection of vintage TV tie-in mass market paperbacks.
Finally, so what did I buy?
 |
| © Marvel. Couldn't resist these. |
 |
| © DC and Marvel. $5 each! |
 |
| © Will Murray and Altus Press. |
What’s next?
There is a vintage comic-focused Chicago Minicon on August 9th - will be high-end dealers - no cosplay! https://secondcitycon.com/Attendees.aspx
Pulpfest in Mars PA July 30th - August 2nd
https://pulpfest.com/2025/12/15/an-amazing-century/
That's a nice haul of goodies you got yourself there, B. Which one would you say is the 'prize' out of all of them? And were there any that got away - either through depleted funds or someone beating you to it?
ReplyDeleteI was pretty pleased with my purchases, Kid. If pushed, my favourite purchases would be
Delete(1) Savage Sword of Conan #16 for the Barry Smith tale (2) Aquaman #53 for the Cardy cover and the interior Aparo artwork and
(3) House of Secrets #93 for the Wrightson cover and Aparo interior artwork.
I also bought a bunch of Shadow and Avenger paperbacks that I’ve already filed on my shelves and would be a pain to pull out for a photograph.
There were not that many attendees going through the comic boxes, so I wasn’t really in competition for anything I had on my wants list. That said, the Swamp Thing section of the “$5 bronze” box was empty, so I suspect I missed the chance to pick up some early Swampis from the 70s that I need to pick-up again having sold them in 1983.
There were also a load of Bronze Age Daredevils and Cap Americas that were on my wants list that I passed on, and once I reached my self-imposed spend limit I thought I’d leave them for another day. The dealer said he’d be at the Chicago Minicon in August, so I’m hoping that a large percentage of his stock will be still available, although there’s likely to be more comic-oriented punters at that event.
Always good to have something to look forward to, comics-wise, isn't it. Are you picking up the new Conan Reforged title?
DeleteI've looked through the Conan Reforged issues as they have appeared in my local comic shop, but don't feel compelled to buy them. The computerised colouring seems samey after a while, to me. I suppose my nostalgia for the originals is part of the attraction to me. I think that the idea of colouring the originals is pandering to a modern sensibility that colour must be better than black & white. Plus the paper and cover seems too flimsy . Bah, humbug!
DeleteI think the colour is quite sensitively done, B, and it's good to see the original covers being used as variants. A great Neal Adams one on issue #4 (the one that was used as a poster).
DeleteI'll take a look at issue 4 as you suggest, Kid. I've recently been buying back copies of the Conan paperbacks published by Sphere in 1974 in the UK, so am on a bit of a Conan kick at the moment.
DeleteI have always been fascinated by the striking covers of many pulp books but have sadly never picked any up (not counting R E Howard reprints\colllections) . Some great comics in that selection Ian, my favourite is SSOC #16 for the same reason you gave (and a fantastic John Buscema main tale). I'm just back from a holiday in USA where I picked up a few (5) back issues and was tempted by a couple of " exotic" pulp books.
ReplyDeleteI'll be reading that SSOC #16 this evening, Paul. Had tucked it away until I had some spare time to nurse a beer. I picked up the Deadly Hands simply for the Adams covers...could not resist them. You'll have to do a blog on your holiday travels over this side of the pond, with a focus on what you bought!
DeleteEnjoy SSOC #16 Ian it's a great rest. I will certainly be adding a few of the comics I bought in Cincinnati at some point to my blog . Enjoy your beer.
ReplyDelete