Windy City Pulp and Paper Con 2026 report

 

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.

Subsequently I moved to the Adventure House table and bought some 1970s Avenger and Shadow paperbacks to fill in a few gaps in my collection, replacing books I’d sold in 1989.  Prices were in the $5-$10 range for decent copies.

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.

Certainly I saw more slabbed pulps here than ever before, although it probably only represented well less than 1% of what was for sale across all the dealers. 

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). 

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/

Currently Reading - "A Haunt of Fears"

Have recently been reading a book called A Haunt of Fears by Martin Barker , published in 1984, which documents the role of a small number of individuals within the British Communist Party in creating the "campaign" to ban "American" (ie British reprinted Horror comics) back in the first half of the 1950s. I touched on this subject in a post back 2022, which discussed the impact of British-reprinted horror comics in the UK in the 1950s. 

A Haunt of Fears first relates the story of the campaign as reported in the popular press at the time, and then gets under the covers of the motives of the people behind the campaign.

The focus of the book is firmly on the cultural aspects of the ban, the prevailing attitudes of the public and the Establishment and the role of the BCP in creating/responding to a manufactured uproar. There is limited focus on the role of L. Miller, Arnold, Streamline and T&P, in producing and distributing these comics,  but it is certainly worth a read. It does contain a list of the comics targeted by the ban campaign.  

Although it is a pretty dry, academic read, the book is also a nice companion piece to "The 10-Cent Plague", which documents the campaign to ban horror comics in the US.

I find it interesting that the campaign in the UK was driven by the political left, whereas it was the right in the US.

List of books identified as unsuitable

Comics I missed - The Human Fly (1977-1979)

© Marvel.

 Back in the period 1977-1979 my interest in American comic collecting was waning, being replaced by enthusiasm for collecting paperback reprints of pulps.  It wasn't until 1980 that I stopped collecting comics completely, and sold my collection in 1983. And it was during this waning period of interest (77-79) that I completely missed Marvel's The Human Fly, a 19-issue run of comics written by Bill Mantlo, drawn by the likes of Lee Elias and Frank Robbins, edited initially by Archie Goodwin.

I recently became aware of the character through listening to a very entertaining podcast by Chris Dingsdale, which is well worth a listen at https://www.darreninform.com/thinkworkspodcast/episode/5126fce7/82-thinkworks-82-adventures-in-comics-2-the-astonishing-true-story-of-the-human-fly

So I’ve tracked down a few issues to see what I missed.

The unique selling proposition of the comic was that The Human Fly was based on a real-life Canadian daredevil Rick Rojatt who had overcome extreme injuries and surgery replacing bones with screws and rods to ride on top of a commercial airliner wearing a full-face mask. Think back to that magical time when Evel Knievel, a fellow enthusiast for having metal hardware inserted into various limbs.

© original photographer. The real Human Fly!

Bill Mantlo came up with the comics concept, and spent an entire editorial page spelling out the lead character’s true story. Each of the nineteen issues revolved around another wild stunt, combined with thrilling do-gooder action and social commentary.

© Marvel. Bill Mantlo explains the origin of Human Fly

© Marvel. Lee Elias splash page to Human Fly #1

I think it is fair to say that the concept would have suited a TV series, and perhaps that was in the back of Marvel’s mind at the time. The Spider-Man live-action TV series was on the air at this point, as was the Hulk TV series.

Looking at the splash page of issue #1 (above) I can't help but think how Lee Elias' work looks like it was inked by Frank Robbins. Incidentally, the book is notable for containing Frank Robbins’ ante-penultimate comics story before retirement (Human Fly #14). 

The comic only lasted less than two years. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter confirmed the character was based on the real-life Canadian stuntman Rick Rojatt. Shooter stated in 2007 that photographs in the comic were indeed of Rojatt. 

I may try to pick up all nineteen issues. I’ve seen them in the dollar bin from time to time, and I do love a bit of Robbins’ artwork.

Do take a listen to the podcast.

© Ian Baker

Mail-Order Mysteries

 

Back in 2011, when this blog was a mere whippersnapper, fellow SuperStuff co-scrivener and lifetime chum Nigel Brown did a deep dive on how advertising in Batman comics had evolved from the 1940s.  You can read his article here.  Nigel does a run-down on the types of ads to be found within the pages of that great comic. Some products appeared consistently over the decades and generations  (e.g. Daisy Air Rifles, Charles Atlas bodybuilding), while others were fads of a single year (Easy Bake Toy Oven).

Imagine my delight when I was made aware of a book called Mail-Order Mysteries, which arrived in the post over the weekend, which evaluates the reality behind the ads of comics from the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Remember that full-size army tank? Or the Polaris submarine that only cost $6.98? Stuck in the UK, I could only imagine the great toys that American kids were able to buy through the pages of my favourite comics.

Mail-Order Mysteries is the work of Kirk Demarais. It was published around 15 years ago, and copies on eBay are fetching a premium. But it was worth it to learn the secrets behind the ads, and sympathise with the disappointment felt by each kid as buyer's remorse set in.

Go on - you owe it to yourself to snag a copy!

Missed first time around - DC Masterworks Series

Recently I’ve taken to trawling through the back-issue boxes at my local comic shop, or at some of the smaller marts held around Illinois, to find interesting comics that I somehow missed the first time around, or had ignored back in the seventies because they weren’t part of my core collection, and my purchases back then were somewhat limited by available pocket-money.

© DC

Anyway, this past Saturday I picked up a copy of issue #1 of The Masterworks Series of Great Comic Book Artists, a book printed on Baxter paper, and published jointly by DC and Phil Seuling’s Sea Gate distribution company. I have now read that this was the first of an intended series of high-quality comics highlighting the best work of various artists.

The book came out in Spring 1983, right at the point where I was selling my comic collection, so it passed me by. Anyway, issue #1 is dedicated to the work of Frank Frazetta on Shining Knight from years past. It’s a lovely book, as you can see from the interiors.

©DC. Page from issue #1

©DC.

I only knew Frazetta from his painted covers of the Conan paperbacks printed by Sphere in the UK, as well as his later film poster work, and have never investigated his comics heritage.

I’ll track down some decent copies of #2 (more Frazetta) and #3 (Berni Wrightson) as they don’t seem too expensive, although digital copies can be easily located with help from Mr Google.  The back of issue #3 trails the next two issues as being devoted to Neal Adams, but those issues never surfaced, and the comic died a death after three issues. 

The indicia of the books doesn't mention a specific editor, although Junior Woodchuck Allan Asherman wrote some well-researched material on the inside cover on the background to Frazetta's comic book career. Presumably Phil Seuling was involved in the story selection.

©DC

©DC

©DC. Back page of issue #3, trailing the next two unpublished issues

I can find no information on the web about why the comic stopped being published, but I surmise that Phil Seuling’s declining health from a rare liver disease (he died in 1984) was a factor in the termination of the deal between Sea Gate and DC to publish these special editions.

Did any of our readers buy these comics first time around?

Incidentally, I see that Heritage Auctions has a special auction upcoming selling Frazetta’s original painted artwork for the Conan books. Those were amazing covers, and got me to hand over my dosh for the Sphere paperbacks back in January 1974.

Batman in 'A Dandy in Aspic'

© Columbia / Sony pictures. Lionel Stander reads Batman #189

© DC Comics. Batman #189, cd Feb 1967

 Returning to the topic of how long it took DC comics in the 1960s and 1970s to arrive in British newsagents, I recently watched the sixties film A Dandy in Aspic, a spy yarn starring Laurence Harvey, filmed on location in London and Berlin.  In minute 25, we are treated to an image of actor Lionel Stander reading a copy of Batman #189 "Fright of the Scarecrow", cover date Feb 1967, while sat in a car in Cable Street) in London's East End), with St. Mary's Church, Johnson Street in the background. 

Now, according to Mike's, Batman #189 hit US stands on December 6th 1966. 

According to The Kinematograph Weekly, 25 February 1967, production on A Dandy in Aspic had just begun ‘on location in the East End of London.’   Other reports mention that production had moved to Docklands by 28th Feb for location work with Laurence Harvey, and all London location work was complete by April 9th 1967, before the production moved to Berlin. The crew was tied up with filming Mia Farrow's scenes in central London from March 25th onwards.

We cannot see if the comic Stander is holding has a T&P stamp, but as Stander was an American exile in Europe at this time, we can assume the comic was not a special import. 

Anyway, it would appear that Batman #189 was likely filmed around 25th Feb 1967 (81 days after US publication), but potentially as late as April 8th 1967 (123 days after US publication).    Based on the notes I made in the mid 1970s on when DC comics appeared on British spinner racks, the quickest I'd seen a comic turn up was 107 days after US publication (Superman #277), with a mean in the region of 145 days, with some late stragglers (Black Magic #1 at 247 days).

Even if the Batman comic in the movie was 123 days after publication, that would be very fast for a comic to arrive in the pre-containerization era.

Did any of you keep track of when specific DC comics arrived in our shops back in the sixties?

Neal Adams - Western covers

 

© DC comics.

This past Sunday I decided to stop by the Chicago Toy Show, which runs every 4 months at the Kane County Fairgrounds. I’d never been before, so was interested to see what was on sale. Well, it was very crowded, with a lot of tables selling Funko Pops, and relatively few tables selling vintage toys from the sixties and seventies. Lots of original Hot Wheels car and sets. 

Amongst the tables there were a few comic dealers, and I spied a reading copy of Tomahawk #116 priced at $10. As it sports one of the very best covers that Neal Adams drew at DC - perhaps the only one at DC of his that has a painted background - I decided to buy it. 

It really is a striking cover. Reading the feedback on the issue as printed in the letters page of Tomahawk #118 reader reaction was extremely positive.  ………

A certain Tony Isabella from Cleveland, Ohio was full of praise:

I presume from editor Murray Boltinoff's comment that Jack Adler was the colourist and Carmine Infantino layouts.

Having stared at it, it came to me that the composition of the cover was not wholly unlike Adams’ later cover of Detective #412. 

© DC comics.

Adams himself was not above reusing popular cover layouts for books on other comics, as shown by this subsequent cover for Tomahawk #121 and Brave & Bold #85.  However, since Murray Boltinoff was editor on both books, he must have been okay with.

© DC comics.

© DC comics.

The cover for Tomahawk #116 was the first Western cover that Neal Adams did at DC, and he followed up with an excellent run of covers for Tomahawk which graced most issues from #116 to #130.

He subsequently drew covers for All Star Western #2 to #5 , Weird Western Tales #15 and of course the stunning cover of DC Special #6, one of my all-time favourites, shown below.

© DC comics.

Interesting that the only Western issues where Adams illustrated the interiors (AFAIK) were Weird Western Tales #12, #13 and #15.

I’d buy a book of Neal Adams covers, if one existed. That’s unlikely to happen, so I might try to create a digital PDF version for my own enjoyment.

Is anyone aware of other Western covers drawn by Adams?