FarmerCon XX (Twenty Years of FarmerCon!!!!)

 Originally posted on PulpFest.com on 16 June 2025

 FarmerCon XX: 

Tarzan the Time Traveler and Discourses on Doc

Programming

 

 Mike Chomko

June 16, 2025

5 min read

At PulpFest 2025, we’ll not only salute the “Masters of Blood and Thunder,” the “Great Pulp Villains,” and more, we’ll also welcome back the fans of Philip José Farmer for Farmercon XX!

Since 2011, PulpFest has hosted Farmercon, a convention celebrating the life and times of the longtime pulp fan and Grand Master of Science Fiction, born over 100 years ago.

Few people think of Philip José Farmer as a pulp writer, but he was a child of the pulps and launched his career in the pulps. Born January 26, 1918 in North Terre Haute, Indiana, Farmer grew up in Peoria, Illinois. He spent much of his childhood reading everything he could find from the classics through the pulps.

Farmer’s interest in the rough-paper magazines of his youth would lead him to pen two biographies about pulp characters — Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life during his career. He would also author official Doc Savage and Tarzan novels: Escape from Loki and The Dark Heart of Time. Both stories were set in the year of their author’s birth — 1918.

One of the highlights of FarmerCon XX will be the convention’s panel saluting Doc Savage and Tarzan — the late author’s two favorite pulp characters.

We hope you’ll join PulpFest on Friday, August 8, at 8:35 pm as we welcome Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert  to our stage for “Tarzan the Time Traveler” — exploring Philip José Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, a novel featuring “a tall, dark-haired, gray-eyed Englishman who goes native far too easily and competently” — and “Discourses on Doc” — a look at Farmer’s writings and speculations concerning “The Man of Bronze.”

Christopher Paul Carey is the coauthor with Philip José Farmer of The Song of Kwasin, and the author of Exiles of Kho, Hadon, King of Opar, and Blood of Ancient Opar, all works set in Farmer’s Khokarsa series. He is the author of Swords Against the Moon Men, an authorized sequel to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic science fantasy novel The Moon Maid, as well as the ERB Universe novel Victory Harben: The Fires of Halos. He has scripted several comic books set in Burroughs’ worlds and his short fiction can be found in various anthologies. He is Vice President of Publishing at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the corporation founded by Burroughs in 1923, and he has edited more than 100 novels, anthologies, and collections for a variety of publishers. He lives in Southern California.

Win Scott Eckert is the authorized legacy author of Philip José Farmer’s Patricia Wildman series (The Evil in Pemberley House, The Scarlet Jaguar), as well as the coauthor with Farmer of the Doc Caliban/Secrets of the Nine novel, The Monster on Hold. A lifelong Edgar Rice Burroughs reader, Eckert wrote the authorized Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novels, Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar and Korak at the Earth’s Core, with Pellucidar: Land of Awful Shadow and Tarzan Unleashed forthcoming. His other professional credits include authorized tales of Zorro, the Phantom, Honey West, the Avenger, the Lone Ranger, and the Green Hornet, as well as short stories featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Domino Lady, and Sherlock Holmes. His latest short story, “She-Devil of Paris,” saw print in Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2025. He lives in Woodland Park, Colorado, with his wife and a bevy of four-legged family members.

“Fraternize at Farmercon” will follow our panel presentation at 11:05 pm in the Ember & Vine lounge at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. All are welcome to join the “Friends of Phil” during their gatherings in our host hotel’s restaurant and lounge.

All this and more will be part of Farmercon XX, the 2025 convention for all things Farmer, taking place from August 7 – 10 at this summer’s PulpFest.

The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the 2025 Schedule button at the top of this page.

For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the register button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room. The DoubleTree is essentially sold out, but you can click here for nearby hotels. If you’re looking for a roommate, write to Jack Cullers at his email address below.

Remember, in addition to your membership in PulpFest 2025, you’ll also be a member of Doc Con XXI, ERBFest 2025, and Farmercon XX. That’s four conventions for one price! You can’t beat that deal.

If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, our dealers’ room is full. However, we are adding a limited number of tables in the pre-function hallway outside of the dealers’ room. These tables will cost $125 each and will be guarded by security overnight. If you are interested, please write to Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com to sign up for a spot. Any attendees who are interested in providing security services, please write to Jack Cullers at his email address above.

Our featured image is excerpted from Keith Howell’s cover art for Savageology, a collection of Philip José Farmer’s writings about Doc Savage, forthcoming from Meteor House in 2025.

Speaking of Doc Savage, catch Craig McDonald’s latest video on the Man of Bronze by visiting our YouTube Channel.

 

And while you’re there, be sure to subscribe.

Our lead image is adapted by William Lampkin from Bob Eggleton’s dust jacket art for Philip José Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, forthcoming from Meteor House in 2025.

Our final image is Philip José Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, the second British printing, published by Panther Books in 1979 with cover art by Geoff Cummings.

First Ever Hardcover Edition of Philip José Farmer's THE OTHER LOG OF PHILEAS FOGG!

The first ever hardcover edition of Philip José Farmer's groundbreaking 1972 novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg!

The first ever hardcover edition... 

• ...of what was "steampunk" long before the term was coined!
• ...of a key Wold Newton Universe novel!
• ...of a seminal crossover novel by one of the masters of the genre!

Don't let your Philip José Farmer collection go without this new unique edition that also includes Jules Verne's Around the World in Eight Days... 

The limited edition hardcover includes:

• Leatherette cover with gold foil stamping
• Custom printed end papers
• Illustrated signature page in color, signed by contributors Win Scott Eckert, Henry Franke, Dennis Power, and cover artist M. S. Corley!

BOTH the limited edition hardcover and the trade paperback include:

• Farmer’s Foreword and Introduction (as included in all prior editions of Other Log)
• “A Submersible Subterfuge, or, Proof Impositive” by H. W. Starr (as included in all prior editions of Other Log)
• “Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Voyages Around the World” by Jules Verne expert Henry G. Franke III
• “Only a Coincidence: Phileas Fogg, Philip José Farmer, and the Wold Newton Family” by Farmer and Wold Newton Family expert Win Scott Eckert—including a family tree graphic showing Philip José Farmer’s place in the Wold Newton Family!
• “A Chronology of Major Events Pertinent to The Other Log of Phileas Fogg” by Win Scott Eckert
  

Also included are two bonus stories, set in the latter part of the novel when Fogg and company are traveling across the midwestern United States:

• “Being an Account of the Delay at Green River, Wyoming of Phileas Fogg, World Traveler” by Win Scott Eckert
• “Passing through the Hands of Steel” by Dennis E. Power

In addition, by arrangement with artist Rick J. Bryant, we have included his original interior illustrations originally published in the 1982 TOR Books edition of Other Log!

Preorder your copy today!

The Monster on Hold

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see:

  Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE

There seemed—and then no more of THEE and ME.

          Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward FitzGerald

What seems Up may be Down.

         Escape from Loki

         Philip José Farmer

Meteor House

Amazon

FarmerFan - a new fanzine dedicated to Philip José Farmer

If you're a fan and reader of Philip José Farmer and haven't checked this out yet, you really should...

Online and free here: http://farmerfan.com/

Meteor House's New Edition of IRONCASTLE

I submitted my afterword, "Surprising Embellishments," yesterday for the new edition of IRONCASTLE by J.-H. Rosny aîné and Philip José Farmer. The new limited edition hardcover, as well as softcover edition, is coming soon from Meteor House.

I'm in good company with essayists Brian Stableford and Christopher Paul Carey!

US $23 tpb/$65 hc
5.5×8.5, 204 pages
Trade Paperback
Limited Edition of 200 Hardcover copies

Somewhere in the unexplored heart of Africa, a part of this Earth had been taken over by an intelligence from outer space. Such was the message that reached the explorer Hareton Ironcastle, member of the famous Baltimore Gun Club. In that hidden and transformed valley would now be found monsters and pre-humans not to be seen anywhere else. Such a challenge could not be ignored…

The account of Ironcastle’s expedition of daring but inexperienced amateurs became one of the classic novels of the French writer, J.-H. Rosny aîné, who was a contemporary of Verne, Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Philip José Farmer, Hugo winner and chronicler of the adventures of Tarzan and Doc Savage, translated and retold Rosny’s 1922 novel, L’étonnant voyage de Hareton Ironcastle, making it a marvelous adventure novel to stand alongside the works of Burroughs, Haggard, and Farmer himself. Farmer’s 1976 version, published in paperback only, followed Rosny judiciously, while adding certain surprising embellishments of his own.

This handsome new edition boasts the same stunning cover art and six interior illustrations as the original paperback—by the legendary Roy G. Krenkel!

Curiously, the 1976 edition featured only a tiny sample of Krenkel’s painting, making this the first edition to feature the entire magnificent cover art. Honoring Krenkel’s original art, the Meteor House limited edition hardcover is presented unadorned—that is, no title and byline will cover any portion of Krenkel’s stunning artwork.

Bonus Features:

• Brian Stableford, a prolific British science fiction author who has in recent years translated many of Rosny’s works from French to English for Black Coat Press, has provided an introduction to this edition of Ironcastle.
• Published with Ironcastle for the first time is the short story sequel, “Iron and Bronze: A Hareton Ironcastle and Doc Ardan Adventure,” by Farmer and pulp-lit experts Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert.

Taduki-inspired visions draw an intrepid adventurer and a madman to a lost African outpost of Atlantis where they must confront an ancient mystery from the stars… Drawing on diverse sources such as Jules Verne’s The Barsac Misison, H. Rider Haggard’s She and Allan, Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan (who has been called the “French Doc Savage”), J.-H. Rosny âiné’s L’étonnant voyage de Hareton Ironcastle, Pierre Benoit’s L’Atlantide (The Queen of Atlantis), and Philip José Farmer’s own “monomyth,” “Iron and Bronze” hearkens back the classic SF adventure pulps of the 1920s and ’30s.

Also in this edition, Christopher Paul Carey pens an insightful foreword explaining how IRONCASTLE ties into the "Farmerian Monomyth," and Win Scott Eckert provides a short afterword covering Farmer’s “surprising embellishments” related to the Wold Newton Family.

This book is available in a Trade Paperback and Signed Hardcover Limited Editions (signed by Stableford, Carey, and Eckert). The hardcover features a leatherette cover with gold foil stamping and custom printed color end papers—a high quality collectible in the tradition of Meteor House’s prior limited edition hardcovers. We’re taking preorders now and both editions will ship in June 2022.

• The trade paperback edition is $23 (plus shipping).
• The signed hardcover limited edition is $65 (plus shipping).
• Or you can buy them together for only $83 (plus a further discount with combined shipping)!

Merci beaucoup to Fabrice Mundzik at the J.-H. Rosny blog for promoting our new forthcoming edition of IRONCASTLE!

“This translation (or rather 'retold', sometimes even the term 'embellishment' is used) by P.-J. Farmer deserves to be... translated into French! I haven't changed my mind, this version of Philip José Farmer is simply excellent!!!"

"In addition to the novel by J.-H. Rosny, Meteor House has the good sense to add an introduction by Brian Stableford, 'Iron and Bronze: A Hareton Ironcastle and Doc Ardan Adventure', by Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert, as well as an afterword by Win Scott Eckert.... 'De Fer et de bronze' ('Iron and Bronze') is in my Top 10 of the best literary tributes to J.-H. Rosny!"

Meteor House 2021 Releases Unboxing Video - The Monster on Hold | The Man Who Met Tarzan | It's Always Darkest

 Meteor House 2021 Releases Unboxing Video

The Monster on  Hold | The Man Who Met Tarzan | It's Always Darkest

The Monster on Hold - Trade paperback cover reveal

Catching up on blogging, I realized I announced the wonderful cover reveal for the Signed Hardcover Limited Edition of The Monster on Hold by artist Mark Wheatley back in February, but I neglected to post here about the fantastic Trade Paperback cover by Doug Klauba when it was revealed back in May. 

Oops! Here it is, in all its glory,

Philip José Farmer worked on The Monster on Hold, the fourth novel in his Secrets of the Nine series, in the 1970s and ’80s, but never completed it or any other works in the series. Using Farmer’s partial manuscripts and copious notes, Win Scott Eckert, co-author with Farmer of The Evil in Pemberley House, has at long last completed the novel.

They were known simply as the Nine. Grim and ancient rulers who discovered the key to eternal life thirty-thousand years ago, and ever since have held the world secretly in thrall. These dark manipulators control the destinies of billions, including the formidable Doc Caliban, Champion of Justice. Once, Doc had been their servant and had shared their secrets. Now, appalled by their tyranny, he and his half-brother, Lord Grandrith—bastard son of Jack the Ripper—have turned against the Nine, daring to challenge their centuries-old supremacy.

In the eighteenth century, the Nine had been faced with a similar revolt and, in desperation, summoned a thing from another dimension—a thing with the power to touch the subconscious and cause nightmares. And that thing—Shrassk—was held in abeyance in a deep cavern complex below New England.

Now, Shrassk and her Children have awakened.

Caliban, suffering from recurring nightmares in which he sees somebody much like himself—and who in these visions seems to be dreaming of Caliban—gathers his closest allies for a final showdown. Together with longtime associates Pauncho Van Veelar and Barney Banks, and his titian-haired cousin, Trish Wilde, whose superhuman skills match his own, Doc descends deep into the subterranean complex to confront an infinite evil, the unspeakable dweller lurking at the threshold between two universes…

Featuring an introduction by Bronze Gazette editor Chuck Welch, The Monster on Hold is available in a Trade Paperback (featuring cover art by Doug Klauba) and a Signed Hardcover Limited Edition (featuring a wraparound jacket by Mark Wheatley). Each edition also includes interior artwork by both artists. The hardcover will be signed by Win Scott Eckert, Chuck Welch, Doug Klauba, and Mark Wheatley!

The book is due out in the fall of 2021.

Pre-order The Monster on Hold

The Monster on Hold - Preorder & Cover Reveal!

Philip José Farmer worked on The Monster on Hold, the fourth novel in his Secrets of the Nine series, in the 1970s and ’80s, but never completed it or any other works in the series. Using Farmer’s partial manuscripts and copious notes, Win Scott Eckert, co-author with Farmer of The Evil in Pemberley House, has at long last completed the novel.

Today, publisher Meteor House announced the two cover artists. Douglas Klauba is doing the Trade Paperback cover and Mark Wheatley is doing the Signed Hardcover Limited Edition cover. And here is a look at the front (only) of the hardcover wraparound artwork by Mark Wheatley!

They were known simply as the Nine. Grim and ancient rulers who discovered the key to eternal life thirty-thousand years ago, and ever since have held the world secretly in thrall. These dark manipulators control the destinies of billions, including the formidable Doc Caliban, Champion of Justice. Once, Doc had been their servant and had shared their secrets. Now, appalled by their tyranny, he and his half-brother, Lord Grandrith—bastard son of Jack the Ripper—have turned against the Nine, daring to challenge their centuries-old supremacy.

In the eighteenth century, the Nine had been faced with a similar revolt and, in desperation, summoned a thing from another dimension—a thing with the power to touch the subconscious and cause nightmares. And that thing—Shrassk—was held in abeyance in a deep cavern complex below New England.

Now, Shrassk and her Children have awakened.

Caliban, suffering from recurring nightmares in which he sees somebody much like himself—and who in these visions seems to be dreaming of Caliban—gathers his closest allies for a final showdown. Together with longtime associates Pauncho Van Veelar and Barney Banks, and his titian-haired cousin, Trish Wilde, whose superhuman skills match his own, Doc descends deep into the subterranean complex to confront an infinite evil, the unspeakable dweller lurking at the threshold between two universes…

Featuring an introduction by Bronze Gazette editor Chuck Welch, The Monster on Hold is available in a Trade Paperback (featuring cover art by Doug Klauba, coming soon) and a Signed Hardcover Limited Edition (featuring a wraparound jacket by Mark Wheatley). Each edition also includes interior artwork by both artists. The hardcover will be signed by Win Scott Eckert, Chuck Welch, Doug Klauba, and Mark Wheatley!

The book is due out in the fall of 2021.

Order The Monster on Hold

Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe - Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time

My partners and I at Meteor House were so thrilled when Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. announced at the ERB panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19, 2019 that certain previously published authorized Burroughs novels by other writers—specifically Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time and Fritz Leiber’s Tarzan and the Valley of Gold—are considered official canonical novels in terms of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™ (ERBU), that we immediately asked ERB, Inc. if we could add the ERBU logo to our next printings of Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time.

With an enthusiastic “yes” from ERB, Inc. in response, we quickly ordered a new run of hardcovers which we’ll have on hand at PulpFest 2019 / FarmerCon XIV this week—August 15 through 18—in Cranberry (Pittsburgh) PA. 

Softcovers won’t have the new logo until we sell through our current stock, and ebooks will be updated with the new logo shortly after PulpFest. A new first hardcover edition of Leiber’s novel is also just out, published by ERB, Inc. and Christopher Paul Carey, Director of Publishing at ERB, Inc. will have copies on hand at PulpFest.

Tarzan Lives!

Trademarks Edgar Rice Burroughs®, Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™, and Tarzan® owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™ logo is a trademark of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Used by permission.

PulpFest 2019...and me!

I'm pleased to announce that after much back and forth, I will be attending PulpFest 2019 in August, and will have copies of Hunt the Avenger (published by Moonstone Books) on hand!

On Saturday, August 17, from 1:30 – 2:30 PM, I'll be signing Hunt the Avenger. If you've already preordered a copy, please bring it with you and I'll be happy to personally inscribe it (even if you already bought one of the signed limited edition hardcovers). Of course, if you want to pick up a copy from me there, that's fine as well. I will have softcovers and hardcovers–probably more softcovers.

Immediately thereafter, 3:15 – 4:30 PM, I'll be joining top notch writers (featuring John Bruening, Christopher Paul Carey, Craig McDonald, and William Patrick Murray) on a panel on Contemporary Pulp: Writing Genre Fiction moderated by authorized Fu Manchu continuation author William Patrick Maynard.

That evening, 7:45 – 8:25 PM, I'll be on the FarmerCon XIV panel: Farmer of the Pulps: A Harvest of Influences (featuring Jason Aiken, Christopher Paul Carey, and Garyn G. Roberts Ph. D., with Paul Spiteri moderating).

I hope to see you there!

• PulpFest site
• Full PulpFest schedule

The Evil in Pemberley House on sale!

From publisher Meteor House:

Our sixth biweekly sale is a discount usually only available to dealers: 40% off on one of our bestselling books — The Evil in Pemberley House, by Philip José Farmer & Win Scott Eckert. 

Pemberley is a darkly erotic novel with broad appeal to readers of pulp and popular literature, particularly followers of Doc Savage, Sherlockians, and fans of Farmer’s own celebrated Wold Newton Family.

This is our $20 trade paperback edition, which you can get for only $12 (+shipping). 

As always, please be sure to select the correct shipping option in the PayPal button below and do note that quantities are limited.

From ERB to PJF: How Burroughs Inspired Philip José Farmer - Dum-Dum 2018

On August 3, 2018, I was honored to give a guest speaker presentation at the 2018 Dum-Dum, held in Morgan City, LA, the site of the filming of the first Tarzan movie one-hundred years prior.

With thanks to Bill Hillman's ERBzine for the image conversion of my presentation, I'm pleased to make it available on Farmer's 101st birthday. Bill Hillman is also kindly hosting the presentation on his ERBzine site. 

I'd also like to thank The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page, which was a great resource as I prepared the presentation, in helping me verify that I covered everything.

In addition, I recommend downloading the accompanying audio file of my talk and scrolling through the slides/images below while listening. (Thanks to Henry Franke of the Burroughs Bibliophiles for providing the audio!)

Happy birthday, Phil!