Author: Nicholas Diak

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering is a periodic, small convention of sorts, hosted by a member of the Burroughs Bibliophiles in different cities across America. It is an event that allows Bibliophiles and the public to get together to celebrate the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, purchase books and memorabilia in the “Huckster Room”, listen to presentations, have a banquet, bestow awards, or partake in a huge event, such as the 2023 ECOF in Palm Springs that centered on the unveiling of a star on the walk of fame in Palm Springs for Burroughs.

The 2025 ECOF was held in Willcox, Arizona over the weekend of September 26^th through the 28^th, and was hosted by Bibliophile Frank Puncer, who had hosted a 2019 Burroughs event also in Willcox. The 2025 ECOF’s primary focus was to celebrate Burroughs’ 150^th birthday and commemorate his military service as part of the 7^th U.S. Cavalry at the nearby Fort Grant. The ECOF proper was held at the Willcox Elks Club, with the main attraction, the unveiling of the Burroughs monument, occurring at the Willcox city hall, that once served as the town’s train station (the very same that Burroughs arrived at), that was just a short walk away.

Michele and I have been extremely excited to attend the 2025 ECOF. Having moved to Phoenix in 2020, we have been eager to do more road trips to explore the desert lands of Arizona and see more of the Old West. The trip southeast to Willcox promised adventure. We also knew of THE THING?, a tourist trap on I10 on the way to Willcox, and we love to play tourist. We were excited to finally meet Puncer in person, who I have been in correspondence with since moving to Arizona and who has been the most welcoming individual in the Burroughs Bibliophiles since I joined. I was also invited to give a presentation, an opportunity I jumped at. There is quite a bit of cross over between the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and the peplum genre (my specialty), so I had been working on a talk about the sword and sandal elements of Burroughs’ book Tarzan and the Lost Empire.

With all of this in mind, Michele and I counted down the days that we could get a respite from work and go on a road trip and partake in a unique, momentous event. What follows is a recap of the 2025 ECOF along with multiple photo galleries of pictures I took to document the occasion. 

Thursday

We left Phoenix around 9:00 am Thursday morning, our mighty Fiat filled with our luggage, snacks, items to sell, and items to have autographed. The day started off bright and sunny with bagels in our tummies. As we got closer to Tucson, however, the horizon started to darken, with curtains of rain off in the distance. We stopped at a Pilot Express truck stop on S. Rita Rd. to get some Slushies, and we could start to see lightning and pillars of rain becoming more common. 

Shortly after getting back onto I10 our radio cut out with an emergency broadcast: warnings of heavy rain, flash flooding, and hail. And we were driving right into it.

Once the sky turned apocalyptic dark, the temperature dropped rapidly. Feeling the window on the door it was super cold. Lots of thunder in the distance, and then the sky broke with extremely heavy rain, huge globules battering the Fiat (lucky no hail). We had to pull off to the side of the freeway for a spell. We saw poor motorcyclists pull over to put on their raincoats. The rain would soon abate and stop by the time we reached Benson. For the rest of the day, however, the skyline would be perpetually dark with storm clouds and rain pillars.

When it became safe to drive and we were back on our way, the billboards along I10 decreasing stopped advertising lawyers and instead, more and more, began advertising, THE THING?.

These yellow billboards were everywhere, sometimes one right after the other. With each one we passed we got increasingly excited about checking out what THE THING? was. We hyped it up for ourselves so much, it had to be amazing.

After driving through Texas Canyon, which is filled with eroded boulders and rockscapes that make it look like a planet from the original Star Trek series, we could see just down the freeway, THE THING?, beckoning to us.

The Thing?

Pulling off I10, the outside of THE THING? looks like a large Shell station with a Dairy Queen attached to it. An aside, southern Arizona takes their Dairy Queens seriously. We saw more roadside adverts for Dairy Queens than any other fast food burger chain.

Walking inside THE THING?, to the right was a bustling Dairy Queen, and to the left, a huge gift shop. This shop was filled with snacks, postcards, shirts, local artist doodads, toys, necessities, jewelry, novelties, stickers, rocks, crystals, Dinosaur things, just everything. The store could probably be said to be 1/3 devoted to THE THING?, 1/3 devoted to general Arizona trinkets, and the rest to normal travel items. 

On the far back wall, a counter manned by a very disinterested youth, where it costs $5 a person or $10 for a family (reasonably priced!) was the door proper to THE THING?. Here is a slide show of the major points of interest of THE THING?:

So, what is THE THING? Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the John Carpenter movie of the same name. However, ironically enough, back up the road in Benson, there is a road that runs parallel to the freeway called Dark Star Road, which is named after Carpenter’s directorial debut. Overall, it can best be described that someone watched every single episode of History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, decided to go all in on that theme, and set up an elaborate backstory that would cumulate into THE THING?.

THE THING? can basically be divided into two large segments that each make up half of the exhibit: the dinosaur portion and the alt-history portion. 

The first, dinosaur, section of THE THING? tells the story about an alien race, the RAH’thians, that came to Earth during the Dinosaur times. They used their technology to enslave the Dinosaurs. There were also cave dwellers. At some point there was a civil war between the good and bad alien factions, and the Earth got destroyed (start of ice age). This entire portion of the exhibit was over the top, with many statues of aliens, dinosaurs, fossils, and placards that went into intricate “what if” history of the aliens in the prehistoric past. Each wall was a mural depicting Jurassic times, or epic space and land battles.

The second, alt-history, portion of the exhibit focused on the aliens returning back to earth and shaping human history. The good aliens did good things, and the bad aliens did bad things, like back Hitler. The walls had timelines from ancient Greece and Roman times up to World War 2 times were everything, from atomic bombs to sunken ships, are all entwined with the aliens. This portion of the exhibit also contained many old vehicles, like stagecoaches and wagons, old Model T cars, and even a Rolls Royce purported to have been owned by Winston Churchill.

This all cumulated into a small, dimly lit room made to look like the inside of a deep mineshaft, with a glass display case hugging the wall that contains… THE THING?, which is supposed to link all this alt-history and dinosaurs and aliens and cave dwellers together. THE THING? itself looks to be a mummified woman holding a mummified baby with a hat placed atop of them. I like to think it is an actual mummy found out in the desert a long time ago, but it also might be a fake. Regardless, the whole experience was AWESOME. Getting pumped seeing the billboards, arriving at THE THING?, seeing the outlandish story of the aliens and dinosaurs, all leading to the mummy. 100% worth it.

Enthralled having experienced the awe that is THE THING?, I purchased an armload of postcards, fridge magnets, hot sauce, peanuts, and a T-shirt like the tourist I am. We were soon back on the road and heading east to Willcox which was about twenty minutes away.

Willcox Cemetery

We arrived in Willcox a shade before 2:00 pm. Since our check in at the Holiday Inn Express was at 3:00 pm, we had some time to kill, so we drove straight to the Willcox cemetery at the northeast corner of the town, more-or-less right behind the Elks Lodge that we would be hunkered in for the next few days.

The road to the cemetery was unpaved, and with the sky threatening another storm, would easily turn into mud which would no doubt trap our Fiat. Because of this, and the armies of red ants that awaited us, we could not stay long at the cemetery. Oh yes, red ants. There was probably a ratio of three red ant hills to every grave in the cemetery. The cowboy ghosts have much company.

The cemetery dates from the late 1800s, so all of the graves we saw were from that time period. The area proper was overgrown with prickly weeds, which, of course, I was wearing shorts while adventuring. The majority of graves had toppled over, broken into pieces and were slowly dipping back into the earth. A few wooden markers somehow survived the century. With the thunder clouds approaching and the general quiet of the high plains of Willcox, the cemetery was indeed atmospheric.

Warren Earp’s grave was at the far end of the cemetery, forcing us to traverse through weeds, red ants, and accidentally stepping on fallen graves (sorry about that!). Warren Earp may not have been present at the infamous O. K. Corral gunfight, but he none-the-less has his own notoriety. There is even the possibility he might have driven the coach that took Burroughs to Fort Grant!

But, it was humbling standing before Earp’s grave. Right in front of us, was a legend of the Wild West, whose own history was connected to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the frontier, and so on. His grave stood out in the cemetery, as it was made of metal and seemed invincible among the crumbling ruins elsewhere.

After visiting the grave, Michele and I made our way out of the cemetery and proceeded to the Holiday Inn Express in hopes of an early check in. Awaiting in the lobby, also hoping for an early check in, was prolific author Jeffrey J. Mariotte, who was also the guest of honour at the 2025 ECOF! I had the privilege to interview Mariotte the other month in anticipation of the ECOF, and that interview can be read here. It was fantastic to finally meet Mariotte in person, he was extremely affable and quiet soft spoken.

Our room turned out to be on the top floor, lucky number 313. It was a room that had seen some wear-and-tear, with chipped wall fragments and a window leak above the AC unit. But the beds were comfy, the pillows were huge and fluffy, and we had William Shatner hosting paranormal nonsense on the History Channel, so we were all good! 

Our room had a great view looking west and we got to watch some great sunsets and lightning storms during our stay. 

Friday

Early to bed means early to rise Friday morning, the first official day of the ECOF. Michele and I had breakfast in the dining area of the Holiday Inn Express, a rather small area at that. Attendees of the ECOF were not the only folks headquartered at the Holiday Inn, but The International Cessna 170 Association as well. Older folks with name tags galore: are they there for Tarzan or tailspin? Both parties present meant the breakfast area got cramped quick, so Michele and I would not linger too long. Eat and leave so other folks could have our spot. We do have to give kudos to the Holiday Inn for continental breakfast variety: hot foods (scrambled eggs, omelets, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, sausages), a pancake making Rube Goldberg machine, cinnabons, cereal, yogurt, juices, milk. 

The conference’s hotel is about two miles as the crow flies northwest of the Elks Lodge, a super quick less than ten minute drive. On the way over we could see storm clouds already forming on the horizon.

We arrived perhaps a little before 9:00 am, and the ECOF’s room was probably halfway set up by the other vendors. Michele and I chose an empty table near the back, being neighbors with guest of honour Jeffrey Mariotte. Before we could get fully setup, we had to go register where we got our name tag:

A copy of the program:

And a goodie bag!

The Goodie Bag

When attending conferences and conventions it is always cool to get a bag-o-swag. The ECOF 2025 goodie bag was loaded with treasures. Here is a slide show of each item (use the arrows to flip through):

Included in the swag bag, which was black and adorned with the event’s poster art done by Gilead, was:

• The program
• A poster of the ECOF event done by Gilead
• A pin of the poster
• A postcard of the ERB monument
• A refrigerator magnet of the monument
• A Burroughs pen
• A copy of Arizona Connections: In the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Alan Hanson
• A large commemorative coin from ERB Inc. of Edgar Rice Burroughs
• A sample chapter from Mariotte’s Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn (this was actually supposed to be part of the swag bag, but it did not arrive in time to be included, so copies were at Mariotte’s table. But I am including it here)
• A black and white map of southeast Arizona from 1895
• Two beaded keychains (from a local artist?)
• Medallions commemorating Willcox and the Chiricahua Apache Peace Treaty
• And a USD stick with Burroughs home movies

This goodie bag was set aside for the first fifty registrants to the event, and there is lots of good stuff in here!

Vendors

Goody bags procured, it was time for Michele and I to set up our table proper. This has been only the second time we have ever vended at an event, the first time being CoKoCon back in 2023. 

Hard to believe that going to comic book conventions and other events for almost twenty years, we have never really vended before. So, we are total newbies at it. Rotten luck on top of it, the Elks Lodge’s wifi was not accessible, on top of there being no cellular reception, made it that our Square would not work. This turned out to be ok, everyone paid in cash and Michele wrote up receipts for everyone.

As shown, we had a pretty good setup with a range of stuff to sell. Michele had her crafts: cards, journals, and folios (make sure to check out her Facebook page for all her work). My half of the table was all of our books, from The New Peplum to Stranger Things. Since The New Peplum has an essay in it talking about the John Carter movie, that book sold the most. 

As mentioned prior, we set up shop next to Jeffrey Mariotte. Mariotte is a seasoned pro at cons, with a red tablecloth and decorations like a skull with a raven on it, a pile of pens for every autographing scenario, stacks of books from all the different genres he’s written in, and some other IPs as well, and, the most important thing, a sword! Mariotte was able to bring in a replica cavalry sword from his personal collection that would have been akin to what Burroughs would have used when he was stationed at Fort Grant.

Next to Mariotte were the tables for ERB Inc. which were staffed by Christopher Paul Carey, Cathy Wilbanks, Llana Jane Burroughs, and Jim Sullos. Sullos was rocking some tiki-style shirts throughout the convention. I have not seen the ERB Inc. folks since pre-Covid, probably the last time at Wondercon, so it was great to see them all again. Their table was half books, with a focus on newer editions, such as the authorized Tarzans, and half shirts and wearables. They also had more of their commemorative coins for other ERB characters. Lots of great merch.

Across from Mariotte and ERB Inc.’s tables were Scott Tracy Griffin and Gary Buckingham. Gary had a huge spread of his many Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as Tarzan and the Lion of Judah and Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers, and Griffin had copies of his ornate Tarzan film books. Together they had copies of issue one of their newly launched magazine, RevERBerate, and issue two, which they just debut at the ECOF. Michele bought the second copy of the second issue and got it autographed by the duo.

There were, of course, tables with other vendors and authors. Authors Robert Lupton, Robert Leeper, Doug Hocking, Frank Puncer (who we finally got to meet for the first time and he was incredibly friendly), had tables with their books or website posters. There was one vendor with many boxes of old pulp magazines, from Weird Tales to Amazing Stories. Robert Leeper’s write up about the event at Nerdvana (link here) contains many more photos that showcase the Elks Lodge and the vendors within.

Roughly an hour after getting set up and getting acquainted with the vendor’s room (Huckster Room) the clock struck 10:00 am and it was time to begin the presentations for the day.

Friday Presentations

The small stage on the west wall in the Huckster Room served as the presentation place, and I liked this. Many conferences, those on the larger side, typically separate presentations and panels into a side area from the vendor space. Since the ECOF was a lower key affair, everything was in one room, which allowed all of us vendors, and everyone else, to hear the presentations. The downside was the entrance to one of the bathrooms was right behind the podium. 

The first presentation given was by Dr. Deni Seymour titled “Recent Discoveries about the Coronado Expedition (1539 – 1541)”. This was a fantastic presentation detailing all the archeological finds Dr. Seymour has been encountering along the San Pedro River. The slides showed so many artifacts: cannons, pistols, arrows, spears, jewelry, and so on. She talked about how they discover where the expeditions camped and where they got into skirmishes, and then using this information to form trajectories as to where the next movement of the expedition went. She also talked a little about the clandestine nature of the work because these sites are vulnerable to being visited by others and ruined/objects taken/vandalized/etc. A great presentation with lots of awesome visuals of what Dr. Seymour is uncovering.

The next presentation of the day was me! My presentation was titled “Tarzan nella valle dei Romani: Tarzan as a peplum strongman in Tarzan and the Lost Empire” (sorry folks, it was a mouthful). In the novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire Tarzan finds himself in a hidden valley in Africa that has two mini Roman empires in it, both at odds with each other. Tarzan fights Roman soldiers and eventually finds himself in the arena, becoming a gladiator, an even fighting a lion like Hercules fights the Nemean Lion. For all purposes, Tarzan becomes just like a sword and sandal strongman character (Hercules, Ursus, Maciste, Atlas, etc.) and placed in an antiquity setting. This is what my presentation deep dove into, and I will probably wind up editing it and putting it into a formal essay and submit it someplace.

At the Q&A at the end of my presentation someone asked, “who would win in a fight, Tarzan or Hercules.” In a room of full of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans, scholars, and even representatives from ERB Inc. itself, I replied with “Hercules because he is a demigod.” The boos I got were warranted, but I stand by my decision. I do concede Tarzan is much more agile, which is in alignment with neo-peplum characters, such as Perseus in the Clash of the Titans remake who can do flying spin kicks while wielding a sword.

After my presentation was an hour break time in which sandwiches, wraps, chips, cookies, sodas, and snacks were brought in. It was also a good time to mingle. Between presentations I got to talk to other folks and meet some in person for the first time, such as Robert Lupton and Jim Goodwin, who both gifted me books. Bernd Brand, one of the upcoming speakers, was extremely outgoing and complimentary toward my presentation. 

The presentations resumed at 1:00 pm with Scott Tracy Griffin discussing his and Gary Buckingham’s new publication, RevERBerate, and its newest issue, which focuses on the Westerns of Burroughs. Griffin deep dives into the ten sources that Burroughs used as reference for his writings, of which he was able to track down eight. Per Griffin, Burroughs was able to anchor his Westerns into real life stuff by leveraging the sources he had at the time.

The next presentation was done by Bernd Brand and titled “Apache Scouts Working for the U.S. Army With an Overview of the Life of the Apache Kid.” Brand focuses on the Apache Scouts, from 1860 to 1947, and all the sorties they were involved in and their accomplishments.

At major conventions like Wondercon and San Diego Comicon, ERB Inc. usually hosts a panel showcasing all their works they have in the pipeline or have recently released. For the 2025 ECOF, Christopher Paul Carey, Cathy Wilbanks, and Jim Sullos had much to show to audience. Here is a few images from their presentation in this slideshow: 

Some of the major releases from ERB Inc. include

• Trailblazer, the Edgar Rice Burroughs autobiography
• Concluding the Authorized Library editions of Tarzan and now moving on to editions for John Carter
• A re-release of The Monster Men (a rare Burroughs foray into horror) and a new book, Return of the Monster Men, by Josh Reynolds
• A re-release of Beyond Thirty
• Jeffrey Mariotte’s sequel, Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn
• Sequel to the “Dead Moon Arc” of Korak at Earth’s Core done by Win Scott Eckert (coming 2026)
• New Victory Harben tales in 2026 with a possible TV deal
• The Land that Time Forgot: Kingdom of Skulls by Mike Wolfer (2026)
• Chris Adams’ Gauntlets of Mars (the 14^th book in the Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs series) which made its debut at the ECOF. This book will reveal how Barsoom became a dying planet.
• A Return to Pellucidar story, which will be a follow up to a Joe Lansdale story
• A huge tome from Taschen which will reprint the Hal Foster Sunday Tarzan comics, edited by Dian Hanson
• Burroughs expansions to the Overpower CCG
• A John Carter figurine from Frazetta Girls
• Amazon carrying Burroughs audio books
• Plushies of Woola!!!!!

Jim Sullos talked a bit about film and television projects that were outstanding and waiting for actions:

• A Korak adult anime series
• A John Carter Warlord of Mars animated series (per Sullos, younger folks are more interested in Carter than Tarzan)
• Victory Harben animated series in conjunction with Flying S Films (the hope here is to use Victory Harben as the glue to hold together a true ERB universe)
• An option on The Land Time Forgot
• An option on Carson of Venus, which has been held up due to requirements demands of streaming services (need a director, a writer, a screenplay, the actors, etc.)

After some small technical difficulties and a computer swap later, ERB Inc. ended their presentation showing an AI generated clip of Burroughs, speaking to the audience and thanking his readers. 

The final presentation of the day was from Gary Buckingham, who compliments Griffin’s talk about their RevERBerate endeavor. Buckingham also gave some insight into his time of being a writer, the woes he encounters getting his books printed, and how he goes about researching to make sure his period pieces reflect the times appropriately such as lingo used. Buckingham talked about how he used his story, Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers, to plug the narrative holes in Burroughs’ canon.

And with that, the presentations for Friday came to a close. The next activities for the ECOF where a board meeting for the Bibliophiles followed by a screening of Tarzan and his Mate. Michele and I, however, were famished and weary from the day’s events, so we called it early. We had dinner in downtown Willcox at Isabel’s South of the Border. Michele had a quesadilla and I had a chile relleno and two margaritas. Bellies bursting full, we headed back to the Holiday Inn to call it a day.

Saturday

Saturday began with a continental breakfast in the downstairs dining area of the Holiday Inn Express, mingled in with the ECOF attendees and the Cessna Club folks. We got to the Elks Lodge at around 9:00 am when it opened up and killed time talking with others and table browsing before walking to the train station/city hall for the big event at 10:00 am: the monument unveiling!

Monument Dedication

For the monument unveiling, the section of the street, S. Railroad Ave., in front of the train station / city hall was blocked off. Two canopies and foldout chairs were placed underneath, though thankfully this Saturday was a sunny day, a respite from the last two days of rain and thunder.

Set up on the deck of the city hall was an impromptu postal station, with postal workers selling stamps and performing cancellations using a special ERB commemorative stamp for the event:

There was quite the queue of folks who wanted their stamps cancelled! It was a neat service and definitely added a unique, “you-had-to-be-there”, aspect to the whole ceremony/ECOF. 

After a bit of milling about, with folks taking photos of other folks guissied up, the dedications began. Here is a slide show of the speakers:

Folks who introduced the event and talked about Burroughs and the community included:

• Frank Puncer, who was the master of the ceremonies
• Greg Hancock, the mayor of Willcox, who talked about growing up with Tarzan
• Kathy Klump, the president of the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society
• Henry G. Franke III who talked a bit about Burroughs’ military career
• Jeffrey Mariotte, the guest of honour
• Scott Tracy Griffin, who introduced the Burroughs great-grand daughters
• Floyd Gray, a Buffalo Soldier historian who talked about what Burroughs would have seen his first nights under the open sky
• Kathy Bonnaud
• Llana Jane Burroughs

Before unveiling the plaque, it was revealed that the boulder it was installed in was brought down all the way from Fort Grant, so it very well could have been a boulder that Burroughs had laid eyes on. Periodically during the speeches, a train would pass behind the station, halting the ceremony temporarily, but definitely adding to the ambience and the lore of Burroughs getting off the train station, right there, at Willcox.

The Burroughs family lifted the covering of the monument, and like the amazing photographer I am, did not take a clear picture of it. But, Robert Leeper took many, so take a look at his coverage at Nerdvana. There are also photos of the dedication and monument at the Cochise County Voice.

After the dedication, we would be remiss if we did not check out the interior of the train station/city hall, which had its public area converted into a museum. Here are a couple of pictures:

It was neat seeing the restoration effort done on the train station, the glow up from being run down to the restored building it is today.

Saturday Presentations

The canopies and the chairs began the breakdown process and it was time to wander off. Michele and I spent some time walking around downtown Willcox, exploring an antique store where we ran into ERB Inc. folks doing their own shopping.

The ECOF presentations resumed at 2:00 pm, with three scheduled for the day. The first was Henry Franke III giving a speech on Burroughs’ military career. Though Franke had mentioned Burroughs’ service during the dedication earlier in the day, this talk went into greater detail, covering his time in the cavalry to his time in World War 2 as a war correspondent. An interesting fact Franke shared was that Burroughs had spent much of his life signing books to others that he flipped the tables during the Pacific Campaign and started collecting autographs of the servicemen he encountered.

The martial-themed presentations continued with Floyd Gray talking about the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and how integral, yet unacknowledged, they are in United States history. He spoke of why folks joined the Buffalo Soldiers, how they were confined to the west, and their accomplishments. 

The final presentation for the day, and for the ECOF, was from Robert Leeper titled “Geography vs. John Carter’s Arizona Cave”. Leeper talked about being in attendance at a pop culture event in Arizona, talking about John Carter, and having many folks question him as to where the location of the cave that John Carter found was. Leeper had a giant map of the south and east portions of Arizona and went through likely locations of where the cave could be. Using text from one of Burroughs’ books, he settled on the cave being located near the White Mountains in Eastern Arizona.

And with that, the presentations of the ECOF came to an end and the Huckster Room closed. Michele and I, and everyone else, packed up our tables to clear the area. It had been a fun two days headquartered in the vending/presentation room for the ECOF, but it was time to transition to the finale of the event: the banquet!

Banquet

The last bit of official programming for the ECOF was the banquet from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The banquet was held in a dining area of the Elks Lodge, with a buffet style dinner: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, beans, and vegetable lasagna. Kathy Klump brought in a homemade pineapple cake that was the centerpiece for the first part of the banquet: the Edgar Rice Burroughs birthday celebration. Pictures of folks going up to talk about Burroughs can be viewed in this slide show:

Llana Jane Burroughs wished Edgar Rice Burroughs a happy birthday, which lead to the room singing the birthday song. Jeffrey Mariotte took the mic stand to talk about his youth and getting into fencing and sword collecting, and also his encounters with speculative fiction writing luminaries while he worked at various bookstores in California. 

The last portion of the banquet was devoted to honouring Frank Puncer, who was bestowed an Outstanding Achievement Award by the Burroughs Bibliophiles for all the work he had done, not just for putting on the 2025 ECOF, but all his prior Burroughs centric endeavors (which are many). The award was truly well deserved. Puncer worked super hard to make sure everyone had a memorable and successful ECOF. Michele and I certainly did.

Autographed Treasures

When I attend events like comic book conventions or horror cons I love to bring things to be autographed (just look at any of my social media or news posts at this website and you will see me often sharing my autographed treasures). The 2025 ECOF was no different as Michele and I brought a box of books and comics to get signed by folks at the event. Here is some of that loot.

Christopher Paul Carey

The last time I saw Carey I had an armload of then-recently published ERB comics put out by American Mythology. In the years since I have gotten more books and comics he’s had his paws in. Here is a gallery of what I brought to be signed:

Firstly, going old school, many moons ago Carey worked at Paizo and one of the lines he worked on was the Planet Stories series of books, which were reprints of classic sword and planet stories along with other sci-fi fare. I love the sword and planet genre and I have been collecting these books when I happen across them. Two of the books I have, the anthology Before They Were Giants, and the double book that contains Sojan the Swordsman by Michael Moorcock and Under the Warrior Star by Joe Lansdale, were edited by Carey. I really love Under the Warrior Star, so much so that I may have designed a cocktail based on the story which is slated to be printed in an upcoming issue of a certain fantasy magazine. (Shhh! Secret!).

Next, going new school, are my Kickstarter copies of two Victory Harben graphic novels: Ghosts of Amos and Warriors of Zandor. Apparently, Carey had never signed the Kickstarter editions of these comics before, so that was cool I got to be the first. I like Victory Harben, and I think her stories are the future of ERB Inc. I know Tarzan is the company’s bread and butter, but Victory Harben feels much more modern and connected to today and she does not have the baggage that Burroughs’ work carries. I really hope her cartoon series happens because I have a feeling it will be amazing.

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

While conducting my interview with Mariotte I tried to get my paws on as many books and comics he had his hand in as possible. A writer as prolific across so many genres and mediums as he, there is so much out there to check out! So, I brought my modest collection of items for him to sign (I wish I could have procured his Conan books!). Here is the gallery:

Firstly there is Tarzan and the Forest of Stone, Mariotte’s first contribution to the Burroughs canon. I bought my copy directly from the ERB website and it came with a bookplate already signed by Mariotte, Douglas Klauba, and Chris Gardner. However, I wanted my copy personalized and Mariotte gladly did so. It is the perfect book for the 2025 ECOF as it mixes Tarzan and the Wild West.

Next are the four issues of the Star Trek: Divided We Fall run that was published by Wildstorm. The story is a crossover comic of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and all four issues were edited by Mariotte. I am not a huge Trekkie, but I did watch a lot of Next Generation in the 90s when I was a teenager. I had gotten into the series when I started collecting the Star Trek: Next Generation CCG that Decipher was putting out. I was not able to watch much DS9, but probably my favourite episode I ever saw was the one where they time traveled back to the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode of the original series. I was able to find copies of these comics at my local comic bookstore, High Score Comics.

Finally, and related to Star Trek, is Andromeda: The Attitude of Silence. I recall in my college years, going home to visit my parents, and catching a few episodes of Andromeda, but I am far from familiar with the series. This was a random purchase: I was at Bookmans, browsing about looking for Mariotte’s Conan books in the sci-fi IP section of the store and happened upon this tome, so I plucked it up.

Burroughs Bulletins

One of the perks of being a member of the Burroughs Bibliophiles is you get copies of their journal, The Burroughs Bulletin. The journal publishes writings done by Bibliophile members and range from interviews to essays to galleries to retrospectives and other types of articles. My interview with pepla starlet Bella Cortez and her work on the Italian unofficial Tarzan film, Taur the Mighty, was published in issue 109. Since some of the attendees of the 2025 ECOF had articles published in the Bulletin, I brought a stack of issues, getting many of them signed by contributors. Here is a gallery of those issues:

• Issue 100-102 signed by Frank Puncer and Gary A. Buckingham
• Issue 104-105 signed by Gary A. Buckingham
• Issue 107 signed by Gary A. Buckingham
• Issue 108 signed by Gary A. Buckingham and Scott Tracy Griffin

At the next Burroughs-centric event I hope to get even more issues signed! 

Tarzan and the Lost Empire

And finally, since my whole presentation was centered on the Burroughs novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire, I had to bring the new authorized library edition ERB Inc. published fairly recently to be signed by those involved. Here is a gallery of those signed pages:

I was able to get this handsome edition signed by Henry Franke III who composed the afterword and Cathy Wilbanks who wrote about the archival matter. Included in these images is the way old school Dell paperback of Tarzan and the Lost Empire, a gift from Frank Puncer, which I will cherish.