fandom meme

Gacked from Lucy.

1. What was the very first fandom you got involved in?

Depending on my mood I either count comic fandom in general or Duck comics by Carl Bark as my first fandom. Duck comics were definitely the first specific source where I got involved in its fandom (I joined a club, bought zines, went to conventions etc). But I had been to one general comic convention before I went to the Duck specific one, and I've been to comic workshops with other fans, and public academic lectures on comics at the university before that too.

2. What is the most recent fandom to catch your interest?

Batman comics. Seriously since late this January / early this February with the start of my interest in Nightwing, though I've read Batman graphic novels casually before.

3. Fandom you've stayed loyal to the longest?

I guess Duck comics. For tv fandoms it would be The Sentinel. I'm really not sure what "loyal" is supposed to mean, though. I've never been "monogamous" with any fandom and I don't really feel "loyalty" to fandoms either.

4. Fandom(s) you're most passionate about?

Hard to say, I think I'm usually more passionate about recent interests. But comics in general are what I'm most passionate about in the longterm view. I love the medium, I love to talk and think about how comics work and what you can do with the form, and I'll argue very passionately when someone disses comics (at least when I'm in an argumentative mood), whereas for example I won't bother to "defend" tv series against people who think following a series is a waste of time.

5. Fandom(s) you wish you could get into, but can't?

I sometimes wish I could get mangas. I mean there is this diverse artform that's really close to comics (and influences Western comics more and more), and I just really dislike them. I've tried to get into mangas when they first became noticeable here, I think in the late eighties with Akira and some other manga, and since then I've tried occasionally to see their appeal and check out whether I've changed my mind, but so far I haven't. The style is a big part of that dislike, but I think it's even more the manga way of graphic storytelling, the different visual conventions, the pacing, cuts etc. I really love the way "Western" comics are doing things, as diverse as they are, and somehow mangas just aggravate me as (slightly) "wrong."

6. Fandoms you're curious about, but never had the chance to get into?

Sports Night. I've seen many people talk highly of this show (and seen fanfic recs), but I haven't managed to get episodes beyond the pilot. And I usually don't like comedies that much, so I never bothered to find someone who might copy me tapes (and it's been not released on DVD in Region 2, so I can't just borrow DVDs to check the show out either).

7. Fandom that's been the most fun to be involved in?

The Sentinel, at least for a while. There were stretches where I was really annoyed with TS fandom in general too, but it was my first serious online fandom. I mean, I had been on a Due South list for a few weeks in autumn 1995, but that didn't work out because I didn't have a computer myself nor easy access to the internet at that time, and my brother wasn't too thrilled about the volume of an active fan list clogging his account, so it took until early 1998 before I was really sucked into online fandom. So it was in TS I had a lot of debates for the first time, and felt really passionate about them, because it wasn't the n-th rerun with variations of some topic for me then. And that was a lot fun.

8. Fandom that's been the least fun to be involved in.

Due South. I had been a casual fan a long time, but I didn't know the RayK episodes, then, I think in late 2000, I got the RayK eps though a tape trade, because I noticed that a lot of people wrote RayK fanfic that came highly recommended, but I won't read fic for something I haven't seen at all. Anyway, I really liked those eps, and thought it was time to rekindle my old DS love, and tried some RayK lists, but the atmosphere on those lists was really uncomfortable and tense somehow, though I can't really put my finger on what it was. I think my main problem was that, having missed the Ray-Wars probably lots of other stuff, I didn't know what was going on, what all those old conflicts lurking beneath were. And then some new unpleasantness started, and I was just confused and not long enough on any list to care about any of the factions, and I decided early 2001 that the best course of action would be to keep any involvement with DS fandom marginal.

9. Fandom you're ashamed to admit you were involved in?

I can't think of one, but of course if I were really ashamed to admit it, I wouldn't tell it now, would I?

10. Are you looking for a new fandom, or actively avoiding getting sucked into something new?

I'm not looking for a new fandom, but I'm not avoiding either. Well, I'm actively avoiding getting sucked into any more sprawling comic universes, despite liking the X-Men 2 movie. Unless I miraculously get lots of money I just can't afford to buy more comics right now. Actually I can't really afford the Batman comics I've been buying recently either, not if I were acting financially responsible. At least for some of the about three hundred Batman comics I now own that I didn't four months ago I used the money from my birthday present in March, and some money that I had originally intended to buy a digital camera from, so I hadn't had to resort to petty crime yet to finance my crack comics, but I don't have a long term financial plan for coping with the Batman comics, let alone even more series. So I'm fairly committed to maintaining not more than a casual interest in the X-Men comics.

when life (or in this case a garbage truck) is stranger than fiction

So I walked to the first class I had today, from the underground station towards the physics department, and as I passed by the jail (the grounds of the physics department here are directly next to a detention jail, with the watchtowers and barbed wires a couple of meters away from the nearest physics building, and you can sometimes watch the prisoners in the yard from some lecture halls and rooms when you're bored) there stood a garbage truck collecting the trash that's to be recycled, nothing unusual so far. But this garbage truck was decorated with well over a dozen stuffed animals and other plush soft toys, which from the looks of it had been on the outside of that truck for quite some time. It had some fastened to its sides, some to the front radiator grill, and some on the roof of the driver's cabin. I also had a vanity plate with a confederate flag below the regular license plate (btw, are such plates still called vanity plates if they don't serve to identify the vehicle?). My first thought was "aren't there regulations for public service trucks?" until I remembered that the recycling part of the trash collection is, I think, done by privatized subsidiaries. It's been the first time I've seen a garbage truck decorated in any way at all (well except for advertisements on the sides and such), and really, soft toys and a confederate flag (there were some more minor decorations, but I didn't stop to examine it further), that combination is already bizarre in itself, and all on a garbage truck?!