Fans
Comic-con, 2011.
I officially became a fan, I guess, in December of 1994, when I stepped off a plane at LAX and told the US immigration officer that I had flown all the way from Australia to see people I had “met on the internet.” I was 17.
At that moment I suddenly realised the ridiculousness of the situation and the utter lack of fore-thought I had given to the whole endeavour. He raised an eyebrow and let me pass.
It was true that I had done very little planning, somehow convincing a girl over IRC that she should let me stay at her apartment in Los Feliz before I headed to San Francisco to meet another group of fans who were driving in from across the country. In the meantime, a couple in Kentucky had bought me a flight to have me come visit.
A year earlier I had become obsessed with the show X-Files and joined the online subculture that was X-Files fandom. It was the early days of the Internet and media producers were still wrestling with the idea of digital accessibility. Somehow I managed to get in touch with the show’s writers and actors and hosted interactive fan chats where I would sit at two computers and transfer questions from one screen to another in order moderate the discussions.
In Burbank, my fellow fans and I attended the first ever X-Files convention, revelling in the presence of other fans and joining panel discussions with the creator of the show, Chris Carter.
The fan convention is a place where obsession is expressed, celebrated and on some level… fulfilled.
Pikachu. Comic-con, 2011.
This year marked my third trip to Comic-con, the biggest popular culture convention in the world. 150,000+ fans attended. Wearing their fandom, emblazoned on t-shirts, bags, costumes.
At my first convention, while standing in line to pick up my ticket, the boy in-front turned around and pointed at someone in costume, “Look at that nerd”, to which I replied, “I don’t think you’ve noticed, you’re surrounded.”
Comic-con is a world where fandom and obsession is the norm, where our everyday concept of what’s cool is turned upside down. This is a refreshing departure. After all, there’s nothing like a little fandom to add some adventure to your life.
