How has being a fan impacted on your life?
As a youngster, it both ostracized me and helped me find a community. I grew up in rural Iowa, so while everyone might like something like Star Wars, very few people read comic books, or watched Doctor Who, or anything like that. So those of us who were into those things gravitated toward each other.
The people you have met... whether celebrities or fellow fans...
No celebrities, but I have met some really cool people over they years while hunting in comic book stores, record shops or video shops (I miss those last two). It's an awesome thing to go into a store like that and spend an hour talking with total strangers about things you love, discovering something new, or helping someone else find something that they might like. You can't get that with an Amazon algorithm.
However, being in comic book stores means I have met some very creepy guys as well.
The collections that you have accumulated...
Mostly my comic book collection. While I haven't been as diligent about purchasing the last few years, it's an impressive selection, and it makes me happy. I have a few various action figures, and of course my movie collection.
The bizarre situations you have found yourself in....
Not many bizarre situations. Some slightly uncomfortable, like the time a guy in a comic book store was checking out my daughter, which caused my dad instinct to nearly go Batman on his ass. The strangest things probably happened at live shows checking out local bands, where you sometimes find some interesting characters due to the type of music I usually listen to.
And how being a fan has moulded you as a person and the direction of your life?
I like to think that it has made me a better person. Comic books gave me a sense of morality, much to the chagrin of Frederick Wertham. The same with watching Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and various other sci-fi programs and movies over the years. The sense of right vs wrong is prevalent in those mediums, and have given me a moral code that rivals any religion.
Are you a fan of something obscure and less popular or mainstream than the great majority?
Once upon a time, yes. Again, growing up, few people were into the things I was into, and no one had even heard of anime or manga. I would say Blake's 7 is one of the least mainstream things I'm still a fan of. No one outside of a very small group of cult fans had ever read Tolkein when I was young, so I knew all about LOTR and The Hobbit before the movies made them big. I suppose my love of really bad B-movie cinema is still out of the mainstream.
More importantly, was being a fan better years ago, as opposed to the big business of today?
I struggle with this, mate. Several years ago, I had written an article calling out what I then called "so-called fans". The folks who watch the superhero movies and shows, wear the shirts, have some kitch, but have never read a comic book and happily proclaim that they never will. At the time, I was frustrated with these people in real life, but more so on forums like the old imdb boards, where those "fans" thought that theirs ships and theories were more important than the source material, and that we "butthurt fanboys" needed to get over it (by the way, of all of the people I would love to go find and place a hurt on, it's whoever thought up the phrase "butthurt" - it sounds like something a six-year-old came up with, and yet, adults use it like it's fucking Shakespeare). The whole "geek chic" movement had taken its toll on me, and I was lashing out.
I have realized that we need to embrace all fans, because without those people, our movies and shows don't get made. But in that same vein, there wouldn't be those shows and movies without all of us fanboys who got beaten up for reading comic books. Both sides can stand to be a little less sanctimonious. But their side more, of course. And as others have pointed out, the rising popularity of those mediums only keeps them in the public eye, which is good.
Just what does being a fan... of anything... mean to you?
For me, it means that there's something out there that speaks to you on a personal level. A book, comic, movie, TV show, song or something else that has perhaps instilled a feeling of happiness, or hope, or love, or passion, or perhaps just given you a brief respite from the horrors of the world, and that escapism allowed you to take a break from life and enjoy yourself, even for a short while. That's what being a fan means for me.
