Thoughts on Fandom

[Christine Wheelwright]

Interesting piece by Alan Moore on Fandom. I'd never thought much about the political angle (although it is certainly relevant). I've always thought 'fandom' to be the enemy of quality. Why would a studio produce an innovative original work when it can churn out a standard package - one in a series - that 'fans' will flock to regardless of its merit?

‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump

Enthusiasm can be a productive force for good, but our culture has rapidly become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in

www.theguardian.com

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

My experience of long-running TV, movie and comics fandoms is slightly different - they quickly degenerate into a state of endless warfare between factions that like one specific part of the franchise and consider all the rest to be absolute garbage written for idiots. See Star Wars, Marvel, Doctor Who etc. etc. etc. Readers tend to be a bit more tolerant of different tastes, but not always.

 

[BAYLOR]

Some fans become a bit to possessive of their favorite franchises.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I agree with Alan Moore's observations on Fandom, and go a step further by saying I find it more like a general purpose template for anything. A similar industry that got side swiped by extreme monetization was the the trading card business.