Tag Archives: fan cultures

Book Cover for my forthcoming volume “The Sacred in Fantastic Fandom”

The cover design for one of the book projects I’ve been working on for a while. My thanks to the best book cover designers UK has, and my co-editors who came on board when the needs of the book and my life circumstances at the time meant I needed a lot of help to get […]

Call for Submissions for an anthology volume: Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred

Call for Submissions for an anthology volume: Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred They ways in which people pursue religion has changed in America and the West. Traditional, institutional religions are in decline, and even among those who claim “None” as their identity, an individualized spirituality of seeking is growing in popularity. As a part […]

Adam Savage TED Talk: My Love Letter to Cosplay

Paramount Copyright Battle: Legal Issues or Fan Fiction Surpasses Studio Efforts?

Fan cultures have existed for decades and have produced their own versions and variations of expression as they drew upon pre-existing genre fiction elements. Star Trek is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Fan fiction production went on without the concern of the entities that owned the material. It was largely seen as […]

Tor.com on respectful criticism in fandom

Recently Tor.com included an article that brought together my interests in the fantastic as well as respectful engagement even in criticism. The article is “Protecting What You Love: On the Difference Between Criticism, Rage, and Vilification” by Emily Asher-Perrin. The author acknowledges a place for criticism within fandom, but rightly takes issue with demonizing creators […]

Dungeons & Dragons and Ancient Bestiaries

Religion Dispatches recently published an interesting article by Robert Geraci that contrasts the The Monster Manual from Dungeons & Dragons with ancient bestiaries and tales of monsters and miracles. The essay is titled “Monstrous Futures: Dungeons & Dragons, Harbinger of the “None” Generation, Turns 40.” Two quotes of note: “We wish for an enchanted world, […]

Fandom and Religion Conference at University of Leicester

Fandom and Religion: An international, inter-disciplinary conference University of Leicester (UK) · 28th – 30th July 2015 A conference exploring interactions between religion and popular culture. How does fandom work? Has fandom replaced or become a form of religion? This event will provide opportunity for participants to explore these and other questions about popular culture […]

Salt Lake Comic Con Expands to Include Second Event for 2014

I attended the 2013 Salt Lake Comic Con as a media representative, and was invited to their press conference today but was unable to attend. After the event they released the following press release. Salt Lake City will see not one, but two fan conventions in 2014! Salt Lake Comic Con Is Baaack! With Great […]

Cosplay, Self-Objectification, and the Strange Case of Adrianne Curry

As a male I run the risk of being told I have no right to comment on an issue related to women and their experiences, but given some reflections over the last couple of days I’ll take that risk in order to offer my thoughts and an observation. For some time now the geek community […]

“William Shatner’s Get a Life!” documentary

For a while now I’ve been waiting to see the William Shatner’s Get a Life! documentary. This film is part of the EPIX Originals series, and Shatner serves as one of the executive producers. He also wrote and directed this piece. After doing his documentary The Captains as part of a process of self-discovery, this […]

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