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Call for Contributors – Fan Phenomena: Batman

March 11, 2012

On the eve of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-closer The Dark Knight Rises, Intellect is seeking contributors for Fan Phenomena: Batman. This new series, Fan Phenomena, is prompted by a growing appetite for books that tap into the fascination we have with what constitutes an iconic or cultish phenomenon and how a particular person, TV show or film character/film infiltrates their way into the public consciousness. The series will look at particular examples of ‘fan culture’ and approach the subject in an accessible manner aimed at both fans and those interested in the cultural and social aspects of these fascinating – and often unusual – ‘universes’.

Papers are invited that discuss any aspect of Batman and Fandom, including, but not limited to, the following:

FAN MEDIA

From widely distributed fan films such as Batman: Dead End to slash fiction that imagines Batman and Robin as more than just crime-fighting colleagues, fan responses to Batman frequently broaden the scope of the source material. Topics might include: fan art and fiction, fan films, mashups, machinima as well as issues surrounding authorship and copyright.

ADAPTATIONS and INFLUENCE

Although Batman may have his origin in comics, the Dark Knight has cast his shadow over a number of media and entertainments. Batman fans also migrate between media, often bringing their expectations and habits with them. Papers are invited which consider the interaction between Batman, adaptations and fans. Topics might include: Online fandom, Fan criticism of adaptations, viral marketing such as The Dark Knight, Comic-Conventions, Transmedia Storytelling and Convergence Culture.

FASHION

From Bat-Symbol emblazoned T-shirts to full on cosplay, Batman’s ionic status has inspired many fashion choices. Papers are invited which consider this relationship. Topics might include: Merchandise, Escapism, Fashion Trends and Cultural Impact of Style.

REPRESENTATIONS OF FANS

Papers are invited which discuss representations of “fans” in Batman texts such as the “Beware the Gray Ghost” episode of Batman: The Animated Series in which Bruce Wayne meets his childhood icon, or The Dark Knight in which Batman inspires like-minded vigilantes.

ECONOMICS AND POPULARITY

Despite occasional dips in popularity, Batman has been an important force in popular culture for over seventy years. Papers are invited which consider the role fans have played in sustaining the hero’s recognition.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words, an academic bio and contact details (either in the body of a mail or as a single attachment) to Liam Burke atliam.burke@nuigalway.ie by 12 March 2012. Final papers will be 3,000 – 3,500 words and will be need to be submitted no later than 31 May 2012.

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Digital Icons: Digital Fandom and Media Convergence

March 9, 2012

Special Issue

Issue editors: Natalia Sokolova (Samara University) and Sudha Rajagopalan (Utrecht University)
Deadline for submission: 1 August 2012

While the history of fandom is long and storied, never before have fans (of television, cinema, games, sport or celebrities) operated in such a hypermediated environment as exists in the contemporary world. Just as cultural texts use multiple medial platforms, so too do their fans have access to and utilise this multiplicity of platforms to reify and display their commitment to the objects of their fandoms. As scholars, it is crucial to analyze digital fandom in order to understand the various processes in modern culture and the new media sphere, by virtue of fans’ active attitude to mass media, their practice of community formation and their engagement in the media industry. It is a truism, but it pays to reiterate that in this age of digital fandoms, the distinction between producers and consumers is no longer sacrosanct. Fans not only participate in debates about the media text(s) that are the objects of their fandom, but they also create cultural texts of their own—particularly, videos, fiction, games—that further the original text either by corresponding to it or deviating from it in imaginative ways.

In the years since Henry Jenkins pioneered the study of fandom, Anglo-American approaches to researching fandom have moved from a celebratory, romanticizing pitch to more measured analyses that examine the inherent tensions, particularly the politics and hierarchies, of fan communities. While these studies have investigated various aspects of (mostly) American fan cultures, this special issue of Digital Icons seeks to give fandom research in the region of Russia, Eurasia and Central Europe, a young and growing field, fresh impetus. This special issue on fandom in a new media environment invites not only textual analyses of fan production in the region, but encourages an examination of the digital affordances that engender fan practices. Further, the issue intends to address the local and transnational contexts of media production and economy in which these digital fandoms thrive.

With this in view, several questions will serve to underpin this issue: are fandoms in the region the rich participatory and democratising world of Jenkins’ vision? In what ways does fan production – art, remix videos, fiction, games – augment, reinforce or radically alter the products of media industry? To what degree are digital fandoms rooted in regional cultural traditions – can we speak of ‘global’ fandoms and if so, what does such a distinction imply? In what ways and to what extent is media convergence in the region a reality? What is the impact of fan practices on media convergence, including convergence of media platforms, convergence of consumption and production, as well as global media convergence and various transmedial phenomena? How does the media economy affect fan engagement? How do digital fandoms affect the parameters and substance of stardom and celebrity? What does digitalfandom tell us about the relationship between online and offline worlds? How do fans/audiences act as publics if/when traditional public spheres appear unstable, particularly in post-communist states? How do fans engage with history and build upon cultural memory? What impact do social media have on fans` interaction and communication? What kind of new perspectives and approaches can the researcher utilise to study digital fandom in the region? These are just some of the important inter-disciplinary questions that can serve to guide submissions.

We invite contributors from a wide range of disciplines to submit research articles and interviews, and reviews of relevant books, events, courses, platforms and projects. We also invite fans in the region to contribute meta-fandom texts, which are submissions that involve introspective, self-reflexive observations on being a fan in the region in the age of digital media.

To find out more about Digital Icons’ editorial practice and submission guidelines, visit our Information for Authors page

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Edited Collection on Sherlock Holmes Adaptations

March 5, 2012

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories have recently gained new popularity through a variety of adaptations and re-interpretations in a broad variety of media forms. This edited collection will focus on three ways to access these texts: Fan and audience activity, adaptations throughout history and their political and ideological contextualization, and intertextual influences. We welcome submissions for articles of 200 word abstracts on adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

– Adaptation in film, television, theatre/performance, graphic novels, games, and other media forms
– Fan activity surrounding all texts, including fan fiction, slash fiction, shipping, online fandom, etc.
– Reception of adaptations
– Historical adaptations
– Influences on other franchises, such as the CSI franchise or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series, or literary influences, such as Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series
– Games adaptation from board games to contemporary video gaming
– Adaptation in varying political contexts and systems
– Influences on the genre

Please submit 200 word abstracts by the 2nd of April to Stephanie Jones (sbj@aber.ac.uk), Nia Edwards-Behi (nne09@aber.ac.uk) and Mareike Jenner (mmj09@aber.ac.uk)

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Networking Knowledge: American Telefantasy

March 3, 2012

Television schedules are currently rife with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror programmes. Whereas the re-launched Doctor Who continues to lead the charge of contemporary British telefantasy (Merlin, Being Human, Misfits et al), US shows attract large audiences, extensive media coverage and – since Peter Dinklage’s Emmy win for Game of Thrones – mainstream awards.

Established programmes such as True Blood, Fringe and Sanctuary offer a continued presence on primetime schedules; while cable shows such as The Walking Dead and Falling Skies have had demonstrable ratings success. However, is the demise of previously dominant franchises such as Star Trek, Stargate and Battlestar Galactica representative of an uncertain future? Or will the genre continue to thrive thanks to high-profile newcomers with celebrity showrunners like JJ Abrams’ Alcatraz, Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova and Kevin Williamson’s The Secret Circle?

The prevalence of contemporary anxieties centred upon (and within) television Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror appear to indicate an opportune time to consider how US telefantasy might be understood, examined and contextualised.
Papers of between 6,000 and 8,000 words are invited from postgraduate students and early career researchers across the humanities and social sciences for this special edition of Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

Historical case studies
Franchises and/or Authorship
The role of technology in science fiction television
Representing (in)human subjectivities and/or identities
The aesthetics of Fantasy television
Constructions of utopia/dystopia
Genre and/or narrative theory
Marketing television Horror
Performance and/or Stardom
Issues of reception
Telefantasy and realism

Proposals of approx. 250 words should be directed to the issue’s guest editors Rhys Thomas at rothomas@gmail.com or Sophie Halliday at smhalliday@gmail.com by 6th April 2012. If accepted, completed articles need to be submitted by 1st June 2012. For any further information, please contact Rhys, Sophie or NK general editor Tom Phillips at knowledge.networking257@gmail.com.

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Participations: Exploring the methodological synergies of multimethod audience research

March 3, 2012

Guest editors: Kim Christian Schrøder, Uwe Hasebrink, Sascha Hölig and Martin Barker

Special issue concept

The Special Issue aims to develop a candid and constructive dialogue between different scholarly approaches to the exploration of audience practices. We seek contributions which reflect on and implement multi-method approaches to all aspects and dimensions of the practices and sense-making activities of media audiences and users. One particular area of interest is the exploration of cross-media audiences with mixed methods, but the Special Issue is open to other kinds of audience research which have adopted a multi-method approach.

The purpose of the Special Issue is thus to demonstrate and discuss how precisely dialogues between research paradigms within audience research may contribute to enhance the explanatory power of theory-driven fieldwork studies of contemporary media audiences. It will bring together representatives from different research paradigms (such as behavioural, cognitive and sense-making approaches), in order to explore the complementarity and synergies of the different methodological paths taken.

Although multimethod audience research is not a new phenomenon, we believe that with the emergence of the ‘mediatized’ society characterized by media digitization and convergence, the need to cross-fertilize scholarly paradigms has acquired a new urgency. In the Special Issue we wish to address this urgency by inviting articles which combine a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, and which do so by combining practical analysis and solid empirical experiences with epistemological, theoretical, and methodological reflection.

Rooted in different research traditions – from a more behavioural ‘media choice’ perspective to a more sense-making ‘mediatized worlds’ perspective – the contributors to this Special Issue will in a manner of speaking compare notes, based on their different disciplinary frameworks, their different but overlapping foci (or knowledge interests), the scope of their empirical work on different kinds of audience practice, their objectives, and their preferred methodologies. Conceivably, the dialogue thus opened up could develop into an ongoing debate in this and other journals, and perhaps to cross-approach collaboration.

 

Submission and selection process

Contributors are invited to submit long abstracts (600-800 words), in which they carefully describe a (completed or close to completion) audience research project which has explored in a methodologically reflective way the benefits of using a multi-method approach to cross-media audience practices or other aspects of the experience and/or use of print, broadcasting and digital media.

We recognise the complexity of arguments in this domain.  For this reason, we plan to take advantage of Participations’ status as an online Journal, which permits both greater length of submissions (working to a proposed limit of 12,000 words), and no fixed limit on numbers of submissions we will be able to accept.

Deadline for submission of long abstracts: 15 December 2011.

Selection of contributors to write a full-length draft article for peer review: 15 January 2012.

Deadline for submission of full-length draft articles for peer review: 15 June 2012

Participations has long followed a practice of open refereeing.  Adopting this for this Special Issue, we propose that submissions will be cross-evaluated among those who will be contributing, to a shared set of criteria developed for this purpose.

 

Contact information

Please send your proposal by email to the guest editors:

Kim Christian Schrøder, kimsc@ruc.dk

Uwe Hasebrink, U.Hasebrink@hans-bredow-institut.de

Sascha Hölig, sascha.hoelig@uni-hamburg.de

Martin Barker, mib@aber.ac.uk

Submissions (as Word attachments) should contain, in addition to a separate abstract, a page with the title of the presentation, the name of the Special Issue, and the name(s) and contact details for ALL authors.

For submission guidelines and rules for article manuscripts, please visit:

http://www.participations.org/submission_guidelines.htm

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TWC: Appropriating, Interpreting, and Transforming Comic Books (March 2013)

March 3, 2012

Appropriating, Interpreting, and Transforming Comic Books (March 2013)

Edited by Matthew Costello

Special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures (http://journal.transformativeworks.org)

Manuscripts due April 1, 2012

Action Comics #900 included a short story in which Superman, confronted by the US State Department for causing an international incident by supporting Iranian prodemocracy protestors, decides to renounce his US citizenship to become a citizen of the world. This brief story was reported by most major news services and garnered much attention. This was far from the first time that comic book characters addressed and engaged with major social or political topics. The late Republican Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, used to wear an Incredible Hulk tie for votes he considered important. Various groups use comic books to help define themselves, whether it be fans of the Hernandez brothers creating and sharing their own Love and Rockets artwork, LGBT groups offering queer readings of Green Lantern, or Sacramento manga fans organizing events, including a cosplay contest, to raise money for Japan.

As these examples suggest, people appropriate, reinvent, and transform comic books to create visions of themselves, their groups, and their relation to broader society, both national and global. This is neither a recent nor a national phenomenon. Comic books have always been appropriated by their audience, from Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty in World War II to Ted Stevens’s Hulk tie. Comic fandom in the United States and readers of manga in Japan have been actively organized since the 1960s. More recently, the Internet has allowed the wide dissemination of comic book cultures, connecting fans more closely to each other and to comics’ creators, both nationally and internationally.

This special issue seeks theoretically informed essays that explore how dedicated fans as well as the broader public have appropriated, interpreted, and transformed comic books and comic book characters to define themselves and their societies.

We welcome submissions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

* Case studies of how particular characters or books have been used by their reading communities to engage in civic action.

* Discussion of transformative works, such as fan fiction, fan art, and fan vids.

* Transformations across national borders through the globalized comic market.

* Analyses of how fans affect characters and books through commentary and migration into the professional ranks.

* Analyses of how various groups use comic book characters to define their relation to society in fan fiction and other activities.

* Examinations of commentaries on political or social issues relating to characters in letter pages and Internet forums.

* The development of comic shop infrastructure and its interrelation with comic fan communities.

* Popular reactions to events in comic books, such as the death of Captain America or Superman’s decision to renounce his American citizenship.

* Interviews with comic creators and/or fans focusing on creator/fan interactions.

Submission guidelines

TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing. Contributors are encouraged to include embedded links, images, and videos in their articles or to propose submissions in alternative formats that might comprise interviews, collaborations, or video/multimedia works. We are also seeking reviews of relevant books, events, courses, platforms, or projects.

Theory: Often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame that offer expansive interventions in the field. Blinded peer review. Length: 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Praxis: Analyses of particular cases that may apply a specific theory or framework to an artifact; explicate fan practice or formations; or perform a detailed reading of a text. Blinded peer review. Length: 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Symposium: Short pieces that provide insight into current developments and debates. Nonblinded editorial review. Length: 1,500–2,500 words.

Submissions are accepted online only. Please visit TWC’s Web site (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete submission guidelines, or e-mail the TWC Editor (editor AT transformativeworks.org).

Contact

We encourage potential contributors to contact the guest editor with inquiries or proposals: Matthew Costello (costello AT sxu.edu)

Due dates
Contributions for blinded peer review (Theory and Praxis essays) are due by April 1, 2012. Contributions that undergo editorial review (Symposium, Interview, Review) are due by May 1, 2012.

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TWC: Fandom and/as Labor (March 2014)

March 3, 2012

Edited by Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

It has long been recognized both within academia and in the various communities organized around fandom that the practice of being a fan does not merely consist of passive consumption. Rather, fans are also productive: they generate interpretations of their favorite television shows, extratextual products like fan fiction and fan videos, and data about their own consumption habits and those of their peers that will be used to market new products. Whether labors of love or value extracted from unaware fans, this productivity is rarely conceptualized as labor.

Given recent events like the 2011 Wisconsin labor protests, however, broader questions of labor and fair compensation have been reinvigorated, such that taking these productive fan activities seriously as labor seems to be particularly vital in the current moment.

In this special issue on Fandom and/as Labor, we invite contributions that ask after how labor relates to fandom, how labor happens in fandom, and what happens when we reconceptualize fandom as labor.

We welcome submissions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Case studies of how fans negotiate/conceptualize the labors that they perform.
  • Analyses of the ways in which popular texts present/narrate the labor involved in participating in fandom.
  • Examinations of how fan labor is gendered, raced, classed, and/or related to sexuality, ability, and nation.
  • Analysis of the monetization of existing fan labor and/or the production of profitable new types of fan labor.
  • Theoretical or experiential accounts of the tension between freely given fan labor or the fan gift economy and exploitation through the extraction of surplus value.

Submission guidelines

TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing. Contributors are encouraged to include embedded links, images, and videos in their articles or to propose submissions in alternative formats that might comprise interviews, collaborations, or video/multimedia works. We are also seeking reviews of relevant books, events, courses, platforms, or projects.

Theory: Often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame that offer expansive interventions in the field. Blinded peer review. Length: 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Praxis: Analyses of particular cases that may apply a specific theory or framework to an artifact; explicate fan practice or formations; or perform a detailed reading of a text. Blinded peer review. Length: 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Symposium: Short pieces that provide insight into current developments and debates. Nonblinded editorial review. Length: 1,500–2,500 words.

Submissions are accepted online only. Please visit TWC’s Web site (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete submission guidelines, or e-mail the TWC Editor (editor AT transformativeworks.org).

Contact

We encourage potential contributors to contact the guest editors with inquiries or proposals: Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis (fandom.labor AT gmail.com)

Due dates

Contributions for blinded peer review (Theory and Praxis essays) are due by March 1, 2013.

Contributions that undergo editorial review (Symposium, Interview, Review) are due by April 1, 2013.

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TWC: Performing Fandom (March 2015)

March 3, 2012

Surprisingly, fan studies and performance studies remain relative strangers in scholarship. With a few exceptions, there seems to be little crossover between fields in terms of analysis, theory, and methodology. Such a situation, on both sides of the equation, should be addressed given the potential productive overlap between the two. With this special issue, we want to encourage scholars of both fan and performance to open up further avenues of study and methodological practice in order to expand both fields to their mutual benefit.

Fandom is a performed set of practices. It’s something that one does. For many, being a fan is a distinct part of their performed identity. This practice may take many forms, from the performativity inherent to fan writing to more blatant performances such as LARPs and cosplay. From the other side of the fence, performance studies has had little interaction with fan studies, and investigations into intersections between the disciplines around such issues as identity performance and participant/performer ethnographies would further energize both fields.

We invite scholars in fan studies and performance studies to examine how fandom is performed, what performance practices can reveal about fandom, and how fan studies can benefit performances.

We welcome submissions dealing with, but not limited to, aspects of:

  • Specific performance analysis of particular fandoms.
  • Fan fiction as performative or dramaturgical.
  • Identity and community performance in specific franchise fandoms and in general.
  • Cosplay.
  • Live-action role-playing games.
  • Design and performance in nonfranchise fandoms such as steampunk.
  • Fan communities and participation as applied to traditional performances.
  • Online performance within fan listservs and sites.

Submission guidelines

TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing. Contributors are encouraged to include embedded links, images, and videos in their articles or to propose submissions in alternative formats that might comprise interviews, collaborations, or video/multimedia works. We are also seeking reviews of relevant books, events, courses, platforms, or projects.

Theory: Often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame that offer expansive interventions in the field. Blinded peer review. Length: 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Praxis: Analyses of particular cases that may apply a specific theory or framework to an artifact; explicate fan practice or formations; or perform a detailed reading of a text. Blinded peer review. Length: 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Symposium: Short pieces that provide insight into current developments and debates. Nonblinded editorial review. Length: 1,500–2,500 words.

Submissions are accepted online only. Please visit TWC’s Web site for complete submission guidelines, or e-mail the TWC Editor (editor AT transformativeworks.org).

Contact

We encourage potential contributors to contact the guest editors with inquiries or proposals: Jen Gunnels and Carrie J. Cole (fandom.performance AT gmail.com).

The complete call for papers is available here: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/22

Due dates

Contributions for blinded peer review (Theory and Praxis essays) are due by March 1, 2014.

Contributions that undergo editorial review (Symposium, Interview, Review) are due by April 1, 2014.

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TWC: Materiality and Object-Oriented Fandom (March 2014)

March 3, 2012

Alongside its consumption and transformation of texts, media fandom has always been marked by its consumption and transformation of objects. From superhero figures, model kits, and war-gaming miniatures for sale at hobby shops, to costumes and props worn at Comic-Con, material objects and body decoration have functioned as displays of textual affiliation, crafting skills, or collecting prowess, reflecting a long history of fan-created and fan-circulated artifacts around popular media fictions.

While “mimetic” and “affirmational” practices seek to replicate the objects of fantastic media as faithfully as possible, other fan creations result in material mash-ups, expressing transformative impulses in artifact form. Regardless of orientation, object-oriented fandom represents a distinct strand within old and new activities and cultures, one whose intimate and often friendly relationship with corporate branding and ancillary market exploitation make it of central interest to an emerging body of scholarship on transmedia, convergence, and the franchise.

This special issue seeks historically and theoretically informed essays that explore the role of objects and their associated practices in fandom as instances of creativity and consumerism, transformation and affirmation, private archive and public display. We are particularly interested in work that complicates or transcends the binaries of social versus solitary, artwork versus commodity, and gift versus monetary economies to engage with object-oriented fandom as self-aware and playful in its own right.

We welcome submissions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Creating and collecting, buying and selling fan artifacts (production artifacts, memorabilia, reference materials, models, material fan art, fan crafts…).
  • Cosplay (creating costumes and other artifacts, performing cosplay, competitions…).
  • Fan enactments, events, and embodiment (Renaissance fairs, Quidditch competitions, reenactments, fannish tattoos…).
  • Fan objects as paratext and transmedia extension.
  • Dissemination of skills and abilities (workshops, online blogs, fan meetings…).
  • Object marketplaces (con, comic book store, eBay, etsy…).
  • Evaluation and valuation of artifacts across the various economies of fandom.
  • Impact of digital technologies (including social networking and 3-D printing) on object creation, collecting, and cataloging.
  • New debates over authorship, ownership, and control.

Submission guidelines

TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing. Contributors are encouraged to include embedded links, images, and videos in their articles, or to propose submissions in alternative formats that might comprise interviews, collaborations, or video/multimedia works. We are also seeking reviews of relevant books, events, courses, platforms, or projects.

Theory: Often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame that offer expansive interventions in the field. Blind peer review. Length: 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Praxis: Analyses of particular cases that may apply a specific theory or framework to an artifact; explicate fan practice or formations; or perform a detailed reading of a text. Blind peer review. Length: 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Symposium: Short pieces that provide insight into current developments and debates. Non-blind editorial review. Length: 1,500–2,500 words.

Submissions are accepted online only. Please visit TWC’s Web site (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete submission guidelines, or e-mail the TWC Editor (editor AT transformativeworks.org).

Contact

We encourage potential contributors to contact the guest editor with inquiries or proposals: Bob Rehak (rehak.twc AT gmail.com)

The complete call for papers is available here: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/23

Due dates

Contributions for blind peer review (Theory and Praxis essays) are due by March 1, 2013.

Contributions that undergo editorial review (Symposium, Interview, Review) are due by April 1, 2013.

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New book series from Intellect – Fan Phenomena

March 3, 2012

This new series is prompted by a growing appetite for books that tap into the fascination we have with what constitutes an iconic or cultish phenomenon and how a particular person, TV show or film character/film infiltrates their way into the public consciousness. We will look at particular examples of ‘fan culture’ and approach the subject in an accessible manner aimed at both fans and those interested in the cultural and social aspects of these fascinating – and often unusual – ‘universes’.

The concept of the book series is to address cult/fan culture within a specified gaze. Topics will range from mythic actors like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean to the long-lasting television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer to film juggernauts like Harry Potter, James Bond and Star Wars.

Each of the subjects we choose have massive visual appeal as they deal with fan fashion, memorabilia, (fan)homages, merchandising and branding that help to create the immersive world that extends beyond the phenomenon itself. The books will aim to exploit this visual aspect to align them with other Intellect book series such as the World Film Locations and Directory of World Cinema series that make good use of relevant collected imagery.

The series aims to ‘decode’ cult subjects in terms of the appeal and far reaching connections each of them have in becoming part of popular culture. We are fully aware that these are not meant to be comprehensive, weighty tomes on the subject – rather a series of ‘handy’ books that each include a fascinating collection of essays which explore a particular area or aspect of the subject’s ‘universe’ in each chapter.
Chapter headings include:

–    Fashion (Cosplay, high street fashion trends)
–    Language (eg. Slang, parlance, dialect;  words and phrases particular to each ‘phenomenon’)
–    Character/characterization
–    Fan Media (fan fiction, art, fan films)
–    The virtual (videogames, fan-films, role-play, blogs, fan forums)
–    Philosophies (cod-religions that have evolved from the source phenomena)
–    Economics (merchandise, branding, memorabilia)

A short list of proposed titles for the series include:

–    Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Star Trek / X-Files / James Bond / Harry Potter / Star Wars / Dr. Who / The Big Lebowski / Sherlock Holmes / Marilyn Monroe / Rocky Horror Picture Show / Lord of the Rings / The Matrix / Zombies / James Dean / Quentin Tarantino / Anime / Batman / Superman / Jane Austen / Disney

If you would like to contribute to any of the titles in the above list (or have suggestions of your own), are interested in an editorial role or are simply looking for further information about the book series, please send an email to Gabriel Solomons – series editor.

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