Fandom Wanderers

Yeah, we’ve got a bit of a theme going with the tips the past couple of weeks. Blame it being convention season, Wanderers, there’s a lot of things that can be needed to be reminded of. Also as for the title of this thing…. I like Phantom of the Opera, and it had a song that fit. Now, as I probably don’t need to remind you, we’ve had an entire article on the nature of cosplay before so you may be wondering why we’re doing tips on the very same subject. Well, cosplay can be a tricky thing, especially if its your first time. Even seasoned pros can find themselves stuck at the last moment and running around like a headless chicken. … Has anyone actually seen that, by the way? Always been curious as to how the saying started. Not the point, I’m allowing myself to get distracted again. I always do that. I see something shiny and that’s me entertained for ten minutes. But, no, yes, today we are looking at tips for cosplayers. Some will be obvious, of course, some will be there to remind people to calm down, and some will just be… there. On with the show!

This, of course, is tremendously encouraging, and it’s very flattering to think that someone can’t contain their excitement at the prospect of another creation of yours. You might create more, and get similarly enthusiastic replies. Perhaps you branch out into another fandom, or another medium. Now you write fanfiction for both Supernatural and The Avengers, or draw and make videos about Young Dracula. Perhaps you made a one-off post about how Hermione Granger was a strong female character and were swamped with requests to write meta about every girl in the Harry Potter series – “…and then can you do The Hunger Games next please?”. It’s still good, and encouraging, and immensely flattering… but you’re beginning to wonder how on earth you’re going to find time to do all that. After all, you’ve also got three pages of quadratic equations and the answer to world hunger to sort out by next Thursday, and the cat needs a bath…

Wanderers, we were all new to fandom once. Perhaps some of you still are (in which case, welcome!), perhaps some of you can hardly remember not being involved in at least one fandom, even if it wasn’t one you’re in now. But no matter how long you’ve been involved in fandom or at what level, the chances are you’ve needed help or advice at some point. No, this isn’t just a lengthly plug for our very own FW Tips – sometimes, after all, the one-to-one approach is the only way to go. So where do you find that support?

Graceland stars Aaron Tveit (whose credits include the recent Les Miserables film and too many Broadway shows to mention, given that we don’t have all week) as Mike Warren, a newly-graduated agent with the FBI. Mike is sent off to the glamorous beachfront property in Southern California that lends the show its name, ostensibly to train under the legendary Paul Briggs (Daniel Sunjata) – but not all is as it seems, and Mike may have more to learn than he thinks.

“Quick!” cried the Editor. “I need another review! Three days ago!” “Bother.” I sighed. “I haven’t watched or read anything new recently.” So, with the air of scraping the bottom of the barrel, I dived (dove?) into my DVD pile and managed to extract a slightly worn copy of Robin Hood.

So this next installment is the final – apart from the new book – piece of The Worst Witch tapest… No, second thoughts I don’t like that word. Final piece of the picture, we’ll say instead. I am, of course, talking about The New Worst Witch and if you just groaned on hearing that, I can’t say I blame you. Of course, if you cheered on hearing it, then well done to you, childhood nostalgia winning out!

In a world that’s always changing, though, it’s sometimes nice to have something solid and unchanging to cling to. For me – and probably others – that’s fandom, at the moment. The thing about being a fan of something is that while it may evolve through various stages – see our Lifecycle of a Fandom series – your favourite series, film or book is likely to continue to exist, and even if you’re a fan of something that does disappear one day, your fandom is unlikely to do the same thing.

Last issue, we gave a few tips on what to do at a convention. Since then, we’ve been having more thoughts on it, and there are a few more tips we’d like to share with you. You know us, Wanderers, we’re the helpful sort of people here, and we’d like to make sure that come convention time, if you happen along to one, that you have all the little tricks of the trade ready to use should you need them. Again, these tips may seem obvious in places, but sometimes it bears to have the obvious repeated to you until you’re sick of hearing it. On with the show!

Written by Jessica Hynes, Up the Women is a sitcom in the classic vein of Dad’s Army and ‘Allo ‘Allo!, both of which I’ve loved since I was a child. For those of you now groaning because you didn’t like the above sitcoms – relax, it’s not exactly like them. However, the humour in those particular comedies was always very character-based, at least as far as I was concerned, and Up the Women relies almost entirely on its characters to raise a smile. The setting, as I’ve mentioned, is the interior of a village hall, and the event that brings them together is a routine craft circle meeting, against which mundane background a whole cast of diverse, vibrant and generally excellent characters are displayed.

I don’t think that I’ve ever told you this before, my dear Wanderers, but I am a massive fan of Marilyn Monroe. I’ve watched all the films, the documentaries, got the posters, wear the red lipstick and I even have the handbag (the ‘grown up’ version of a lunch box). So naturally in 2011, when I heard of an upcoming film, My Week with Marilyn, my friends resigned themselves to being dragged to the cinema whether they liked it or not. They also resigned themselves to the very real possibility that being such a big fan of Marilyn, I would find the film a let down and would need consolation in the form of ice-cream. You see there is always a certain measure of trepidation when another actress steps into the shoes of a character you love. This is all the more so when that character is a real person.

As we’ve seen in the previous few weeks, The Worst Witch has managed to span not onlybooks, but a made-for-television movie, and a television series that lasted three whole series; which can be a long time for a show aimed at the children’s age group. Now, we’re coming to the wind up of our look at the franchise, this being the second to last article I’ll write on the series. But what else, I hear you ask, can there be? Well, what usually comes after high school? That’s right, college. Originally entitled in promotional material as The Worst Witch at College, this week we’re going to be taking a look at Weirdsister College – the further adventures of the Worst Witch.

This issue marks our first anniversary (which actually falls on the day after this issue goes up, but never mind that) – our first issue went live on the 23rd of June, 2012 and somehow, miraculously, a year later you guys are still reading what we’ve got to say. With that in mind, I’m afraid it is my solemn duty as the captain of this rather eccentric little crew to say a few words. Or so I am reliably informed by everyone I tried to talk into writing this article for me.

However, conventions can be tricky things, especially if it’s your first time going to one, or you haven’t been to one in a while (and yes, a whole year can count as a while). So, there could be some caution on going into them. What do you do, what do you take, how much spending money do you need? All sorts of questions that can have all sorts of answers. So we here at Fandom Wanderers wanted to help all you dear readers. Well, try to help, we’re not exactly experts on all of this. But between us we’ve gathered some helpful hints and tips that we’re going to share with you to hope that you have the best convention times ever.

Well, we’ve already looked at how we can use fandom as an escape, but sometimes we don’t want to get away from our feelings. Sometimes, we want to curl up under our duvets, cue up a soundtrack of rainfall and fireplace noises, and feel sorry for ourselves for a little while. I’m sure if you were planning a duvet day, you’d know exactly which film or book would be the one to make you feel better.

There’s nothing quite like a box office hit to boost a fandom’s numbers. Or a well publicised reboot of a once familiar television show. Sometimes, being a fan is a lonely and bewildering experience. People just don’t understand what it is about that obscure television show from the 1950s that you love. Or how clever and original your favourite author is. However, sometimes it can be equally difficult when a relatively cosy and settled fandom has to cope with suddenly becoming hot property. Before, only a handful of people – if that – would have got the secret meaning behind the message on your T-shirt or would have known the nicknames of all the ships. Now, you find your favourite characters plastered all over posters, duvet covers, maybe even the odd lunch box! You head out to a social gathering and people are talking about the various storylines and theorising about future plot developments. Whether or not you were expecting this blaze of publicity or interest it can be a slightly confusing situation.

Switch follows the everyday life of a four-woman coven, collectively known as the Witches of Camden. Besides practicing magic, with varying degrees of success, the girls also have all the usual trials and tribulations of being young adults to deal with. For example, Stella (Lacey Turner) has an intense full-time job to contend with, Hannah (Hannah Tointon) has been travelling and is reluctant to settle down, Jude (Nina Toussaint-White) is trying to break into the fashion industry, and Grace (Phoebe Fox) just wants to keep everything together on a manageable level.

Imagine my joy, then, when – at the age of eight – I began reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Not only did some kind of magic happen, in the first few pages, to get the titular James away from his horrible aunts, but that magic then caused James to roll down a hill (a hill near the sea!) and set off on an adventure which would come to involve, among other things, seagulls, of which we had plenty. This, I decided, was going to be my kind of book.