Avatards, Browncoats and WonderCon

Star Trek may be refreshed, but it's not a huge franchise at the moment. The mass market toys were pretty much a nonstarter. Compare it to Star Wars which has pretty much had a consistent mass market presence for decades. Books, video games, TV show now, etc.

Star Trek has its books and Star Trek Online I guess, but it seems like a smaller property for fandom, without that much merchandise to support it.

Very interesting view of fanbases. Thanks for the analysis.

The lack of Avatar is really surprising here. Where are the people that wanted to kill themselves for not being able to go to Pandora?

Dead one hopes?

Anyway, this is always interesting inside for somebody for whom this kind of fanbase is pretty unheard of. We have had our share of Trekkies but that´s about it. Conventions are all but dead or insider thingies.

Though I curious how this steampunk thing does hold traction without any solid franchise to attatch to. Isn´t that genre basically a riff off other franchises in new clothes?

Is the girl next to the Hellcat in that photo supposed to be someone specific or just some random piece of steampunk jailbait?

Some steampunk types posted a notice on Facebook that they were going to have a picnic in the park down the street from me a couple of weeks back. I ended up driving 15 miles to go to a different park that day.

I don't know that something will catch on these days and stay caught on. Franchises and events seem much more disposable in general. Backlash gets around to everything.

Maybe that makes them extra fanatical? Without a franchise as a core to hold it together, they need to be extra extreme about their devotion to the concept.

Adding the fact that you are essentially able to make up the rules of that particular fandom up as you go along there is a good chance of being able to talk yourself into being the pinnacle of steam punk and you might be on to something. Or so. I´ve only seen this stuff around for a few months though and I thought it was a quib. But that seems unlikely now.

I wonder if that's less about the property and closer to some sort of confused cause. You'd probably see them less if their property wasn't so "wrongly" dismissed by the rest of the world, because they'd then have no crusade to drive them.

Shit, you wrote that exact point. I was distracted by the half my age torso above it.

That's pretty awesome. Specially the Star Trek one.

Depends. There are a lot of cosplayers who don't just slap a steampunk coat of paint on existing characters, but come up with original costumes on their own, some pretty damn elaborate. But when you get into the toy modelers and artists, then yeah, you get _________ with Goggles and Valves.

I'm a Firefly geek. When I saw Serenity five months before release with a bunch of other fans, it was a group of people I just loved. Wonderful time.

But you know what? After that, they got weird. They started stalking sites, getting pissed at people who don't like the movie. They became the worst sort of fans ever, driving people away instead of bringing them in.

Subcultures sort of freak me out.

I think she's a retooled, female version of Desolation Jones, a Warren Ellis character...maybe.



And it was a great piece, Devin; i didnt get any animosity from it, just an outside perspective on the fanbases.
Loved the Hellcat costume bit; interesting that its old, "classic" costumes that make it to the cons instead of the current ones (altough hellcat's has not changed, to be honst).

Is Dr Who a big presence at these American cons? There are a ton of them over here but I always assumed that was because it's a very Brittish show.

So from what you are saying I take it that Steampunk is rather a visual style? One that might grow into a full fledged cultural thing if around longer, right?

Where does it originate in the first place though? I thought it was a thing of the early eighties that was long gone into pop culture nirvana. But nothing stays dead these days I guess.

The fact that Star Wars is still so vital irks me. I really feel the ship has sailed on that one. At least Browncoats can fantasize on what might have been. Star Wars fans have been shit on time and time again and keep coming back for more. They're the battered housewives of fandom.

The problem with Joss Whedon fans in general is that too many of them are rabid 'shippers. I love me some Whedon. Pretty much adore everything the man's done. But I cannot tolerate people who care less about a good story than they do projecting their own sexual needs onto an imaginary couple.

Are you reading the Buffy comics? Because if you are, you feel my pain.

I am, though I'm eight or so issues behind.

Get caught up, head over to Whedonesque, and prepare to be horrified.

Relating back to the article, how practical is it to dress up as a blue person with a tail? Or is that nothing for the cosplayers?

I love Whedon, hate Whedon fans. It's damn hard to enjoy something yet be embarrassed by most of the people who also enjoy it.

This may be apocryphal, but I'm pretty sure it started with William Gibson's "The Difference Engine", whose aesthetics Gibson begged not to have a stupid term like "steampunk" applied to.

What's weird about that is that Firefly is very accessible and tends to be liked by non-nerds more than almost any other niche geek property I can think of. Obviously I'm not talking about stuff like Star Wars or Marvel comics, I'm saying that of the SF/fantasy properties that don't have major mainstream success, Firefly is probably the most well-liked and respected, with the possible exception of the new BSG. The critics dug it and the casual fanbase has only grown since the show aired. Which I guess is what vindicates the Browncoats.

The passion is understandable, though. The show (which is great, but let's not get into that) feels incomplete, even with the movie. Even a single full season probably would have scratched the fan itch to some extent. As it is, it's pretty heartbreaking.

loooooooool

I especially love the stripe down the crotch.

We need a support group: Whedon Fans Who Don't Like Whedon Fans.

I went to a Steampunk themed party opening night of the Boston Underground Film Festival a couple of weeks ago.

Steampunk really has moved outside the genre of anime/terry gillium films. What's odd is that a lot of the Steampunk folks carry themselves with an air that matches their tweed vests and slacks while all I keep thinking to myself that they look like people kicked out of an anime convention for being "too nerdy".

It is interesting to hear what you say about the Con fandom presence. I was just thinking the other night that comics and what before the 00's would have been delegated to "geek culture" has been so utterly enveloped by the mainstream, it is no longer a safe refuge for outsiders. A place where people forced to the fringes strive and get creative/obsessive.

I like that a place like Wondercon will have more comic book faithful. As a person who's seen the San Diego Comic Con turn in to what it now is over the past 20 years, I'll be very interested to go to the ghetto-ass Boston con this weekend.

That may have been when the term was first used, but the aesthetic was around before that.

As a Slayer fan, I understand your pain.

Haha! Is this from the one issue where Mystique morphs into a smurf?

I think it's the issue where she eats Lockheed.

As someone who has been to Burning Man several times, I see a lot of similarities between Burners and dress-up fanboys/girls. And there's definitely some overlap. Amongst all the dirty hippies, there are even some dirty hippie hardcore dorks. Such as the 2007 Burn where some amazing human made a functional, mini Jawa sandcrawler.

This has to be it. You don't see Buffy or Angel or even Dollhouse get this level of fantaticism because all three of those shows were given a pretty fair shake when they aired. Browncoats seem more in love with what might have been than what was actually there.

Something I've noticed as someone that attends both comic and horror conventions from time to time - comic/anime/sci-fi cosplayers want their picture taken, horror cosplayers want to talk to you.

Devin:

First off, let me just say this was a great advocate. Very humorous and informative. I know that when you say things like "AVATARDS" or "BROWN COATS" you are just being snarky and such word play is par for the course on CHUD

I don't want to give the impression that I am just nit picking here, but you raised a troubling point that I could not in good conscience let pass with out comment

I'll get right to it: You seem to suggest that the lack of AVATAR costumes worn by convention goers is somehow related to a general lack of enthusiasm for all things Pandora. In the bubble of WonderCon perhaps it might seem that way, but the more than two billion-with-a-'b' Box Office take that AVATAR amassed would suggest (no, *prove*) otherwise.

Instead I'd chalk the lack of Na'vi cos play up to one simple factor : No one looks good as a blue cat person. No one. People may enjoy the film, but that does not mean that they want to look like the characters in the film. I really liked D9, but I that doesn't mean that I think tubercles growing out of your face is hip or stylish

Scores of people no doubt came to this conclusion for themselves with the help of McyD's AVATAR YOURSELF website. I spent hours on that thing a few months back and no matter the result it spat back out, blue and feline is still is not a look that I'd call flattering.

Even for the people who didn't experience the shock of seeing your Na'vi-Me first hand through AVATAR YOURSELF, by the time the Oscars rolled around the entire world knew that the physiology of a Pandoran native can not be satisfactorily replicated on a human being. Even with the best make up tech in the world, Stiller came off looking like a less like a noble savage than a savage freak of nature

Why on earth would someone want to attend a public event looking like that?

So yeah, costumes can be fun. I used to have a lot of enthusiasm for dressing up(I don't any more and haven't worn one in over two years now-- even on Halloween) and I can understand why people at WONDERCON might choose to wear a brown coat. But I don't think it takes any special gift of perception to figure out why people are not going out of their way to dress up as a creature from AVATAR

EDIT: AVATAR's DVD sales will be a much better indicator of the level fanatical enthusiasm for the property

Kate please post your AVATAR YOURSELF creations

That has never ever ever in the history of fandom stopped cosplayers from dressing up as anything.

That may be the saddest picture I've ever seen.

No shit. Wish it were true.

And Kate, Browncoats are what FIREFLY fans call themselves.

Although I've only been to mid-size comic cons, I have been to very large anime cons, and to really get a full cosplay/fandom experience you have to hit up an anime con. I know it gets lumped into its own category, but it really is insane the amount of people who cosplay at anime conventions. I'd say it's a good 75-80% of attendees which is kind of insane if you think about it. Add to that the insane diversity of costumes...

What do people think the % of attendees who cosplay is at your average large comic convention?