This Week In Fandom History

Co-hosted by V @aimmyarrowshigh and Emily @idontgettechnology, This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows. With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fic crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library rent out its last zine? What were Strikethrough, Racefail, LGBTFansDeserveBetter, and Conchobar, anyway? V and Emily trade off some deep-internet research each week to learn and laugh (and sometimes rage) their way through the annals (heh) of fandom history. Come join us!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Send a SASE! This week, V and Emily take a look at the illustrious -- pun intended -- life and career of Big Name Fanartist and writer Beverly Zuk, whose Fanlore page is a riot of full-frontal Vulcans. We look at the fascinating fic she wrote, particularly "The Third Verdict," and read through her instructions of how to become a fanartist in 1978. Plus, we marvel at the Star Trek Welcommittee and their work to help fans connect in an age before the internet made connecting simple, if not always easy. The key thing we take away from Beverly Zuk's legacy is that fandom is about being a fan together with others.

Sources

Fanlore: The Third Verdict Fanlore: Beverly Zuk IDIC #10 In Memoriam, Bev Zuk How To Break Into Treklit So You Want to Be A Fanartist!

Promo

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

Virtual TGIF/F - Our friends at TGI Femslash have just announced a brand-new, online fan con happening this summer. On August 29–30, Virtual TGIF/F will bring femslash fans from around the world together for discussion panels, online events, and more. Registration opens June 1st. Find out more at tgifemslash.com/virtualcon

Wow If True - Wow If True is your one-stop internet culture shop, explaining how what’s happening online shapes the real world. And they're the internet experts and real-life besties to unravel it: tech culture journalist Amanda Silberling and science fiction author slash attorney Isabel J. Kim, Esq. More importantly, they're the only podcast that will mention Neopets and horizontal mergers in the same episode. So check out Wow If True, wherever on the internet you find your podcasts. New episodes every other Wednesday.

RePROs Fight Back - Right now reproductive health is facing seismic shifts and can feel confusing, overwhelming, and exhausting. On rePROs Fight Back, host Jennie Wetter really makes it feel like you’re learning from your friend. rePROs Fight Back breaks down the big, overwhelming issues in ways that actually make sense and really shows the ripple effects happening after the news cycle moves on. Jennie brings on experts and advocates to talk about everything from abortion access and sex-ed to the real impact of gender inequality and threats to LGBTQI+ rights. Plus, she’s always honest about how she’s managing these heavy feelings and how she’s coping. Check out rePROs Fight Back wherever you’re listening to this podcast right now.

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory

We’re now on Instagram! @thisweekinfandomhistory

Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh

You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory

If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.

Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

[cowboyspones]

women were not banging out spirk fanfiction in the 60s for you to be AI generating your fic

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

#know your fandom history

[fanlore-wiki]

To learn about Lemon and the Citrus scale check out the Fanlore page!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

...It's still called femslash...

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Check out our super fun chat with Paul from That Aged Well over on their podcast feed! We discussed everything from the Citrus Scale to Emily's love for So Weird, plus we tried to explain the Hamilton Cannibal Mermaid HIVliving Wank from memory...

[manicpixiedckgirl]

[theaudientvoid]

There are multiple chapters that are set in hospitals where the characters are attempting to recover from injuries that never fully heal. I must once again stress that my experience in WWI was perfectly normal.

[aro-ace-from-outer-space22]

There is a giant horrible mudplain full of unrecoverable and perfectly preserved dead bodies that the characters have to walk through in a land where the air is poisoned gas, and on a compLETELY UNRELATED NOTE: WWI WAS TOTALLY FINE AND NORMAL!!

[hamletthedane]

And why are you all saying lotr was also a way for me to process the trauma and horror I experienced watching my own sons and students fight in WWII. Just because one of my characters longs to fight alongside her loved ones to save her country instead of being told to stay put, keep calm, and carry on while the world around her completely falls apart and all hope seems lost…..made to silently bear witness to the death and destruction of her people and the lands she is unable to protect….

Yes, I began writing these books during WWII while my sons were actively on the front lines, but my experience watching the young people I loved and taught dying to save me and my country from invasion in WWII bc my generation did not in fact end all wars WAS TOTALLY FINE AND NORMAL!!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Roar! This week, V and Emily look at a 70-year-old fandom that we'd never considered before: Godzilla. Thanks to a request, we look at the schism in the fandom, and the Godzilla canon, caused by Hollywood's GODZILLA (1998) -- also known as Zilla or GINO -- as well as the special effects fanzines of the '60s and '70s. We learn about Japan's bananas intellectual property laws in the '90s, and about a BANANAS crossover zine that spanned over 600 pages of fic. This is truly a giant-size episode chock full of kaiju content.

Sources

Fanlore: GINO The Kaiju Apostle Building Bridges in the Godzilla Fandom Fanlore: Welcome to Earth! Fanlore: Bite of the Wolf Fanlore: Urban Legends Urban Legends: The Site TV Tropes: Vathara

Promo

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

Virtual TGIF/F - Our friends at TGI Femslash have just announced a brand-new, online fan con happening this summer. On August 29–30, Virtual TGIF/F will bring femslash fans from around the world together for discussion panels, online events, and more. Registration opens June 1st. Find out more at tgifemslash.com/virtualcon

Simple & Clean - Simple and Clean is a show where hosts Mischa Stanton and Mayanna Berrin (and friends) talk about Kingdom Hearts, a little video game franchise about really big feelings. Join us as we discuss the plot, characters, world building, music, fashion, fanbase, and societal impact of a thing that by all means, probably shouldn’t even exist. New episodes every Sunday, wherever you listen to podcasts!

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory

We’re now on Instagram! @thisweekinfandomhistory

Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh

You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory

If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.

Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

[krakensarefriendsnotfood]

Happy 51st Anniversary, boys! The Pilot movie first aired on ABC on April 30, 1975!

[flamingoslim]

Here's to the next 51 years!

[hazel-sage]

Fandom Trumps Hate 2026 Browsing is Open!

It's time!!!

For those of you who don't know, Fandom Trumps Hate is a yearly event where fanworks (fic, art, videos, podfics, betaing, etc.) are auctioned off to generate donations for progressive nonprofits. You can see the list for those chosen this year here. The best bit is that the donations are directly to the charity and the receipt is then shown to the event organizers, so the money goes exactly where it should without the risk of a middleman!

I've participated as both bidder and as creator and I cannot recommend it enough. Search through the tags - there are a LOT of very talented folks in there and it's all for a good cause :)

I'm offering three fics this year! One fic is for between 5 and 10k words and can be found here, while the other two are for less than 5k words and can be found here and here. These are just ranges that must be hit for a minimum - any of them can go above those numbers if the story goes that way!

Y'all can probably guess what's on offer if you follow me, but I'll copy my spiel below the read more! This is the same info that is on each listing, which differ only in how many words are offered.

Bidding opens at 8 AM EST on Tuesday, March 3rd and closes at 8 PM EST on Saturday, March 7th. If you ever forget the dates, the information is on their Tumblr linked above!

Organizations this auction benefits: Bidder's choice of any of the listed groups (See full list.)

Type of fanwork: Written fanwork Subtype(s): Fan fiction (new), Fan fiction (remix of an existing fic) Fandom(s): Good Omens Highest rating: E Minimum Bid: $5 Audience: 18+ only Length/scope: 5 -10k words (or Less than 5k words) Specialty tags (what is this?): Aro/ace characters, Canonically trans or nonbinary chars, F/F ships, Genderswap/genderbending, Poly ships, Trans or nonbinary interpretations of canon characters

Characters/pairings of interest: Aziraphale/Crowley, Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve, background relationships - any

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: For explicit fics, I tend to prefer top Aziraphale/bottom Crowley and dom Aziraphale/sub Crowley when writing, but can switch those dynamics if preferred very easily, so don't be shy to request the opposite in either regard! I am a very big fan of genderfuckery and love to write them with all sorts of combinations of Efforts and pronouns and presentations, both in human AUs and canonverse. And for that matter, I'm equally happy writing human AUs and writing canonverse, so I'm willing to work with whatever ideas you have!

I also love Ineffable Family works and would be stoked to write some for anyone interested, and am equally interested in writing the creation of the family and in slice of life during pregnancy and after birth.

Big old fan of monsterfuckery too, me, so happy to explore that!

For more SFW fics, I am a big fan of exploring Aziraphale and Crowley's pining through history, their relationships with the humans and the world around them, and just anything acknowledging how long they've been Earth's guardians. I am also always very excited to write anything about Aziraphale and Crowley's relationships with the current day humans from season 1 and season 2 that got wrapped up in the supernatural shenanigans, and even the ones who don't know their true nature.

For Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve, I find it lends itself best to human AUs because of the kind of inherent tragedy on it, but I'm willing to write both them and canonverse type stuff!

Unwilling to address: I am not comfortable writing the major archive warnings. But I have written consensual non-consent before, so if you have a prompt similar to that and are unsure if it pushes a boundary, reach out to me and I'm happy to let you know if I would be able to work with it!

Other things I am not comfortable writing are incest, gore, body horror, blood play, age play, watersports, anything with scat, and hurt no comfort.

Themes and topics I would struggle with would be cheating, wrestling in depth with any forms of bigotry, and unhappy endings in general.

I won't write a romantic/sexual fic (or even a qpr type relationship) where Aziraphale and Crowley are not the final pairing (unless it is in the context of Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve), but I don't object to mentioning them having had other relationships in the past/exploring a little of a previous pairing, so long as the majority of the fic focuses on Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship. I am fine with any and all background pairings so long as everyone is of age.

Other notes: I'm pretty easy going in terms of how specific you'd like your prompt to be! If you have very clear ideas on how the fic will go, I'm happy to take that direction, but I'm also happy for you to share a vibe and then we can bounce ideas back and forth. For more vague prompts in particular, I can have it be a surprise after the initial prompt if you'd like, or I can absolutely share outlines or little snippets, depending on what you want.

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If you've ever thought, "It sure would be fun to spend the weekend with other people talking about my blorbo" but didn't know where to start, John has the knowledge and is willing to share it. This month, we're 9 months away from the next TGI Femslash in-person con, and we look at a recent celebrity con that got all the wrong kind of buzz on social media. The keyword of a successful event is "ecosystem," and John sings the ballad of treating vendors with respect. If you have any questions for John about TGI Femslash or about the logistics behind planning a convention, you can send them to him via the TWIFH inbox on our Tumblr!

Promotions

Virtual TGIF/F - Our friends at TGI Femslash have just announced a brand-new, online fan con happening this summer. On August 29–30, Virtual TGIF/F will bring femslash fans from around the world together for discussion panels, online events, and more. Registration opens June 1st. Find out more at tgifemslash.com/virtualcon

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory

We’re now on Instagram! @thisweekinfandomhistory

Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh

You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory. 

If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.

Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Accio legal system? This week, Emily and V look into the super-bummer that was a harbinger of even worse super-bummers to come: the time JK Rowling sued her biggest fan for basically knowing more about Harry Potter than she did. And everyone in the whole world sided with her, because it was 2008 and the deification of that woman was REAL. Fortunately, it's 2026, the scales have fallen from our eyes, we've already covered Lindaaaaa for precedence, and we can have a real discussion about what the ruling meant for fandom, fanworks, and poor Steven Vander Ark. 

Sources

Fanlore

Promo

Check out our new pod-friends STAN! You really think you could be besties with Hailey Bieber? That’s cute. A podcast dedicated to exploring parasociality, celebrity worship and digital intimacy. We explore digital media through the lens of girlhood, constructed intimacy, and pop culture. Each episode centres on a cultural icon or phenomenon—ranging from The Hunger Games, erotic fiction, 2010s YouTubers and (of course) Taylor Swift—to unpack how the media we consumed, particularly during our formative years, shaped our desires, ideals, and sense of self.

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory

We’re now on Instagram! @/thisweekinfandomhistory

Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh

You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory. 

If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.

Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

[holdmecloseandfast]

“help im still at the restaurant” but the restaurant is just 2012 Avengers they-all-lived-in-the-tower fic

[holdmecloseandfast]

This post is brought to you by the May 3rd episode of @thisweekinfandomhistory just fyi. If y’all haven’t been listening to Em and V, YOU’VE BEEN MISSING OUT!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Join us in the common room for movie night! Thor will bring the brown sugar Pop-Tarts!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

CONstruction Episode 003 running slightly late!

The new CONstruction episode will be posted either tonight or tomorrow at the latest! Apologies, totally my fault! Thanks! -- V

[thefakebernadettebanner]

Happy 20th anniversary to They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard specifically

[shnehollander]

Next years met gala theme shoold be the cw's supernatural

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

"And then Thorki is next, which obviously started being popular a thousand fucking years ago. But also with the release of Thor. But also, in ancient Norway."

Listen to Episode 162, May 4, 2012: Check the Vents, The Avengers Are In The Tower now!

[fanlore-wiki]

Featured Article: The Open-Source Boob Project

This week’s Featured Article is The Open-Source Boob Project, a controversial incident that took place at Penguicon in 2008. The OSBP’s creators deemed it a “social experiment” in which other convention-goers could wear one of two buttons: one with text that read “Yes, you can touch my boob”, or another with text that read “No, you cannot touch my boob”.

While neither Penguicon nor most of its attendees were aware that this occurred, it sparked much online conversation thanks to one fan’s LiveJournal post about planning the OSBP. Responses brought up issues regarding power imbalance, consent, male privilege, sexism, and the use of the term “open source” to begin with.

Want to learn more about the discussion surrounding this incident? You can find excerpts on Fanlore.

-----

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

We've got a podcast episode about it for you!

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

To the Common Room! This week, V and Emily look with such fondness at the best era of fic since the internet began: the 2012 Avengers Tower era. This requested episode features Clint in the vents, Thor eating Pop-Tarts, a surprising number of penguins, Darcy Lewis, and genuine softness towards Tony Stark. Also, we have a pitch for Disney+ and a new drinking game for all you listeners. Journey back with us to a time and a place where everyone had their own apartment in the tallest skyscraper in New York City, movie nights were interrupted by galactic-level stakes that turned out okay, and every robot had a name and personality. Are you a fan of 2012 Avengers Tower fic? Which of the most popular ships is your OTP? Let us know on Tumblr or in the comments wherever you're listening!

Sources

Fanlore: Toasterverse brown-betty on LJ Fanlore: The Avengers Movieverse mcufandomhatespeopleofcolor

Promo

Check out our new pod-friends Normal Curves! If you’ve ever seen a study headline and thought, “wait… is that actually true?” then you might like Normal Curves. It’s a podcast where two statisticians – Regina Nuzzo and Kristin Sainani –  take big claims about things like sex, health, and human behavior and figure out what the research actually shows… and where it gets a little shaky.

Check out our new pod-friends STAN! You really think you could be besties with Hailey Bieber? That’s cute. A podcast dedicated to exploring parasociality, celebrity worship and digital intimacy. We explore digital media through the lens of girlhood, constructed intimacy, and pop culture. Each episode centres on a cultural icon or phenomenon—ranging from The Hunger Games, erotic fiction, 2010s YouTubers and (of course) Taylor Swift—to unpack how the media we consumed, particularly during our formative years, shaped our desires, ideals, and sense of self.

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory

We’re now on Instagram! @/thisweekinfandomhistory

Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh

You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory. 

If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.

Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!