A Fanbase for Everything.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of DVDs, and probably less of a secret that I've always enjoyed my cartoons. I'm a product of all the major ‘80s shows, half-hour toy commercials in disguise such as The Transformers or G.I.Joe. There was a time when it was socially acceptable to enjoy such programs, a time when all the boys wanted to be He-man and all the girls wanted to be She-Ra. That time ended in 6th grade when we all began Middle School, and if my friends and classmates were still watching these shows, they certainly weren't admitting it. The first sign of this major social change occurred when I was talking to a girl on the phone that I'd been good friends with in elementary school. She was not going to the same school and I hadn't heard from her in months, but she didn't seem interested in my recounting the Transformers episode I was watching at the time and cut our conversation short. I’d never hear from her again. The lesson I took from that as a boy was that girls don't like Transformers, but the deeper lesson is that a girl deserves more attention than anything on television at any time, be it cartoons, sports, or anything else. Subsequent signs that cartoons were no longer hip included no one wanting to talk about the shows in school the next day after they aired, and the amount of kids that laughed at me when I came in one Halloween dressed as Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats.

Thundercats may be the single most derivative series ever made. A careful eye can recognize elements of Superman(they rocket away from an exploding planet), Transformers(they crash on another world where they cannibalize their ship into a base built into the side of a mountain and learn to live with the locals), He-man(the leader of the group wields a magic sword, though this probably can be traced more accurately back to Arthurian legend), Star Wars®(an old and wise Thundercat dies in the pilot episode and remains on as a spirit that advises Lion-O from time to time, shades of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Thundercats are also assisted at times by a local Ewok-like race known as Berbils) and many more. The show may have been derivative in its elements, but brilliant in its use and execution of them to create a new mythos that incorporated the best of science fiction and fantasy. And what young boy WASN'T in love with the most glaring exception from my list of favorite femme fatales, the one-and-only Cheetara? Blonde, athletic, and (literally) a cat person, she was the ideal woman.

There are many shows I'm nostalgic about and, now that so many are available on DVD, they've slowly been joining my collection. One of the great things about DVDs is the special features, and seeing what can be considered a special feature. It always amazes me to see the shows that inspire a dedicated fan base. People from all countries and all walks of life are (painfully) aware of Star Trek conventions, but did anyone realize that there were Red Dwarf conventions? I had no idea before checking out DVD special features. I made the same discovery about Gargoyles and was both shocked and amused to see fans in a hotel center wearing homemade costumes. And while I was a big enough fan of Transformers to once ignorantly destroy a potential relationship and to now own the series on DVD, I didn't know about BotCons until I started surfing the internet a few years ago, nor have I been to one.

If something exists with an audience, no matter how small, somewhere fans will gather. Maybe it's not someplace physical. The internet certainly has made it easier for people with similar interests to gather on blogs and message boards and connect across the globe. I picked up Thundercats on DVD recently, and the included “special feature” is an interview with several fans, now grown up, recounting their memories of the show. The most prominent of these individuals is Wil Wheaton. If there's anyone on this planet that isn't ashamed of being a geek, it’s him. It doesn't matter that Jerry O'Connell has more of an acting career, Corey Feldman is more infamous, or Keifer Sutherland is still one of the coolest people on this planet. Wil has a wife, kids, cats and an overall good life. He sits there the same as any other fan, any other regular person, and lays out why he loved Thundercats. No matter what, I have to respect him for that.

What do you readers think of fans? Is there a line that can be crossed? Is there a difference between talking or writing about the shows you enjoy, and gathering with others wearing costumes of your favorite characters? Is it more socially acceptable to do so with some shows more than others? I've worn my share of geeky costumes on any number of Halloweens, but never on any other day of the year. Is it wrong for others to dress up the other 363 days?