tell me a story, game!

[solo_sword]

So with the new kids coming in and showing off their shiny new fandoms, I'm curious.

How'd you get into your canon?

Did you just pick it up one day and found yourself unable to put it down, or did someone (maybe from this game) drag you into it? How long have you been into it? Was there any one thing or character that hooked you on it? This is your chance to wax nostalgic and go on about what made your canon so cool for you. If there's a story behind it, tell us! And if there's not... tell us anyway!

Comments

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

My Strangers in Paradise fandom story is actually directly linked to my X:WP fandom story, because SiP was recommended to me by a Xena-fandom friend shortly after the Xena-parody "Princess Warrior" issue of SiP came out; Steven L. Sears, one of the X:WP executive producers who was pretty heavily involved in the fan community, actually got into SiP because of that too, and talked it up a lot, so word of SiP spread fast and far among Xenites. It was partly silly and superficial, because hi, look, there's physical similarities even though personality-wise Francine and Katchoo are the opposite of their near-doppelgangers. But then -- particularly among the Xena/Gabrielle shippers -- the love story of SiP struck a chord.

So I got in my little car and drove down to Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood (and I look back and laugh at wide-eyed sheltered young me going "OMGWTF AM I DOING ON MELROSE ALL BY MYSELF THIS IS SCARY") and, not realizing the three-issue miniseries of volume 1 was actually where everything started, picked up the I Dream of You trade that kicks off volume 2 and the bulk of the storyline.

I fell in love with it instantly -- in an amusing reversal from thatsamilkshake I started out identifying with Francine much more strongly than I did with Katchoo, and over time that somehow went the opposite way. Over the next couple of months I collected all the trades available up until that point -- there were only 5 -- and then tried to keep up with the individual issues, but that got hard after a while when it was released on a more-or-less 6-week schedule that sometimes took a lot longer than that. (Yay for independently published comics.)

So I kind of lost track for a year or two, and then came back to it and wooooooooooooooo, dove right the hell back in and never looked back.

And that is the story of how I now have to have an entire bookshelf devoted to my SiP trades and single issues, and how thatsamilkshake and I made a beeline straight for the Abstract Studios booth at Comic-Con this past year as soon as we got our badges to pick up our signed omnibus editions of SiP (complete with sketch on the front page by Mr. Moore!).

[thatsamilkshake]

I shall just piggyback off Shanie here since my story is shorter: discovered scattered issues of the second series* in college and thought what I had in my hands was awesome (oh hai look, girls in love omg in a comic right here across the street from this Methodist campus whatwhat omg) but confusing (I had like, Series 2, issues 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, or something ridiculous like that, and often found it hard to visually tell Darcy and Francine apart at that point).

Picked it up later after I graduated and was buying comic regularly, lost track again during a massive period of depression in 1999-ish when I stopped buying comics altogether, then picked up trade paperbacks here and there over the years to try to catch up. Railed at the flashforward fakeout confusey storylines and would put it down for a year or so until I couldn't resist and picked another one up.

Vaguely thought of either of the girls as a playable character sometime around the time I was sending Door away but never got serious about it until Shanie commented to one of the Show Us Your Journals memes with Chewie who was super-far-down her potentials list. Me: I'mma make me a Francine journal and ENABLE THE HELL OUT OF HER UNTIL SHE FOLDS MUAHAHAHAHA. And then I re-read the entire series in the correct order including the issues I'd totally missed, made like 500 icons, stalked bugged Shanie about it forevers, and the rest is history.

And she's right: I used to ID with Katchoo because I'm short and good at pining, but now I can't really imagine not writing Francie. I don't have Chewie's anger issues, and know Francine's self-worth ones like the back of my hand.

* SIP goes Series 1 issues 1-3, Series 2 issues 1-13, and Series 3 issues 1-90. Welcome to the world of constantly changing publishers/self-publishing.