Believe it or not, fan culture is something that all of us have ultimately been a part of, even if it was momentarily. Whether it be a favourite hockey team, musician, or comic book series, fandom is an inescapable part of life. Being a part of a community with shared interests encourages self-expression by providing a sense of belonging—a place where individuals can focus on something outside of their day-to-day routine. These communities did not always exist, there were several historical building blocks that led up to the fan culture that we know today.
Fans have existed for thousands of years, debatably during some centuries before our current era. Fanfictions and fanart were no uncommon thing in classic literature and the arts. Fanfictions refer to written works created by fans that use an already existing universe of characters as the basis for their fictitious stories, which deviate from the “canon” (original story) without the original creator’s authorization. Fanart typically depicts an existing story and characters, but in the fan’s own perspective, style and choice of medium. Mythological deviations of Pindar, Greek tragedy, Heroides of Ovid, and Vergil’s Aeneid can all be considered examples of creative digressions from an original fictional source. As time went on, these artistic fan works and fan culture had begun to bloom upon the expansion of public literacy during the Industrial Revolution.

The word ‘fan’ had begun to circulate in the late nineteenth century—a shortened word for ‘fanatic’ who’s original context had changed from ‘frenzied’ or ‘crazed’ to an individual that is quite passionate and excited about a certain thing. What is known as the first modern fandom to have ever existed emerged during this time: Sherlock Holmes, portrayed in a variety of mediums such as a miniseries of novellas in 1903, and a BBC television series in 2010, stands on a pedestal of one of the most iconic fictional characters to date. The character may have popularized fanfiction as far back as the 1890s, but the fandom, and its creative works, still exist to this day.
The word ‘fandom’ was printed for the first time in Publisher’s Weekly in 1903. The subculture they were referring to in this issue was baseball, however, the real kickstarter genres for the fandoms we know today are sci-fi and fantasy. Since the 1930s, these subgenres have had committed fans and deep roots in history, particularly for sci-fi. In 1936, a small group of sci-fi fans, writers, and publishing professionals hosted one of the very first fan conferences in the word: the Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference. In the wake of sci-fi enthusiasts coming together, and dress-up events like masquerade balls and costume parties being popular in the nineteenth century, fans explored the idea of ‘becoming’ their favourite characters. One of the first instances of cosplay was in 1939, when fans Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas dressed up in full ‘futuristicostume’—inspired by the sci-fi film Things to Come—at the first World Science Fiction Convention.
The term ‘cosplay’ originated from Japan, however. Costuming at conventions has been an inherent part of Japanese fandom since the 1970s. Nobuyuki Takahashi, a film director who observed fan costuming at Worldcon in Los Angeles, had referred to the practice as ‘costume play,’ which was transformed to the term ‘kosupure,’then anglicized to ‘cosplay.’ This term travelled to North America in the 90s, sparking the evolution of cosplay over the next couple of decades. From here, fandom grew outside of solely critical analysis of literary works as television popularized in the 70s.
Video entered the world of fandom in the 70s and 80s. At the time, fan edits were known as ‘fanvids’: organized music videos featuring footage from a source fandom. Bjo Trimble’s Equicon featured the first fanvids— fan Kandy Fong spliced stills from Star Trek using a projectile and timed them with music. Today, edits are quite well-known, even amidst those who do not consider themselves to be part of a fandom. TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube are all common places that showcase edits created by and shared with thousands to millions of people.
The internet and social media brought many communities together in the 2000s. Social platforms allowed fans to easily blog, write, and publish creative fan works. Fan culture has evolved extensively over the years, and will continue to do so as new technologies develop and more stories are made. Let’s just hope that A.I. does not take over the natural creative expression of fandoms.