ABOUT THIS BOOK

Few could have predicted the enduring affection inspired by Joss Whedon’s television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With its origins in a script Whedon wrote for a 1992 feature film of the same name, the series far outpaced its source material, gathering a devoted audience that remains loyal to the show more than a decade after it left the airwaves. Heralded for its use of smart, funny, and emotionally resonant narrative; subversive and feminist characterizations; and unique approaches to television as an art form, the show quickly developed its own unique fan community, who built on existing narratives through fan fiction, media manipulation, and performance.

Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer explores how this continued devotion is internalized, celebrated, and critiqued. Featuring interviews with culture makers, academics, and creators of participatory fandom, the essays here are a window into the more personal and communal aspects of the fan experience. Essays from critical thinkers and scholars address how Buffy inspires the creation of, among other enduring artifacts of fandom, fan fiction, crafting, performance, cosplay, and sing-alongs.

As an accessible yet vigorous examination of a beloved character and her world, Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer provokes a larger conversation about the relationship between cult properties and fandom, and how their interplay permeates the cultural consciousness, in effect contributing to culture through new narrative, academia, language, and political activism.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jennifer K. Stuller is a writer, author, scholar, media critic, and feminist pop culture historian.

REVIEWS

"This is a brilliant and compulsively readable exploration of the fandom dynamic in the context of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fan and scholar Stuller has amassed a fascinating array of essays and interviews by the best and brightest (and wittiest!) who love and study the Slayer."

— Nancy Holder, NYT Best Selling Author

"Jennifer Stuller’s new compilation has once more revised and expanded our sense of what a Buffy volume can be, this time offering us not only fresh insights into the world of the slayer and her life in the minds of fans, but a new graphically enthralling book design as well – a perfect inducement for what Joss Whedon once called “the revolutionary page-turning process.""

— David Lavery, Founding Co-Editor of Slayage: The Journal of The Whedon Studies Society

"This book is for all the Buffy fans new and old who are asking themselves "where do we go from here"? Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a celebration, a geek freak out, a fun pontification on what it means to continue to be inspired by this cheeky, kick-ass pop culture icon."

— Jo Jo Stiletto, Producer Whedonesque Burlesque

"Cover to cover, it’s a solid collection, well rounded, well researched, and written in an accessible tone."

— PopMatters

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Jennifer K. Stuller

The Best, Worst, Known, and Not-So-Known, Pop Culture Influences on the Buffyverse

Jennifer K. Stuller

“Let’s Watch a Girl”: Whedon, Buffy, and Fans in Action

Tanya R. Cochran

Ficcers and ‘Shippers: A Love Story

Mary Kirby-Diaz

Interview – Nikki Stafford: Organizing the Great Buffy Rewatch of 2011

Buffyspeak: The Internal and External Impact of Slayer Slang

Liz Medendorp

“Welcome to the Hellmouth”: Harnessing the Power of Fandom in the Classroom

Amy Peloff and David Border Giles
Interview – Rhonda Wilcox: The “Mother” of Buffy Studies

Buffy, Dark Romance and Female Horror Fans

Lorna Jowett

Seeing Green: Willow and Tara Forever

Kristen Julia Anderson

The Art of Buffy Crafts

Nikki Faith Fuller

Interview – Clinton McClung: Founder of the touring “Once More With Feeling” interactive event

Buffyverse Fandom as Religion

Anthony R. Mills

Interview – Scott Allie: Writer, and Senior Managing Editor at Dark Horse Comics

Unlimited Potentials

David Bushman and Arthur Smith

Contributing Biographies

Image Credits