Comic Fanfiction History Project
| Fandom: | Comics Fandom |
| Dates: | 2002-2005 |
| See also: | Fan History, Timeline of Women in Comics Fandom |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Comic Fanfiction History Project was hosted by Heroes, the online comics zine, to trace the history of online comics fanfiction. The project was spearheaded by Jason Kenney.
The Comic Fanfiction History Projcet (CFFHP) is an attempt to chronicle the major events in the history of comic book fanfiction on the internet. The timeline is in no way complete and always expanding as new events occur, are remembered, or dug up and added to the history. If you know of events not listed below that should be included, please contact us and let us know so we can keep this list as accurate as possible.NOTE: While each new site is siginificant to the expansion and history of fanfiction, not all will be listed in this history. The CFFHP attempts to chronicle firsts and majorly influential sites. Some sites are currently listed as a place marker or because the time of their creation and therefore significance as a "first" is debatable. If you wish to make any corrections, please feel free to contact us and we will strive to fix any errors in the timeline.
About
The CFFHP (as it was also known) was begun around 2002 and covered the "online" period of 1989-2002. The initial focus was on Heroes' preference for collaborative fanfiction groups and "online comics" such as Marvel-X and Marvel Volume One; but it also included solo fanfiction milestones such as the creation of ACFF and the opening (and closure) of CFAN.
While links were provided for the various items, it is unclear how information was collected (outside of asking for volunteers to fill any gaps) and who defined "majorly influential sites".
The project appears to have ended in 2005 with the posting of the timeline to the Heroes Livejournal account, although the post itself is cut-off due to a technical glitch.
Timeline
1989
- The first post to the Superguy mailing list is made (original superhero fiction)
(Superguy Index - ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/pub/lennox/superguy/Superguy.Index.complete.txt)
1992[2]
- Kid Dynamo by Connie H, the first known instance of online X-Men fanfiction, hits the net. (Kid Dynamo - http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~tsang/kd/
1994
- January 11th - Newsgroup message sent out by Andy Jones, creating alt.comics.fanfiction. Hawk became keeper in late 1994 followed by Nute in January/February 1999.
(acff - http://groups.google.com/groups?q=alt.comics.fan-fiction&meta;=site%3Dgroups)
1995
- Avengers Assemble opens with a fanfiction section that will eventually spin off to become Marvel Volume One
(Avengers Assemble - http://www.avengersassemble.org)
- June - Hawk's X-Men Archive opens, creating the first big X-Men archive on the web, accepting all X-Men stories posted on ACFF until June 1996. The first story archived was RubyLis's "End of Innocence". Hawk's X-Men Archive closed on August 8, 1996.
- November - The X-Writers group begins with the posting of Wolverine #94
(X-Writers - http://coyote.accessnv.com/lia/)
1996
- 2099 Underground is created
(2099 Underground - http://www.geocities.com/ug2099/)
- Late-1996 - The Comic Fan-Fiction Authors' Network (CFAN) goes online
(CFAN - http://www.subreality.com/cfan.htm)
1997
- May - X-Men Gold and Blue #1 by Tom is released from X-Vision Comics (then known as Visions Comics).
(X-Vision - http://www.portup.com/~sumaketc/X-VisionComics.htm)
- June/July - Van Plexico outlines for 12 issues of Avengers, speculating what he?d like to see happen once "Heroes Reborn" was over. This outline was used to write Avengers at Marvel Volume One.
(MV1 - http://www.geocities.com/hawkeye_archer/mv1/)
- September 9 - Mutant Comics goes online .
(Mutant Comics - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/3666/)
- October - DC Futures begins.
(DCF - http://www.digitallymystic.com/sites/fiction/dcf/)
1998
- March - the first Comic Book Fan-Fiction Awards (CBFFAs) are awarded.
(CBFFAs - http://www.subreality.com/cfan/cbffa.htm)
- April - Outside the Lines is created by Susan Crites and Indigo
(Outside The Lines - http://outsidethelines.mainpage.net/)
- April - Barry Reese starts MV1Talk at Onelist, the first known mailing list devoted to fans of a shared continuity fanfiction group
(MV1Talk - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mv1talk)
- August - The first ever DexCon is held in Toronto, Canada, a fanfiction convention.
(DexCon - http://users.ultrashell.net/~nute/dexcon/ CFAN Conventions - http://www.subreality.com/cfan/cons.htm)
- October 15th - Fanfiction.net goes on-line
(Fanfiction.net - http://www.fanfiction.net)
1999
- April 7th - Issue #1 of HEROES - the Fanfiction Fan Magazine is released
(HEROES - http://heroesmag.cjb.net)
2000
- August 5th - The thread "FANFIC: Training Ground Or Wankfest?" begins on The Warren Ellis Forum in which Ellis states "I vote for "wankfest", incidentally. If you want to write, invent something. That's what writers do." Lively debate ensues.
(Warren Ellis Forum - http://forums.delphi.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ellis&msg;=5796.1) note: you need to be a member of Delphi forums to read the full debate
2001
- January 21st - The first issue of Sophism is released, a promotional fanfiction magazine for the Image Futures: Second Edition site from the Sozzled Sophists creative writing group that includes reviews of other sites and series and fanfiction commentary.
(Sophism - http://sophism.cjb.net)
- May - An article in Savant #42 by former fanfiction writer David Ivanick condemns fanfiction and produces controversy.
(Savant #42 Action - http://www.savantmag.com/42/action.html )
2002
(CFAN - http://www.subreality.com/cfan.htm)
External Links
- Original project at the HEROES website via Wayback
References
- ^ Comic Book Fanfiction History Project - HEROES via Wayback Dec 30/02
- ^ From the Heroes Livejournal entry for the CFFHP