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Fannish Address Labels
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Friend_Book |
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Fannish address labels were used by fans in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of expressing fandom interests in the pre-Internet era.
The most basic use for these were as return address labels on physical mail, but they were also often used as content for Friend Book (F.B.s), which circulated by mail as a way to find pen pals or collectors who wanted to swap particular kinds of items.
These labels might be homemade or ordered from commercial printers. They generally included a photo of a celebrity or canon element, a name or pseudonym, and the physical address for mail to be sent to. They might also include poems, song lyrics, quotes from the celebrity or canon, or bits of dialogue between fans.
To keep costs down, or to express friendship, many fans shared the labels, including two sets of addresses on the same label. (Sometimes there might even be 3 or 4). In practice, the fan using the label would cross out their friend's name and/or highlight their own so that the sender was clear.
Sometimes these labels did not include an address but only an image along with quotes, lyrics, or messages. They might be used as a sort of .sig file, as became common later through email or posting board messages. In this way, these images and words were also a sort of early icon use.