Hoax Fan
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| Synonyms: | fan hoax, hoax fan |
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A hoax fan is a concept, best documented in science fiction fandom, of a fictitious fan personality created by one or more fans and maintained for a sufficiently long amount of time that the hoax fan acquires their own reputation within the fandom. The best known hoax fans include:
- Alan P. Roberts supposedly a 14 year old Australian boy in the lates 1930s/early 1940s who wrote into an early issue of Voice of the Imagi-Nation, with an announcement that he was leaving science fiction fandom forever because no good science fiction was being published. He then became a regular feature of VoM for a number of months, arguing back and forth with bemused fans.
- The female British fan (femmefan, as they were called in that era) Joan W. Carr, co-creator of the proto-feminist science fiction fanzine FEMIZINE, who was a creation of Sandy Sanderson with the help of Ethel Lindsay and other fans.
- Carl Brandon Jr., an African-American fan in the San Franciscon Bay Area (in an era when fans of color were rare), created by Terry Carr Ron Ellik, Pete Graham, Dave Rike and Boob Stewart. He was active in apas like FAPA and The Cult, and acquired a strong reputation for his parodies. The Carl Brandon Society, an organization for fans of color, is named for him.