Think of your favorite book series, comic book character, tv show, or movie series. Now, if you can, think of the very first encounter you had with it. Can you recall what it was that made you a fan?
I’ll start with my first encounter with a Spider-Man comic. It was late 70s, and the particular title was Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man–fairly early in the run, around issues 25-27, I’d guess. Spidey was trying to keep the Masked Marauder from nuking New York, and Daredevil was guest-starring in the arc.
Before I happened to see those three issues, I only knew Spidey from the Electric Company. All I knew of super-heroes was the DC universe, which, you have to admit, was still fairly bland back in those days. Chancing to pick up a super-hero title in which the hero was running from the police (clearly not a new occurrence for him), blind with no idea how he could restore his sight (and no secret headquarters or super-tech to help him), I found myself riveted. It was approximately 10,000 times more interesting than Superman. I was hooked.
When I was 17, I bought a magazine that had included an excerpt from The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld book. It was the funniest thing I had ever read in my life up until that point.
At that stage, only the first two books were out, though the third, Equal Rites, came out just a few weeks later. I snapped them up as soon as I saw them, and haven’t looked back since. He’s been my favourite author since that day to this.
Channel surfing. Stopping at a scene with two people talking. Realizing I was watching some of the best TV I have ever seen in my life. Wondering what the hell I was watching.
I spotted a couple Order of the Stick comics Rich Burlew has at this table at Balticon (IIRC, they were the “Up A Level, Down A Level” and “Math Is Fun” pages). That got my attention to the point where I picked up a copy of the first book, and then to the website to read what happened next.
I’m not quite as sure how Erfworld hooked me when that was added to the site – I didn’t quite get the initial six pages, but there was something there that got me to keep following the updates until things started clicking into place.
Buffy:Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school! Xander:Oh, yeah, that’s a plan. 'Cause lots of schools aren’t on Hellmouths. Willow:Maybe you could blow something up. They’re really strict about that. Buffy:I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y’know, like excessive not studying. Giles:The Earth is doomed.
Similarly to silenus, I became hooked on Buffy when I saw “The Pack” in season 1, which perfectly encapsulated some aspects of high school, as follows:
Giles: Xander’s taken to teasing the less fortunate?
Buffy: Uh-huh.
Giles: And, there’s been a noticeable change in both clothing and demeanor?
Buffy: Yes.
Giles: And, well, otherwise all his spare time is spent lounging about with imbeciles.
Buffy: It’s bad, isn’t it.
Giles: It’s devastating. He’s turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. ‘Course, you’ll have to kill him.
That, and the part where Principal Flutie met his demise was just a perfect horror show moment.
Some things encountered by chance on the TV that got me hooked:
1.) Stumble upon William Petersen as a crime-scene investigator and expert in psychos, partway through. It was Michael Mann’s Manhunter – his adaptation of Harris’ book “Red Dragon”, and the first appearance anywhere of Hannibal Lektor (and spelled that way IIRC). Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay to watch the whole thing, but I did get hold of it and watch it all the way through as soon as I could.
2.) Came across the TV movie Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders late one night on TV, right at the very beginning. I’d never heard of Judge Dee, Robert H. van Gulik, or Nicholas Meyer at that point, and, again, I had to leave bnefore it was over. It was YEARS before I learned who wrote the book and what story it was, and finally read how the story ended (good mystery, too – It had bugged me), and it was more years before I finally saw the end of the movie (which still isn’t available, AFAIK, on VHS, DVD, or any other format). Nicholas Meyer – who wrote "The Seven Percent Solution and two other Sherlock Holmes Pastiches, and who wrote and/or directed the best of the Star Trek movies (among others), did the TV movie.
3.) I stumbled across Danny Aiello and some other guy doing what seemed to be an episode of The Twilight Zone – but it wasn’t TZ. It was far too new, and Aiello too young to have appeared in it. On my B&W TV I couldn’t tell if it was in color or not. It was a superb piece of TV, and completelt in the tradition of Serling’s show. Goof fantasy, no special effects. I learned later that it was Tales from the Darkside, which turned out to be a hit-or-miss series, with absolutely wonderful episodes mixed with awful ones.
Well, if we’re going to stick with Buffy, it was the 4th season episode (I didn’t have cable before then) when Willow was getting her wishes come true (for instance, she wished Buffy and Spike would be in love). Because of all the havoc, a demon tried to recruit her. Willow refuses.
Demon: Is that your final decision?
Willow: Yes.
Demon: OK. Here’s my token. If you change your mind, give me a summons.
This was so far away from the usual cliche in that situation (demon tries to force her comply) that I fell in love with the show.
I became a fan of James Morrow when he sent me a free copy of “This is the Way the World Ends.”
I became a fan of the Bonzo Dog Band when I first heard “The Intro and the Outro.”
Well, I don’t like comic books or movie series , but I can recall one TV series I started watching because of a song.
One evening around 1993 or so, I was flipping channels and I heard the song “Losing My Religion”(REM) playing on some show with Jenny from “Little House on the Prairie”. I loved the song so I kept the channel on. Turned out to be some teen angst series called Beverly Hills, 90210. Silly title, I thought, but watched anyway. I got hooked. And I watched and watched and watched until the end, in which I got no satisfaction at all. Jesus, was it too much to ask for Brenda to come back for the finale? Who the fuck cares about David and Donna? Why could’t Dylan understand that Brenda was his only ticket to sanity and his true love? Uhhh, yeah, I need a life.
Okay, here’s a better one. Not a comic or tv show or author, but kind of: Around 2002 I saw a comedy show on HBO callled Dress To Kill. It was a one man comedy act with this cross dressing English dude named Eddie Izzard. Wow, this guy is funny, somebody in the US should discover him cause he just rocks. A lot of people may not get his humour but damn, the ones who do will be howling with laughter. This guy needs to be famous!
Well, I don’t need to tell you how famous he is now.
I was about 12 and sick in bed. My father was going to the drugstore to pick up some medicine. I asked him for a Superman comic.
My father really was not into comics. Somehow he brought home the first issue of a comic named Spider-man instead of the Superman I wanted. You can’t imagine how awful that comic was. Bad art, stupid characters. I traded it away as soon as I got better.
:smack:
Now for this thread: About ten years later I was at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. They had a 24-hour movie room. Around 2 in the morning I was wandering around and decided to stop in. It was some comedy film. Comedy? At an sf convention? Then they played the parrot sketch. And the lumberjack song. And the …
I sat there with my jaw dropped watching the most amazingly different comedy I had ever seen in my life. It was perhaps the first showing of And Now for Something Completely Different in America. Made me an instant Monty Python fan.
And I couldn’t do anything about it because it was years before the full series was shown in the U.S.
I became a huge fan of Marvel’s Nextwave and Runaways series through posts on Livejournal’s scans_daily community (this happens probably more than I care to admit), and went out and bought the DVDs of Supernatural’s first season after watching Crossroad Blues.
When the newspaper started carrying Calvin & Hobbes, this wasn’t the very first strip I saw, but it was one of the first, and it was the one that really won me over: it was the one where “the lving dead don’t need to solve word problems.” Between the totally unexpected direction the strip went in between the first and last panel, the fact that I could identify with it, and the absolutely hilarious artwork, this was the one that had me laughing out loud and realizing that this comic strip was something special.
One of the promos for Deadwood hooked me before the series started. It was the scene where E.B. tells Charlie and Wild Bill that his hotel’s full up, and that he can’t give them separate rooms until tomorrow – “Unless you were to kill a guest.” E.B. snickers like he’s told a good joke, Bill gives him a look, and E.B. hunches his shoulders and ducks his head, knowing he’s overstepped.
You knew it was going to be good, and it was confirmed by the first scene in the pilot, with Seth facing down that lynch mob in a way that no “hero” in a “western” had ever done before.
For me, it was a little different. I was the coordinator for a national study of children with congenital toxoplasmosis about 2-3 years ago. It’s a rare disease, most people have no idea what it is, yada yada. But then, one night, the TV was on behind me, and I heard a saracstic voice utter…
“Toxoplasmosis.”
I turned around, astonished, and saw a ruggedly handsome guy staring into a microscope. And I’ve been a fan ever since.
(For any diehards…it was the episode with the politician who didn’t have AIDS.)
I saw Eddie on an interview show, not a famous one. My brain fails me, just some middle of the night, no cable interview show. It was probably a lead up interview to that that very one on HBO.
I thought, that guy is funny! So watched it.
I laughed so hard. I have been a huge fan since. Eddie Izzard has been a comedian that wows me.
My episode was the one with the meningitis epidemic, the interviews with the “rebel” guy (Wear a pocket protector like him) and the Jewish woman (She can obviously put up with your insanity) And I had absolutely no idea what was going on, as I was walking in and out of the room while my sister watched the DVD.
Bonus hook: Pilot episode for Firefly. Devoted fan for the strawberry scene; rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth fan for Mal shooting the Alliance agent scene.
The summer after my second year at college I discovered Tom RobbinsStill Life with the Woodpecker…I have since read everything he has written…
Another Roadside Attraction (1971)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976)
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
Jitterbug Perfume (1984)
Skinny Legs and All (1990)
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994)
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000)
Villa Incognito (2003)
Wild Ducks Flying Backward (2005)
…*Jitterbug Perfume * being my favorite for sentimental reasons.
Same addiction also manifested for James Clavell …started with Shogun.
