By Tanya Cook, Oct. 1, 2018
Earlier this month, fans of comic books and movies gathered in Salt Lake City to celebrate all things geek. FanX Comic Convention was an absolute blast and featured several notable events and guests including Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor, as well as Chuck Norris, Jeff Goldblum, and Rainn Wilson. Cosplay enthusiasts brought their A games. But FanX was also notable for the amount of charity work and socially conscious panels featured. This article is Part 2 of a series on FanX 2018. Check out Part 1 here for lots of great photos of special guests and cosplayers.
Charity work and activism have been a part of fandom at least as far back as the 1960s. In 1968 NBC was considering canceling “Star Trek”, and it was largely through a grassroots letter-writing campaign organized by Bjo and John Trimble that we got not only a third season but the fandom juggernaut we know and love today. In recent years, however, charity work at cons and fandom events is increasing and morphing into what sociologists categorize as social movement-style activism. For more on this, check out my research project blog Always Keep (Nerd) Fighting: Fandom as Social Movements.
This year’s FanX was a great example of how integrated into fan events this charitable giving and social consciousness has become. Throughout the expansive vendor’s floor, I saw several charity booths, large and small, collecting donations and raising awareness about social issues. From collecting soft toys and blankets for hospitalized children to suicide prevention to voter registration, opportunities to be a real-life hero abounded at FanX.
Panel programming at FanX also demonstrated awareness and commitment to working for the social good. I attended several panels that emphasized social justice issues. At a panel titled “Disabilities as Strengths in Comics and Pop Culture,” one of the speakers, Brian Higgins, compared Peter Parker’s Spidey Sense to the hypervigilance that some experience as a product of PTSD. Through his Create Reel Change program, Higgins uses pop culture examples to help severely victimized and traumatized populations including refugees and veterans.
Later at a panel on “Black Panther” featuring many former writers and artists who had worked on “Black Panther” comics over the years, author Jonathan Maberry shared his story. Maberry shared that he had been born into an extremely racist context in a suburb of Philadelphia and that his father had been the head of the KKK branch in his area. Seeing T’Challa’s positive example in comics at a young age helped Maberry break out of the racist ideology he was exposed to. He went on to write a series featuring Shuri as Black Panther and trained hundreds of women in self-defense. Videos and photos of his women students were used to help draw the Dora Milaje! It’s hard to overstate the cultural importance of a comic series like “Black Panther”. As artist Denys Cowan stated: “What Stan [Lee] & Jack [Kirby] were really talking about [in the original “Black Panther”] was the tension and dichotomy between MLK, Jr. and Malcolm X and the future of a people.”
Chase Masterson of Pop Culture Hero Coalition spoke passionately about the organization’s school-based programming at an Anti-Bullying Panel. The Coalition is the first 503c non-profit to use popular culture media examples primarily in schools to combat bullying including cyberbullying, racism, LGBT bullying, and misogyny. Pop Culture Hero Coalition frequently organizes campaigns and protests at San Diego Comic Con. Masterson shared her personal story of having been a victim of stalking and how it was through helping others she found her true calling. There was not a dry eye in the house as Masterson and others shared their stories. This reporter’s notes are covered in tear spots. In Masterson’s words: “Hurt people, hurt people…by healing others, you heal yourself.”
Last but certainly not least, I rounded out my FanX experience by attending “Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”, presented by the Utah Browncoats. I hadn’t seen Doctor Horrible in years and it was the highlight of the weekend to experience it with 800+ enthusiastic fans singing along. Proceeds from prize drawing tickets benefited both Equality Now and a local animal shelter Best Friends’ society. Bad Horse certainly would not approve of how kind and generous this group was!
From mental health awareness to raising funds to help end child hunger to get out the vote efforts, fans are becoming their own heroes.
