Big Name Fan: Difference between revisions

The recognition is great, but remember that [[Celebrity Is Overrated]]: BNFs are easy targets, and are often singled out for torment by jealous fans. This may extend to their friends. Thankfully, the anonymity factor helps their life from getting ''too'' crazy: the vast majority of BNFs today did whatever they became famous for on the Internet while older ones did so through fanzines and mail, so their faces (and/or real names) are often unknown to most, making them indeed just another fan in the real world (even if they're gods on the Net).

 

{{examples}}

 

== General ==

* [[Mina De Malfois]] is a fictional example whose position occasionally sets her in the middle of the [[Internet Backdraft|fandom controversy]] she comments on.

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** Usagi Kou is more well-known.

*** And protagonist of ''G-Saviour'' is '''''Mark''' Curran'' who has sidekick call '''Simmons'''.

** Of similar note is his ocassional work partner, Keith Rhee. Rhee originally started the Gundam Project site and later maintained Bandai's own Gundam Official site for a number of years.

* Giovanna and Yasha of [http://ohtori.nu Empty Movement] have kept alive ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' fandom for years and were responsible for a revival of that fandom over the last three years when they opened a forum.

** Alan Harnum is considered ''the'' writer of ''Utena'' fanfiction. His unfinished opus is almost considered required reading in ''Utena'' fandom.

** In fandom he's pretty much a hero and a saint.

** And 4Kids has been known to express their enjoyment as well.

** In March 2011, a card signed by Slifertheskydragon sold on ebay for 750 dollars in a charity auction.

* [[Cristina Valenzuela]] a.k.a. CristinaVee is a [[Promoted Fanboy|newcomer]] in the dubbing industry, but even before that, she caught the eyes of Bang! Zoom Entertainment with her dubbing talents at a convention.

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/38119/Satashi Satashi] in the ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' fandom, on FF.net, Animesuki, and [http://nanofate.us/users/satashi the Nanofate.us] fora.

* Digimon has Chris McFeely, who operated the ''Digimon Encyclopedia'' back in the early 2000's.

 

 

== Comics ==

* ''[[Daredevil]]'' fan Kuljit Mithra, creator of the website [http://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil.shtml Manwithoutfear.com]. The site is considered the best archive of information on the comic book character, to the extent that writers of the Daredevil title routinely consult it for research, and Brian Micheal Bendis thanked Mithra in the afterword of his last issue as a writer for Daredevil. Mithra & Manwithoutfear.com, along with Philipp Lenssen & Coverbrowser.com are given special thanks for providing the cover gallery at the end of Daredevil's 500th issue.

* Jess Nevins, whose various comic annotations not only lead him to [[Universe Compendium|literally writing the manual]] for each volume of ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' but also [[Shown Their Work|backup work]] in Ed Brubraker's ''[[Incognito]]''.

* After an entry of ''[[The Far Side]]'' referred to Jane Goodall as a tramp, Gary Larson received a letter that threatened a lawsuit. After some complicated legal issues, it finally turned out that Goodall herself loved the cartoon and was completely unaware of any of what had happened, which quickly cleared everything up.

 

== Literature ==

** Cassandra (Cassie) Claire, known for popularizing (if not in fact creating) [[Draco in Leather Pants|a certain characterization of Draco Malfoy]]. Parlayed her pre-existing fan-base into a publishing deal for [[Mortal Instruments|her original fiction]].

** How about Steve Vander Ark of [http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ The Harry Potter Lexicon]? The Lexicon was one of the websites J. K. Rowling favored in the ''Harry Potter'' fandom, until they decided to publish a book based on the website that was almost entirely her own words...

** John Noe of PotterCast/The Leaky Cauldron is also a bit of a BNF, since he had the character of John Dawlish named after him.

** [http://acciobrain.ligermagic.com/ Makani] is one of the most famous ''Harry Potter'' fanartists. Her art is used in The Leaky Cauldron as a kind of "official" image for HP characters, and her take on the Malfoy family is source of much fanon.

**** [[Promoted Fanboy|And then Valve hired her.]]

** [[Neil Cicierega]] is especially well known for his ''[[Potter Puppet Pals]]'' series.

*** ladyjaida, real name Jaida Jones, moved on to cowrite the book ''[[Havemercy]]''. And now she has her own fandom. Ninety percent of Havemercy fangirls started as Shoebox fangirls, and they're an insanely loyal bunch.

** Harry and the Potters, anyone? Draco and the Malfoys? Whoever heard of making rockbands off books, really...

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fandom, [http://www.michael-martinez.com/ Michael Martinez] is one of the most prolific scholars and trivia buffs, with several books and countless articles under his belt. (He is also, incidentally, the owner of a large ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' website as well.)

 

 

* Melissa Good is a critically acclaimed [[Fanfic]] writer in the ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' fandom. So critically acclaimed, in fact, that the producers of the show [[Running the Asylum|asked her to write several episodes]] for the sixth season of the show.

** Producer David Eick, during commentary on his later show ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'', while not mentioning names specifically, reflected back on the Xena years, and explained that at the time in the mid-1990s, "fan reaction from the Internet" was a very new thing. The show's staff got very excited about going online and reading the real-time reactions of fans. The problem was, because this was so new and shiny to them, they had no real concept of how to contextualize or frame what they were reading: internet fans are the most obsessive, and you kind of need to read through a lot of it, or "professional reviews" to get even a basic feel of what the "reaction" was. But because "the Internet" was so new at the time, they'd basically just go online and read through major fanfiction hubs without much of a sense of "cognitive dissonance" like "maybe these are just obsessed niche fans". As Eick explained, in the later seasons this resulted in them pandering on a massive scale, doing all sorts of things the online fans they encountered suggested...and it actually turned a lot of the casual viewers away. It's open to interpretation how "good" these episodes were, but they really weren't as "accessible".

** Paula Smith, author of the parody fanfic ''A Trekkie's Tale'' and inventor of the term [[Mary Sue]].

** The Kirk/Spock fandom itself has a few:

** Ian Levine is also well known amongst fandom. As well as his efforts to locate missing stories, he also briefly worked on the show as an unofficial fan continuity advisor.

** Jean-Marc Lofficier, author of [[Universe Concordance|Universe Concordances]] ''The Doctor Who Programme Guide'', ''The Terrestrial Index'' and ''The Universal Databank''.

** The most famous fan of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is Queen Elizabeth II. Fans don't get much more big-name than that.

** Lawrence Miles, a Doctor Who fan who wrote some spin-off novels in the 90s, failed to get a writing job on the revived series. However, he still has a devoted following of "fans" who read the poorly-thought-out and transparently bitter screeds he publishes after every new episode.

** Chris Funaro: Funaro Maximum Security Prison

** And don't forget Amit Bhaumik. He was the webmaster of an extensive, detailed and now defunct Power Rangers information database called the "Online Archives". He was one mind behind the (in)famous Scorpion Rain hoax. And he became story editor of ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force|Wild Force]]'' and worked on that season's two crossover eps. He currently works as a "consultant" on the latest series Power Rangers (Super) Samurai, and co-wrote two of the series clip shows. Unfortunatly, Chris Funaro revealed that the two had had a bitter falling out (Amit understandably loves Samurai, Chris does not)

* In a bit of a reversal, [[Wil Wheaton]] is now arguably in this category: he's most popular for his blogging and being "just a geek" as he puts it, and he regularly associates with Gabe and Tycho, his fellow Big Name Fans from ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''. Whether you consider this a promotion, demotion, or something in between probably depends on how harshly you dislike [[Creator's Pet|his previous claim to "fame" as Wesley Crusher.]]

** But don't forget! Wil Wheaton disliked Wesley, too.

* [http://www.lippsisters.com/ The Lipp Sisters (Deborah and Roberta Lipp)] are this for [[Mad Men]]--they were even invited to sit in the VIP section (directly behind [[Elisabeth Moss]] and January Jones) at the Season 4 Premiere in Times Square, pictures of which including them can be seen [http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/mad-men-season-4-times-square-premiere-party/january-elisabeth.php here].

** Madison from the same fandom also somewhat fits this; she had tea with Misha Collins and has arguably one of the best known [http://jeric-kripke.tumblr.com/ blogs] in the fandom.

* [http://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE Larry Williams], who decided to just make a Youtube video reviewing the first episode of ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', not being familiar at all with ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. This soon expanded into reviews for every episode, with his emotional ranting about his love for the show and rabid defense of his favorite characters earning him a ton of new subscribers and eventually the attention of the people behind the show, who even sent him a poster signed by the producers and Sean Bean.

* Cher, apparently, was a big fan of [[The X-Files]]. The episode "Post Modern Prometheus" revolves around a monster who has a huge Cher obsession. The part of Cher was written for Cher herself, but she declined as she thought her appearance would be tacky.

 

== Music ==

* [http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/meatpers.html meathead] is the most prominent "[[Nine Inch Nails]]" humour guy, and he makes rather poorly-animated (though really funny) Flash cartoons... one of which found its way onto the official NIN website.

* [http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm Wayne Studer, Ph.D.] has pretty much the most detailed [[Pet Shop Boys]] fansite in existence. He's appeared in one of the documentaries about them, and his "On This Date..." feature has been incorporated into the front page of their official site.

* [[Punk Rock|OFF!]] has [[Red Hot Chili Peppers|Anthony Kiedis]] as a fan of their work. He once wore an OFF! hat during his music video for the Adventures of Raindance Maggie.

* Sasha Grey, while not building her name on being such (she is far better known as a star in... a certain genre of film...), is the foremost known fan of US [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|avant-garde]] band Scissor Shock. It doesn't help that she's also an established avant-gardist who, at one point, even guest-starred on a [[Current 93]] album.

* Chinen Yuri is, without a doubt, hands down, the biggest [[Arashi]]/Ohno fan ever. It probably helps that he's in the same company as the group as they inspired him to become an idol himself.

* [https://twitter.com/#!/yoshiomibu Omi] has gained fame in the [[X Japan]] fandom for her fancomics based on [[Yoshiki Hayashi]]'s (and occasionally other fans') [[Twitter]] postings.

 

* ''Rooster Teeth Productions'', the creators of the ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' [[Machinima]]. Rooster Teeth has been since commissioned by Microsoft to do advertisements, and high-definition copies of ''Red Vs. Blue'' are sold in the X-Box Live Marketplace and in many game stores.

** Randall Glass, creator of the "Halo Physics Experiment", better known as [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nGQIQljaAc0 the Warthog Jump], became immensely popular for a time. He even got into the credits of ''Halo 2'' under the "Special Thanks" section.

* Tehnoobshow, who started out with a few videos about a stereotypical noob, eventually became this to ''[[Runescape]]'', even being commissioned by Jagex to work on the videos to open their machinima contests.

* In the early to mid-nineties, a fair number of famous and semi-famous ''[[Doom]]'' mapmakers wound up being engaged as official level designers for actual developers. The first was Tim Willits, Doom enthusiast and mapmaker assimilated by id in the mid-nineties, his most notable work being The Ultimate Doom, Doom 3 and the entire ''[[Quake]]'' series. He later ascended even further to become the lead designer and current co-owner of the company.

** On a more traditional level, there's Benjamin "Katon" Carignan, one of the masterminds between [[Fobbies Are Borange|three well-renowned]] [[Tree From My Youth|fan radio plays]] and is the most consistently popular radio DJ for STARMEN.net's internet radio station, Radio PSI. He is one of the few BNFs that is incredibly humble about his popularity and is often surprised at the reactions he gets after contacting people.

** Not to mention Skosiris, the founder of THE site for any World of Warcraft information, Wowhead. He is well known enough for Blizzard to name an NPC after him [[Did Not Do the Research|They got the race wrong]] (Skorisis' main is an Orc as opposed to the Blood Elf NPC) but admittedly a Blood Elf make better Loremasters...

** Same goes for Breanni, founder of a site categorizing minipets in [[WoW]] who also gets referenced ingame as a minipet vendor, and the NPC IS a gnome.

** There's also Boubille, creator of MMO-Champion, the [[WoW]] news and data mining site where most people get their information on upcoming patches way before Blizzard ever announces anything, and it's also a great compilation of developer posts.

*** Blizzard's generally extensive engagement with their fans has produced a lot of these. [[Tournament Play]] masters aside, many independent commentators achieved internet stardom by doing [[After Action Report|After Action Reports]] and [[How To]] guides on the ''[[Starcraft]]'' series and ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', and were eventually brought on by Blizzard in some official capacity or another.

** "Archaic" (real name Liam Pomfret) is webmaster of the other big-name ''Pokémon'' site, Bulbagarden.net. He's one of the oldest BNFs in the fandom, having first made a name for himself back in 2000-2002, primarily as a leader or spokesman for the Pokémon shippers community (which got him top billing for [[Ship-to-Ship Combat]] here); a role in which he managed to turn the entire staff of Pokémasters, then one of the major forums, against shippers. He later worked for Serebii as his right hand man, but left to [[Un Cancelled|(re)establish Bulbagarden]], incidentally creating a conflict between the two communities that is still ongoing seven years later. The initial relaunch of Bulbagarden is most charitably described as achieving somewhat underwhelming results, but after several years of the website struggling, Archaic added a wiki to the site, which quickly grew into [[The Wiki Rule|Bulbapedia]]; he later led the effort to expand into the collaborative Nintendo wiki network NIWA.

** "Water Pokémon Master" (real name Jon Sahagian; thanks to [[The Other Wiki]] for [[wikipedia:Pok%C3%A9mon Black and White#Japanese release|this info]]) of TCG website [[Poké Beach]].com is another well-known website in the fan community. His devotion to the franchise has allowed him to interview the previous director of the Pokémon animé, Masamitsu Hidaka, and he is the only foreigner to have seen an early screening of the 12th Pokémon movie in Japan. His site has also been featured in several TCG magazines around the world. He is known to be in contact with internal Pokémon officials, even to the point where he can pick up the phone and call them to confirm rumors and stories. He is also a little infamous with some people at The Pokémon Company International for posting early scans of TCG sets several weeks before they are released.

* [[Kirby M]] too, owner of ''[http://www.walfas.org Walfas]'', a [[Touhou Project]]-related site. Worked on Maikaze's Touhou anime, although that too was fanmade...

** For that matter, [[IOSYS]], makers of the most notable ''Touhou'' song remixes.

* Gideon Zhi, of [http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis], has released far more [[Fan Translation|Fan Translations]] than any other group, and his work is almost inevitably featured in any articles about the subject.

* While he was more associated with the [[Sat AM Sonic the Hedgehog|Saturday morning cartoon]] and the comics based on them, Dan Drazen was a big name in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' fandom for a while. He's apparently into [[Care Bears]] now. ''Huh''.

** Additionally, Jay Axer and Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante both were fans who [[Promoted Fanboy|ended up drawing for the Archie comics]].

** Further, Ian Flynn was just a fan and now he's [[Promoted Fanboy|writing the Archie comic]].

** Also in the Team Fortress 2 fandom are fans known for producing high-quality fanwork. Among them:

*** Chemical Alia for her work on the [http://chemicalalia.deviantart.com/art/Medic-Heavy-character-select-145112417?q=1&qo=1 Female Medic and Heavy] reskins.

*** Cat Bountry for writing what could be the best and well-known fanfics in the fandom, including [[Respawn of the Dead]].

* Anthony Burch from [[Hey Ash Whatcha Playin]] was offered, and accepted, a job a Gearbox because of how funny Hey Ash was.

*** Similarly, one of Crabcat's co-founders, Jessica Merizan, has since been hired by Bioware as the company's Community Manager.

* [[Fan Film]] creators [[Beat Down Boogie]] became [[BN Fs]] because of their ongoing [[Crossover|mashup]] of ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' called ''[[Modern War Gear Solid]]''.

** Likewise, [[The Last Days of Foxhound|Chris Doucette]] and [[The Cobra Days|inonibird]] both had their shares of fans for their respective ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] comics. [[Weasel Words|Some people]] who had [[Praising Shows You Don't Watch|never played the games]] read the comics and were surprised to see how little characterization both Foxhound and the Cobra Unit received when they played the games.

* In [[Achron]], Shadowfury333 fills this role. He's become a sort of unoffocial game commentator, casting replays and live games, as well as making a large number of maps and special additions (such as observers) through modding the game.

* [[Fire Emblem]] has [[Vincent ASM]], owner of Serenes Forest, the largest and most complete Fire Emblem site. The End also rose to this level when he translated the Hasha no Tsurugi manga.

 

== Web Original ==

** Within the TGWTG fandom itself, Rants, the admin of the [[TGWT Gsecrets]] blog has been making a name for himself. His popularity varies from person to person however.

* [[Rooster Teeth]] makes this list again. Before he joined the company, [[Monty Oum]] was a fan of RT. Yes, [[Haloid|''that'']] [[Dead Fantasy|Monty]].

 

== Western Animation ==

** "Megafan" Kimberly Miranda aka [http://isaia.deviantart.com Isaia], one of the very first ''Avatar'' fan artists on [[Deviant ART]]. Her account now has over a million views and her artwork is often shown in magazines for the show. Her "[http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39867827/ It's Avatarded]" satire comics are responsible for the [[Fan Community Nicknames|Fan Community Nickname]].

** Johane Matte aka [http://rufftoon.deviantart.com/ Rufftoon], also on Deviant Art, earned one million pageviews in almost half the time that Isaia did. She was later [http://www.drawingboard.org/blogs/Nofret/2424/Big+News%21%21.html hired] as a storyboard artist for the show and provided illustrations for the ''Avatar''-dedicated Nick Mag.

** Another Big Transformers Fan might be Chris Ho, AKA [[Internet Personality Vangelus]], having served as the voice of ''[[Transformers Trans Tech]]'' Shockwave and having fan art drawn ''of him'' by [[Transformers Animated|Derrick J. Wyatt]].

** Monzo also deserves mention, having helped Hasbro determine the copyright status of several Transformer-names. His name appears as Universe Onslaught's serial number, along with his birth date.

* Mark Moore was/is an infamous ''Captain N'' fan, notable for his "Season 4" (Through 8) fanfic continuation of the original cartoon series.

* ''[[Re Boot]]'' [http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl forum] There are a few members who are in on the entire plot of the revival webcomic and/or regularly correspond with higher-ups among the revival. The comic's writer himself is also a member, and regularly interacts with the members to get their input.

* Most ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' fans are aware of [[Neo Yi]]. What most people know her for is her excellent fan comic ''[http://neoyi.deviantart.com Chess Piece]'' but really, it's nearly impossible to explore the fandom (specifically on [[Deviant ART]]) without learning about her eventually. Others include Firefury Amahira, Tavalya Ra, The Alchemist's Muse and Esme Phantom, all of which are very well known around the community.

** There were some others back in the day, but most of them have moved on.

*** While not still actively in the fandom, if you didn't know about Sora-Mito's fanart back in the day, you had either been hiding under a Shuggazoomian rock or had seen it without realizing it. (Quite a few people took it for their own websites without permission or credit.)

*** Then there was ii, who was the head Admin on MSMF for a while and went through SEVERAL Usernames in his time. Oh yea, he was also one of the few boys in the Fandom which certanly helped his case...

** Don't forget Courtney Garcia AKA [[CIT Princess]]! A very popular TDI artist on Deviantart, who is well known for her outstanding cosplays of Courtney (the character) and live action reenactments of her scenes from the Total Drama series. She became even more well known after winning Halloween Contest sponsored by the offical Total Drama Island Blog in 2009. She's even hung out with Chris Potenza himself for a convention and still keeps in contact with him. Seems this as big as a fan can get!

** And of course, there's another fanfic/fanart KaBlamoid who all the fans should know...KaBlamoid4Life!

** There's also [[Bald Dumbo Rat]], who (at least when it comes to fanon) is considered THE voice for [[Series Mascot|Derpy Hooves]].

* ''[[Daria]]'' has a few, including Kara Wild who actually managed to score interviews with showrunners Glenn Eichler & Anne Bernstein. Novelist and ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' game designer Roger E. "The Angst Guy" Moore is also a major fixture within the fandom and is (in)famous for creating some of the most competently written & heart wrenching [[Dark Fic]] known to man.

* Spike Lee is a well known (and extremely vocal) fan of the New York Knicks. He is a common sight at Knicks games, and even started a feud with the rival Indiana Pacers team (and in particular, their star player, Reggie Miller) during the 1994 playoff series between the two teams. Said feud was the subject of "Winning Time," one of [[ESPN]]'s ''30 for 30'' documentaries.

* [[Jack Nicholson]] is as much a fixture at Laker home games as the yellow color scheme and championship banners themselves, to the point where he schedules his movies around them so as to not miss a game.

 

{{reflist}}