On Being A Fangirl

I proudly call myself a fangirl. My fangirlishness is mostly in three categories.

The first category is cats. I’ve loved cats since I was a little girl. My husband and I currently are owned by four cats. I have cat t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, hoodies, pajamas, slippers and socks. I have cat earrings, fanny packs, baseball cap, coffee cups and a cat can coolie. Note – this is not an exhaustive list.  I look forward to expanding my collection as time goes by.

We are working on a comic book that turns the cats who own us into superheroes. My husband is doing the majority of the writing and I’m doing the art. The fictional versions of our cats are developing distinct personalities, which are not too far from their real personalities. My company – Designs by Eileen – focuses on art featuring superheroes re-imagined as cats.

The second category is Silver Age comic books (approximately 1956-1970), particularly DC, which is what I grew up with. I’ve also become a huge fan of Marvel’s Fantastic Four, which started in the Silver Age. For various reasons, I lost all the Silver Age comic books I had as a girl. However, thanks to Source Comics and Games in Roseville, MN, assorted Omnibus Editions and eBay, I’ve been able to re-acquire some of the comic books I had before. At MSP SpringCon 2019 in May, I was able to add more to my collection. I have a fondness for the Silver Age as back then it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

The third category is Wonder Woman. As with comics in general, my favorite era is the Silver Age. During that time, Wonder Woman was also active in the Justice League of America. I borrowed the Wonder Woman Golden Age Omnibus from the library and found it to be somewhat disturbing. See http://beingaprofessionalfangirl.blogspot.com/2018/07/review-of-secret-history-of-wonder.html (Review of The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore) for my blog post that explains my dislike for the Golden Age Wonder Woman. My first (and second) date with my now-husband was to see the Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot.

As with cats, my collection of Wonder Woman items is long. The following in not an exhaustive list. I have a Wonder Woman backpack, lunch bag, baseball caps, t-shirts, socks, stickers and pens. When I got married, I now also have joint ownership of the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman TV series. I have also made a costume re-imagining Wonder Woman as a 50’s high school girl. The attached photo was taken at MSP SpringCon 2019. (More costumes are being planned.) As with the cat items, I look forward to expanding my collection as time goes by.

 

I have no plans of giving up being a fangirl, so matter who old I get!