Good Day Poppers,

I’ll get the boring stuff out of the way first.

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Alright, HARRY POTTER!!!

Option A:

Harry Potter, the gateway fandom, it’s been said. After all they do call us Potterheads. Yes, I capitalized that. Yes Potterhead is a proper noun. In the world of fandoms, Harry Potter is a heavy hitter. I mean, it’s fanbase isn’t as widespread as Star Wars or Trek or Doctor Who. But let us not forget that Harry Potter was first published in 1997…. One month before Harry’s birthday. It’s true. Where other fandoms, have been around since the sixties and seventies. Harry Potter. Oh man, so epic, so magical, so beautiful, and it will be always.

Now, whether you love, fantasy sci-fi (that means science fiction, just in case there is someone out there wondering that, I mean there’s bound to be, right?) um… what was I saying, oh yeah, or adventure, or steam punk or superheroes, take your pick we all have a Fandom. One we would choose over all. Now, although I’m not a big anime guy, and I know this isn’t real anime, my fandom is-as I call it- ATLALOK (Avatar The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra). Those shows are my bread and butter. Now, some people just can’t choose one. Some had to choose two dun dun DUN!

Option B:

The two fandoms were typically Doctor Who and Sherlock, creating WhoLocks. But time passed and some Wholocks grew bored. This spawned SuperWhoLocks!! Supernatural’s fanbase merged with the others. More time passed, the world healed a little, and as if they hadn’t caused themselves enough emotional fictional damage, they decided to bring along Harry Potter for the ride. Combining these fandoms is like in Power Rangers when the make Megazord

They are called SuperWhoPotterLocks, which is super bad ass, you’ve got Supernatural, which guess what that’s about. The sci fi (which, we learned what that meant earlier) of DW. The fantasy of Harry Potter, and mystery cleverness of Sherlock. Now I have yet to watch Supernatural, so I guess I’m just a WhoPotterLock, which makes me feel like Jimmy Olson. But oh well.

Okay, now that I said all that, it is getting pretty clear how incredible Harry Potter is… I was raised as a Trekker, by Trekkies. I got large doses of Terminator, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men. I loved my N64. I went for Halloween as Batman too many times to count. I had TMNT on Betamax. I spent evenings drawing out all the Star Wars characters and putting them on my walls. I saw Spider-Man in theatres, one day after it came out, which, then it was the biggest opening weekend ever. I had a passionate relationship with LOTR, I saw them all in theatres more than once. Even snuck out of the first Hulk into Return of the King. But… Harry Potter. That is why I’m writing today. I read the first four books, and saw the movies. But then it kind of got away from me. I didn’t read Order, Prince or Hallows. And I missed Order in theatres. I saw Half Blood Prince in theatres. Yet, by the time the last two movies came around it was Harry Potter in full gear. I felt like a kid again, it was amazing. I saw Hallows part one opening night, then six months later, part two opening and it was magical, and incredible. It was indescribable. After the movies, I needed to read the books, some of them again. So, I sat down and I read all seven. In one night…. JK, it took me a few months. But diving back into the world of Harry Potter, was like nothing I’d ever done before. It was like being reunited with an old friend. And not the way it happened in Amazing Spider-Man 2, it was a joyous occasion. Now, I am a proud Potterhead. I’m on Pottermore, in Ravenclaw, no big deal. I mourned many, many, many many character deaths in HP, stayed up late too many nights to count, with a book in my hand, or a screen flashing in my grinning face. And you know what? I don’t regret a moment of the magic.

So whether you had Harry as a gateway drug, he was added to your Arsenal- yes it’s a DC reference, years later, or you have yet to discover this young wizard boy. I hope every moment for you is as magical as it was for me.

J.W. Coughlan