Joe Fann

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Joe Phan, Joe Fann or Jophan is everyfan, the archetypical fan.

Joe Fann began as an alter ego Bob Tucker used in Le Zombie for quips he wished some reader had had sent in. So Elmer Perdue and other fen began sending Tucker poctsarcds from all over the country, signed "Joe Fann," and Joe was ultimately adopted by fans as representing the typical fan.

Jophan began as the main character in the faanfiction allegory The Enchanted Duplicator by Walt Willis and Bob Shaw, a Pilgrim's Progress of fandom

While Tucker's Joe Fann was your "average" fan, Willis and Shaw's Jophan was specifically the archetype of a faned, although it must be said that, at the time of its writing, most actifans were fanzine fans, so TED's good advice still applies to other areas of the microcosm as well.

In time, the two characters merged into an amalgam of the archetypical fan, whatever that is. The fannish attachment to the letter H has made the later spelling most common.

Contributors: Dr. Gafia, others

See also Jophan! the Musical.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Jophan or Joe Fann (Tucker) Originated as a sort of pename in LeZombie; credited with various gaglines and criticisms which Tucker thought up and wished some reader had remarked. Then Perdue began sending Tucker postcards from all over the country, signed by Joe Fann, and Joe was finally adopted by fans in general as the fans' idea of the typical fan. He is a young fellow, not long out of adolescence, who faunches to set the world on fire but isn't sure how to go about it. He hasn't had much experience with the opposite sex, but shows a great eagerness to learn. He gets grand ideas about putting out forty-'leven different super-duper fanzines, of which one or two may materialize in unprepossessing formats. He reads all the proz thru his thick-lensed glasses, even when there are a dozen a month, and writes detailed letters to the editors (especially picking out flaws in science) and goes into ecstasy when one of them is published. He thinks fans are the swellest people on earth, and would murder his grandmother for money to go to a convention; but since he hasn't a grandmother will ride the rods if necessary. He puts stf into everything he says and does -- his work, school papers, den, 'n' everything. He's a good deal of a fuggheaded dope. Fortunately the picture is not true to life, is it? Jophan, the hero of Walt Willis' The Enchanted Duplicator, is quite a different character despite the derivation of his name from the above, and in his pilgrimage from the Land of Mundane to Trufandom manages to avoid, or be rescued from, the grisly neofannish characteristics outlined above. But then Jophan had the Spirit of Trufandom to guide him.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Joe Fann Joe originated as somebody to whom to credit lines in Le Zombie that Tucker thot up and wished some reader had remarked. Then someone, apparently Elmer Perdue, possibly more than one person, began sending Tucker postcard from all over the country, signed Joe Fann. Joe was finally adopted by fans in general as the fans' idea of the typical fan. He is a young fellow, not long out of his adolescence who would like to set the world on fire, but isn't sure how to go about it. He hasn't had much experience with the opposite sex, but shows a great eagerness to learn. He gets grand ideas about putting out forty-'leven different super-duper fanzines, of which one or two may materialize in unprepossessing formats. He reads all the pro mags thru his thick lensed glasses, even when they are a dozen a month, and write detailed letters of criticism to the editors, especially picking out flaws in science, and goes into an ecstatic trance when one of them is published. He thinks fans are the swellest people on Earth, and would murder his grandmother for only enough to go to a convention, but since he hasn't any grandmother, he'll ride the rods if necessary. He puts stf into everything he says and does -- his work, school papers, den, n' everything. He's a good deal of a dope. Fortunately, the picture is not true to life.

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