Honestly? I don’t think so. But it depends on what your definition of Star Wars fan is.
When I was a kid, between 1977 and 1982 or so, I really was. I loved Star Wars. I liked other things too, like WWII movies, comics and toys; superheroes; monsters and spooky stuff; any space type TV shows, but Star Wars had taken over. I wasn’t just someone who loved Star Wars and who had the toys and comics and books and went on and on and on about it and made a New Year’s Resolution with my pal John S to be “Even more mad about Star Wars in 1979″, no, I even drew a comic adaptation of it—a few times—over a 4 or 5 years. I loved it so much that I proclaimed my love of it—even in the face of ridicule. But when I got to secondary school, at about 12 years of age, I soon learned—but not soon enough—that I really should have kept quiet about it. I was the only arty kid in the class, and the only openly geeky one. Music and football were what you were supposed to be mad into.
But from day 1 in secondary school, I was drawing Star Wars on my copy books and textbook covers. Seeing this, the other kids in the class, especially the ones who ruled the roost, thought I was odd. The mob was group-thinking: Why would anyone be into stuff like that, at our age? The oldest kids in the school, in 5th year, were 18, and many of them looked like men and were into heavy metal bands. They’d outgrown things like Star Wars. Or if they hadn’t, they kept it to themselves. So that’s what the other 12 and 13 year old kids in my 1st year class aspired to be like. The tough guys in my class also wanted to be accepted by the 5th year guys, so they certainly weren’t going to talk to them about space films, comics or action figures.
But I was still into the world of the imagination and escapism and creativity. Soon, mainly because of the Star Wars thing, I was nicknamed ‘Spacer’. Now that would have had a certain caché if I was in college, but I instantly regretted being honest about my passions and interests. I started to keep it to myself, and continued drawing Star Wars and all those other things that I liked at home only, in my bedroom. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…