So we've finally hit the one year mark. Someone once asked how long a blog devoted solely to "Daria" fandom could ever last, and we know that the answer is, "At least a year, if you have two people working on it." Let's hope that both Greybird and I are back here on December 26, 2006 to celebrate the second anniversary.

I decided to flip back over a year's worth of posts for sort of a Daria Year in Review, covering the Best of 2005 in "Daria" Fandom (including a little chunk of 2004 as well). A lot has been going on, and I shall break the boldface/italics rules that are informally set in stone over here. (I'm allowed to do it once, since it is a celebration.) Choosing, in no particular order:

John Takis ended up a published writer, and Janet "Canadibrit" Neilson published a role playing game. This is a good sign, that years of laboring over fan fiction might translate to a career when you just get f****ng tired of writing fan fiction.

There were the usual Dariacons. Canberra, Australia turned out to be the site of a mini-Dariacon, and two Dariacons, hosted by yours truly, were held in Atlanta, Georgia. But the big, big news was Deref's World Tour, which spanned the North American continent and might have been the biggest fan-meeting undertaking since Father Martin Sylvester travelled the states. For once, "Daria" fandom finally got to put faces to people who before had only been names on messageboards.

Katherine Goodman, a fan since the very beginning of the fandom who has since moved on, delurked for a few moments to let us know what had happened to her.

The Daria-Jane Conspiracy, one of the major "Daria" sites out there, went off line (and Dr. Mike, long time "Daria" fan, decided to get away from it all, at least for a while). The site stored stories, art, screen captures, a messageboard, and had a function no other messageboard offered -- a way to numerically review fan fiction stories, grading them on a scale.

Furthermore, with the help of Dr. Mike, the Daria Encyclopedia came online in easy-to-edit Wikipedia form. Even though Dr. Mike was no longer able to post it, let me make you this promise: the Dariawiki will be back in 2006.

Dr. Mike was also the first "moderator" of the 2004 Daria Fanworks Awards, also known as the "Booties". Richard Lobinske will take on the responsibility as a second set of awards will be offered in January 2006. The last time fan fiction works and fan art were systematically awarded before the Booties was by Canadibrit. The story "All My Children" by Deref and Thea Zara took the top award of Best Overall Fan Fiction and a work by Kemical Reaxion took Best Original Fan Art.

This led other fans to offer other awards. Kara Wild would offer the Crappies, an alternative set of awards that playfully offers up the "worst" in "Daria" fan fiction, and I hosted the Excellence in Fandom awards -- the latter did not get many votes at all, but Michelle Klein-Hass became the first person to be awarded the honor.

Triste Monde Tragique, a premier French fan site, went down. It promises to be back, but in the interim, "Daria" fans will have to do without its amazing collection of screen captures from the show.

New fans showed up. Naming two as representative, kaimelarfeylove and Greybird both arrived in February 2005, and Greybird became a DFB co-contributor, his first post to the Daria Fandom Blog arriving on July 19, 2005.

However, it might have not been a good year for messageboards or for their operators. Paperpusher gave up his years-long title of chief moderator of the Paperpusher Message Board, and Kara Wild took over as Head Chef at the PPMB. The SFMB faced a hacking attempt, and both messageboards were forced to deal with spam posters. The SFMB dealt with the problem by adding many new moderators to the board. However, two attempts at adding a new "Daria" messageboard, the first by The Daria Hunter and the second by Reese Kaine (a board for "Daria" and other things), seem to have (temporarily) come to naught.

Furthermore, a "Daria" messageboard saw a fan getting banned from posting for the first time since mammoths roamed the earth. (We will not write the name of the unfortunate fan, but I understand that the banning was well-justified.)

The personal lives of fans reached new milestones. I moved from Nashville to Atlanta, and went back to school. Richard Lobinske also moved. Kristen Bealer got married, and TAFKA and Lew Richardson are now officially engaged.

For the first time ever, "Daria" creator Glenn Eichler agreed to answer questions directly posted to Kara Wild by "Daria" fans, and his answers sparked debate and discussion for months. Mr. Eichler joined the writing team at Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report". Meanwhile, voice actor Wendy Hoopes saw the television show "LAX" go off the air, where she was a costar.

Both the PPMB and the SFMB moved to the same server, owned by Gamer. Unfortunately, this means that when one board is down, then so is the other.

But one of the big pieces of news for 2005 was the fact that the first few episodes of "Beavis and Butt-Head" saw new life on DVD, as Mike Judge is releasing a special "best of" collection. If "Beavis and Butt-Head" can see life on DVD, will "Daria" be far behind?

The Green Sink was inspired to update after a long hiatus. You might not think that's news, but I think it's nothing short of remarkable.

And to top it off, does anyone remember this picture?



If you've been reading the Blog, then you'd know that this obscure comic book character might have provided not only the name of Our Heroine, but also the name of her sister.

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So 2005 seems to have gone by in a cloud of dust, with many promising developments taking place.

The fact that the Daria Fanworks Awards have survived is probably the most promising news. "Daria" fandom seems to have few traditions, and few ways to point out fan fiction of worth, aside from the occasional fan-fiction review or list of favorites.

When the DFAs came out, there was a lot of grumbling. I stated that the idea was not perfect, but it was the best we were ever going to get. The new DFA rules exclude fiction that is posted only to messageboards and not to the major fan sites, which I think is a mistake. But as I said before, I'm accepting of the DFAs, warts and all, and can't wait until Mr. Lobinske posts the final list.

"Daria" fan fiction, however, seems to be stuck in two ruts. The first rut is the new emergence of the serial as an art form: the serial being a sort of open-ended (and perhaps, unfinished) "Daria" fan fiction story. Some of the new stories have 10, 20, even 30 chapters and show no signs of stopping. The only good thing that could come out of it might be that, maybe, we'll actually see the first "Daria" novels. (Sigh. So much work, and so few readers.)

The second rut is the move away from "canon". Nearly every significant "Daria" fanwork, it seems, is centered in either fantasy, alternate universes, or science fiction. This could be just a cyclical move. Perhaps, two years from now, we'll be complaining about TOO MANY canon stories, and ask, "Whatever happened to whimsy?"

I see the release of "Beavis and Butt-head" as big, huge, major news. However, that major news is cancelled out by the fact that The N has been scaling back its showings of "Daria" to a few showings late at night beyond the bedtime of most young teens.

I have been accused of forecasting The Death of "Daria" Fandom too prematurely, and my wife wrote that "Daria" fandom was in danger of becoming a "cargo cult". You might think that both of us are embarrassed -- but no, we are not. We stand behind most of our original predictions. As long as "Daria" has the chance of being seen by someone, if it is broadcast or exists in DVD form, then "Daria" stands a fighting chance to remain in the public eye.

But if The N drops "Daria" and the hoped-for DVD release faces further setbacks, then "Daria" fandom remains in the same kind of jeopardy that it faced in 2002. As long as "Daria" is broadcast or is on DVD, it stands a chance of surviving. If it goes off the air, the new supply of fans will dry out and ten years from now, there will be a total of five people on the messageboards and me (and perhaps Greybird) writing the epitaph at the Blog.

However, we now have the DVDaria Blog. "Daria" fandom has not given up in seeing these works in permanent form. Almost all of the episodes now have transcripts. (And what the f**k is keeping the rest from being transcribed?) The "fanbase" is becoming stronger, with people actually meeting each other, talking on the telephone, and taking down the fannish barriers that might have kept "Daria" fandom mired in the swamp of being an "online" fandom.

There is still work to be done. We still need to do it. And I still intend to act like the Arbiter of All That Is Right and Good and remind you of it, and have you (and Greybird, of course) argue with me about how, or if, or when it is to be done, less to say what that work should be. And what gives me that right? Nothing. But I'll take it up anyway, because who doesn't like a good fight?

Is it time to bury "Daria" fandom? Not yet. But my only advice is to keep moving. Here's a hearty toast of pepper spray in the eyes of the Ferryman! May Jane keep painting, may Kevin remain dumb and may Daria and Quinn remain as unattainable to the young men of Lawndale as they always have.

See you in 2006.

--CINCGREEN, 26 December 2005