1. TWC's new copyright license
[1.1] With this 25th issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, we have taken the unusual step of altering the copyright. TWC continues to use a Creative Commons copyright license, but it now uses an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) copyright (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which removes the requirement that republication in other venues apply to TWC for permission. In the new copyright we've chosen, the author, not TWC, retains copyright.
[1.2] The copyright for issues 1 through 24 requires that the author transfer copyright to TWC. When we set up the journal, we chose this option because this is the norm in the publishing industry: it simplifies obtaining reprint requests because there is a single point of contact. We routinely granted reprint requests for free. Most are to the authors of the articles themselves, for their reuse in a book or for their translation and republication in another venue. Only rarely do we grant reprint permission for inclusion in an edited volume without the author's knowledge.
[1.3] When researching the CC BY 4.0 copyright, at the instigation of an author who wondered, quite rationally, why she couldn't retain copyright, we contacted acquisitions editors at several university presses, hoping they could advise us on whether academic presses would accept an Open Access Gold copyright. Unfortunately, they told us that even if the Open Access Gold copyright appeared prominently on the article itself (as indeed it does), and even if they printed out the license from CC's Web site, to satisfy their lawyers, they still required release information from the publication itself from an editorial e-mail address or printed on letterhead. It thus seems that nothing has changed in the years since TWC launched; indeed, we chose the initial copyright on the basis of our concerns about reprints, so that TWC could do the paperwork on behalf of the authors and expedite granting permission to presses in a way that fit within the norms of the industry.
[1.4] To address the concern about granting reprint requests for presses who require documentation when TWC does not hold the copyright, TWC is now requiring authors to sign a form—not transferring copyright to TWC, as before, but expressing an understanding of the terms of the copyright itself and giving TWC permission to grant republication permission on behalf of authors. Going forward, we can provide the requesting press with the signed form, which should satisfy their due diligence. As TWC's Web site notes, "This agreement in no way affects authorial ownership of the text; it is merely a way to create press-acceptable documentation for the reprint process" (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/about/submissions#copyrightNotice).
[1.5] This new copyright license addresses everyone's concerns. It addresses authors' desire to retain copyright. It addresses TWC's concern about and commitment to Open Access publication. And it addresses reprint venues' concerns about requiring specific release documentation despite the free and open nature of the text. The copyright of previous issues still stands; TWC will not alter copyrights already granted. However, of course we will continue our practice of granting reprint permission for free.
2. Theory
[2.1] Even as fan fiction loses much of its often gendered history, scholars continue to tease out the connections between gender, publication, and fan works. In "The Margins of Print? Fan Fiction as Book History," Catherine Coker situates fan fiction within a continuum of historical publication practices by women and challenges ideas of hierarchy, commercialism, and community. Elizabeth Jeanne Nielsen returns to the late Middle Ages by reading "Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies as Reclamatory Fan Work." In particular, she argues that seeing early works of literature as part of a long history of women's writing allows fan scholars to understand fan fiction as part of larger literary forces.
[2.2] Whereas Coker and Nielsen look back to the relationship between published and unpublished fan works, Lesley Autumn Willard and Shannon Howard study the most popular current fannish platform, Tumblr, and how it affects fan engagements and fan identities. Willard's "A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Fannish Literacy through Teen Wolf's Tumblr Promotional Campaigns" studies several years of Tumblr campaigns to show the increased understanding of fannish communities in the industrial campaigns surrounding MTV's Teen Wolf (2011–). In contrast, Howard's "Surrendering Authorial Agency and Practicing Transindividualism in Tumblr's Role-Play Communities" uses these communities to interrogate the ways fans use play to engage with, complicate, and undermine authorial identities.
[2.3] In "Compartmentalization and Intertextuality in Real Person(a) Fiction," Milena Popova uses a case study to discuss the way real person fiction communities engage with news events. In so doing, she showcases the complicated processes of creation and negotiation of RPF characters and their tenuous but nevertheless crucial relationship to the celebrities they represent. Finally, in "Rereading Superman as a Trans F/Man," Dan Vena uses an autobiographical approach to read Superman as a model for trans narratives. By queering this most central of superheroes, Vena complicates the traditional nostalgia surrounding comic books and adolescence.
3. Praxis
[3.1] As always, the Praxis essays showcase TWC's broad range. This issue features essays on such diverse topics as World of Warcraft, Lego, beer, and theme parks. The scope of fannish activities, communities, and artifacts grows ever wider, and fan scholarship is only beginning to intersect with other fields and approaches. Lauren B. Collister's "Transformative (H)activism: Breast Cancer Awareness and the World of Warcraft Running of the Gnomes" studies a breast cancer charity fund-raising event in World of Warcraft as a specific form of hacktivism that connects online and off-line activities. In "Fan Fiction in the Library," Ludi Price and Lyn Robinson look at the way libraries can and should preserve fan culture, with a particular look at the British system. Rachel Elizabeth Linn looks at a particular genre of fan fiction in "Bodies in Horrifying Hurt/Comfort Fan Fiction." Using different theories on suffering and pain, Linn focuses on Fullmetal Alchemist hurt/comfort fiction and its psychoanalytic implications.
[3.2] Material culture is an important aspect of fan studies, and the final three Praxis essays all engage with it in various forms. Victoria Godwin's "Theme Park as Interface to Wizarding (Story) World of Harry Potter" discusses the intersection of materiality and imagination by looking at the way theme parks offer specific forms of immersions. Moreover, theme parks also offer an exemplary study for the confrontation between corporations, which desire affirmational consumers, and fans, who often want to challenge and transform the corporate products. Whereas theme parks embody fictional worlds, Lego films create digital worlds out of material toys. In "How Digital Remix and Fan Culture Helped the Lego Comeback," Sophie Gwendolyn Einwächter and Felix M. Simon study the effect that The LEGO Movie (2014) has had on the toy maker business and how Lego can offer a case study of the continuing intersections of consumerism and fan cultural activities. Copyright is always an important issue with remixing of commercial properties, but rarely do we see discussions of crafts and food as fannish remixes. Seth M. Walker steps into this void with his discussion of "Subversive Drinking: Remixing Copyright with Free Beer." In particular, he uses the Free Beer movement to discuss how copyright law can suppress creativity and how open source movements can model free exchange of ideas.
4. Symposium and Review
[4.1] Kevin D. Ball's "Fan Labor, Speculative Fiction, and Video Game Lore in the Bloodborne Community" discusses the way fans create and shape the game's mythology and the controversies surrounding their commercialization. In "'Can I take your picture?'—Privacy in Cosplay," Babak Zarin discusses the legal and personal concerns regarding privacy within the cosplay community, while Kelli Marshall challenges an old myth surrounding the production of one of Gene Kelly's most famous musicals in "Milk and Mythology in Singin' in the Rain." Finally, in "A Case of Sherlockian Identity: Irregulars, Feminists, and Millennials" Liza Potts describes how fans create and share memories in a participatory culture and how these processes are inflected by various identity markers.
[4.2] The book reviews include Bethan Jones reviewing Rebecca Williams's monograph, Post-object Fandom: Television, Identity and Self-Narrative; Amanda D. Odom reviewing Rafael Bienia's work on Role Playing Materials; Kathryn Hemmann discussing Sandra Annett's Anime Fan Communities: Transcultural Flows and Frictions; and Sandra Annett looking at the collection Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan, edited by Mark McLelland et al.
5. Conclusion
[5.1] Several special issues are coming up in 2018 and 2019. The two 2018 special issues—Tumblr and Fandom (guest edited by Lori Morimoto, Louisa Stein, and Allison McCracken) and Social TV Fandom and the Media Industries (guest edited by Myles McNutt)—are closed to submissions. We are currently soliciting for the two 2019 specials issues: Romance/Fans: Sexual Fantasy, Love, and Genre in Fandom (guest editors Katherine Morrissey, Athena Bellas, and Eric Selinger) is accepting submissions until December 31, 2017 (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/31); Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color (guest editors Abigail De Kosnik and andré carrington) is accepting submissions until March 15, 2018 (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/37).
[5.2]Calls for papers are online in Announcements (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement) and are regularly updated. Guest editors interested in proposing a themed issue of TWC are invited to view our guidelines (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions); we are looking at publication dates of 2019 and later.
[5.3] The September 15 issue is always an open, unthemed issue. We always welcome general submissions. For our upcoming ten-year anniversary, we invite submissions on The Future of Fandom (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/40). The close date of receipt of essays for the September 15, 2018, issue is January 15, 2018. We particularly encourage fans to submit Symposium essays. We encourage all potential authors to read the submission guidelines (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions).
6. Acknowledgments
[6.1] It is not possible to properly acknowledge the depth of appreciation we feel toward everyone who has helped make this issue of TWC possible. They have suffered hard deadlines, late nights, and short due dates. As always, we thank the authors in this issue, whose original work makes TWC possible; the peer reviewers, who freely provide their time and expertise; the editorial team members, whose engagement with and solicitation of material is so valuable; and the production team members, who transform rough manuscripts into publishable documents.
[6.2] The following people worked on TWC No. 25 in an editorial capacity: Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson (editors); Cameron Salisbury and Francesca Coppa (Symposium); and Louisa Stein and Katie Morrissey (Review).
[6.3] The following people worked on TWC No. 25 in a production capacity: Rrain Prior (production editor); Beth Friedman, Shoshanna Green, and Christine Mains (copyeditors); Claire Baker, Sarah New, Rebecca Sentance, and Gabriel Simm (layout); and Rachel P. Kreiter, Amanda Retartha, and Latina Vidolova (proofreaders).
[6.4] TWC thanks the board of the Organization for Transformative Works. OTW provides financial support and server space to TWC but is not involved in any way in the content of the journal, which is editorially independent.
[6.5] TWC thanks all its board members, whose names appear on TWC's masthead, as well as the additional peer reviewers who provided service for TWC No. 25: Tonje Andersen, Carissa Baker, Stephanie Betz, Ceilyn Boyd, Sarah Boyd, Jeremy Brett, Tanya Cochran, Adam Cohen, Garry Crawford, Avery Dame, Stephen Epstein, Judith Fathallah, Casey Fiedler, Lincoln Geraghty, Sam Goodman, John Halbrooks, Kathryn Hemman, Ellen Kirkpatrick, Patti Kleeb, Kristin Linder, Anna Martin, Ann McClellan, Myles McNutt, Ingyo Oh, Line Petersen, Melanie Piper, Billy Proctor, Claudia Rebaza, Kate Roddy, Anastasia Salter, Mafalda Stasi, Abby Waysdorf, and Anna Wilson.