Harry sez, “I encounter people–especially tech enthusiasts–dismissing each other as fanboys every day. But I wasn’t satisfied with the dictionary’s etymology of “fanboy.” So I traced it to its 1973 origins in a little-known fanzine by Jay Lynch, the influential underground cartoonist and co-creator of Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids. May Jay get full credit for the pervasive word he coined.”
To understand the origins of “fanboy,” you don’t need to go back to 1919…but you do need to start earlier than 1985. Try 1973-when a handful of copies of a fanzine were distributed at a Chicago comics convention. The zine was credited to two fans who took Marvel Comics, the work of Frank Frazetta, and other matters a wee bit too seriously, Alfred Judson and Bill Beasley. And its name was Fanboy.