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Carl T. Ford (DAGON magazine)





Carl T. Ford will be remembered by many as the owner and editor of DAGON, an early and influential British CoC / Lovecraftian fanzine. At its height DAGON ran to more than 1000 copies per issue, featuring articles and scenarios by the likes of Sandy Petersen, Mark Morrision, Marcus L. Rowland and Steve Hatherley along with the literature of Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Thomas Ligotti and Neil Gaiman - to name just a few. More than 10 years after it's last publication Carl talks to Yog-Sothoth about his trials & tribulations as the power behind one of the most famous CoC 'zines.
YS: How were you introduced to Call of Cthulhu?

CTF:I had just started college and hooked up with a group of role-players who were mainly into D&D and Traveller. I used to visit the old Games Workshop site in Dalling Road, Hammersmith and it was ran by a big cheerful bloke called Tim, this was in the days before GW became BIG and Tim would stock lots of fanzines in the shop to encourage gamers and fans. I had always been keen on the horror genre and would collect magazines, books, films (video had just arrived), and anything gruesome I could lay my claws on. I had started reading Lovecraft and then Chaosium brought out that Call of Cthulhu box set. I bought that with cash given to me by my parents for Christmas and was hooked. YS:Why do you think the game has been so successful?

CTF:Unlike the majority of RPGs, CoC is fantasy based game in a world we all know. There are crazy occultists out there and we often give thought to that dark realm of nightmare that might possibly exist. The game goes to many lengths to make the terrifying worlds of Cthulhu et al believable. RPCs mental stability is affected if encountering anything from the dark side; characters waving guns in public are likely to get arrested, etc. On top of this the game gives us a real insight into the background details of the era in which the adventures take place so it is valuable as an information source too. But, aside from this its the monsters that prove fascinating as they are drawn from the incredible imaginings of the world's greatest writers of horror fiction. YS: Do you have any memorable moments from play? CTF: Well it was always scary to play the game at night on a winter's evening with a thunderstorm outside. My fondest memory was particpating in a tournament at Reading University one year. I went there with a good pal called Del Boon and we both dressed up as a couple of 1920s gangster types. We got a few strange looks on the student campus as we ponced about looking like pimps.

YS: What is your favourite era (& why)?

CTF: The early 20th Century. At the time occult society was the "new thing" on the underground. All those 'sinful' activities which seem tame nowadays were afforded a shady touch of class; brothels, illegal drinking holes, gambling dens, drug taking.... Hollywood was about to get its first taste of censorship, and the Mafia were becoming big news. Somewhere amongst all that was a group of writers that became known as the Lovecraft circle, who sat at typewriters, in safe homes away from the sin-houses knocking out some incredible tales that related darker things than anything reality had to offer. YS: Do you have a favourite CoC supplement/scenario?

CTF: I have enjoyed lots but I remember Masks of Nyarlathotep by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis as being particularly clever and ambitious with its global coverage, spanning New York, London, Cairo, Kenya, Shanghai and Australia. I'm a fan of the cultist character Carl Stanford too (I always wondered whether someone was having a laugh with me there - Add SAN (CoC's prime trait) to my name and you get CARL sTan FORD.... And I also love the scenarios of the Aussie writers Richard Watts and Penny Love, "Tatterdemalion" in the adventure pack Fatal Experiments (based on R. W. Chambers' The King in Yellow) is a particularly fine example of translating fictional themes to the game. Mark Morrison is yet another Aussie who writes subtle creepy scenarios and two he wrote for DAGON based on the tales of T.E.D. Klein "Landscrapes" (later reprinted in At Your Door) and "In a City of Bells and Towers" based on the writings of Thomas Ligotti are especially haunting. YS: How did DAGON come about?

CTF: Well as I was saying, I started playing Call of Cthulhu and armed with a little knowledge of the Mythos gleaned from many mis-spent years collecting and reading as much horror related stuff I could get my claws on. I thought I could write a few scenarios and share them with a few people. As I said the Games Workshop premises at Dalling Road stocked a few fanzines so I wrote my first scenario "No Room at Innsmouth" and thought it would be fun to let a few other gamers read it. I published it in 3 parts in DAGON, in extremely limited quantities. I had to pay about 10p per page to photocopy it in them days and tried to smuggle photocopies out at work (a girl I knew at the time called Nicola, also helped rip her bosses off) and I hand stapled the things at home. A few friends came on board to provide illustrations and cartoons and it proved popular in Games Workshop. Word got about amongst CoC players and a few die-hard Lovecraftians and the print run expanded enough to allow professional printing with issue #7. By this time I had been fortunate to attract quite a few decent contributors so readers wouldn't have to stomach my crap any longer. I never made any money from the magazine but the fact that it received such positive feedback was enough payback. Dagon was fortunate to win the Best Amateur Gaming Magazine three years running at the Games Workshop Gamesday Awards and attract the likes of Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Sandy Petersen, and artists such as Dave Carson which put me on a big enough high to continue publishing the monster.

YS: What were your experiences of running the magazine?

CTF: Almost all great. Publishing the magazine has to be the best thing I've done with the little talent I possess. It gained me lots of friends, helped keep me out of the pubs and betting shops a little longer and introduced me to lots of talented writers and artists whom I feel incredibly privileged to have met and got drunk with. I was especially taken aback by the encouragement I received from Chaosium - whose creator Sandy Petersen fully endorsed what I was trying to do and ended up contributing a regular column for the 'zine. DAGON also had a very loyal fan base that has helped spread the word of HPL that bit further, I still ocassionaly get enquiries about the zine, from people wishing to buy back issues, - I still have some! (plug, plug...) YS: Do you have any favourites from the publication?

CTF: Well as far as issues go I was always proud of the first one with a glossy astrulux cover. That was #13 the Brian Lumley issue, with his ugly boat race on the front. That issue was good because I had managed to attract some big names, it contained a fair balance of CoC gaming material and Lovecraftian related literary features and got nominated for its first British Fantasy Award (came second to Fantasy Tales). It really started taking off with issue #18/19: the T.E.D. Klein issue which started attracting the Lovecraftian elite such as S. T. Joshi. Articles wise Peter F. Jeffery's incredibly knowledgeable columns were always great fun to receive, that bloke was a mine-field of information... and he always wrote with a great sense of humour... I loved interviewing writers and the best was with (the late) Karl Edward Wagner at Dave Carson's old flat in Victoria, London. Wagner really opened up there, it remains the most revealing insight into his writing process that's seen print. YS: Which of your own work do you like best?

CTF: Well, like I said the interviews, really. One where I questioned Tom Ligotti was reprinted in one of the big high brow literary hardbacks published by the Gale Research Company entitled Short Story Criticism so that was cool. The gaming scenario "Dr. Benwell's Mirror" in #5, an article on the dreaded fictional tome 'Cthaat Aquadingen' in #13 was both fun and heavy going at time since it meant having to wade through piles of Brian Lumley's mythos gibberings. I have written a few short stories (most of which remain unpublished) - I'm fond of the outlines but there's far too much better stuff out there to make it worth bothering with. I think my main strength lies in recognizing talent away from the mainstream and trying to bring it to a wider audience - not writing. Even so, I've just embarked upon a return to writing and publishing with a new magazine devoted to controversial horror movies entitled UNRATED.

YS: Over time DAGON showcased more Lovecraftian literature. Did your interest in the game wane?

CTF: Yes, unfortunately there are many reasons for this. Chaosium seemed to lose the plot a bit and instead of just publishing decent material started milking the genre for all it was worth. Games Workshop started dropping gaming material that didn't have a house logo on it and I felt the gaming scene was becoming that of a battleground between companies wishing to make a fast buck. On top of this my regular gaming group split up following the unfortunate death of a very close friend who was a pivotal part of our group. I don't think any of us got over the shock and the gaming sessions stopped. I started reading more and more horror fiction and wanted to showcase works by authors that I felt deserved a wider audience, such as Thomas Ligotti and Des Lewis. So the magazine evolved.... YS: DAGON came to a premature end in 1990. Can you tell us what happened?

CTF: Unfortunately the work load got too big for me to do all by myself. My poor mum was having to cart trolleys of post down to the PO while I was at work, and I was up all hours, with only the ghouls for company, banging away at the typewriter, editing, answering mail and typing up articles. This coincided with a couple of serious illnesses and I felt I was getting a little stressed having to do this and a full time day job especially when I wasn't making any money out of DAGON. I was halfway through preparing publication of a big tribute to HPL with dozens of contributions from horror authors about their favourite Lovecraft story, when the printer I was using went bust. I lost a fair bit of money as I had paid for the typesetting and reprographics etc. and my passion for publishing dwindled. To this day I'm unsure whether I made the right decision I stayed chained to a thankless full time job and missed the explosion of HPL in the arts that followed shortly after DAGON's fold. Maybe it could have made it professionaly, maybe not.....
YS: Will DAGON rise again?

CTF: To be honest I'd like to do a one off special but it would be dependent on how the new magazine venture goes. If that does well and I recover my money I may be tempted. I do have a lot of good stuff still in the files, that I never got around to publishing, so who knows? YS: Do you still play CoC?

CTF: No as I said (see above).

YS: What advice would you give aspiring authors or editors?

CTF: Don't go in it for the bread. It takes years of hard work before you get recognized unless you're extremely lucky. If you're doing it for love then send submissions to a few fan magazines, they won't be able to pay much (if at all) but they will continue to use you as they grow and your name will be seen by the professional markets as time goes on. Nowadays, there's the web which is so useful for writers and publishers it's untrue. Subsequently there's an over-abundance of fiction and art some of it good, and most of it shite. It's an easy way to promote yourself so build up a network of contacts. If you've got an idea that you feel is original stick with it and get it out there.... but no more Cthulhoid fiction please.... YS: What are your favourite films?

CTF: How many pages can I have? I adore movies; some are true classics such as Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy. I'm very fond of the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky especially Santa Sangre, Alejandro Amenabar, Bigas Luna, David Lynch (who is one of the few directors whose films seem to get better) and David Cronenberg. On the trash horror front I enjoy early Fulci - The Beyond, The New York Ripper (for its sheer audacity), the Templar Knights films by Amando de Ossorio, Dante's The Howling, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator and any porn directed by Gregory Dark. I could go on for ever... YS: What would a typical day be like for you?

CTF: Write some e-mails and bugger about on the web, do some research into obscure cult horror films for the new mag, and maybe catch up with my girlfriend, Amanda, who is currently thousands of miles away working as a nurse in NZ. YS: What would you like your Epitaph to read?

CTF: If it was considered risqué - he risked it! YS: Carl T. Ford, thank you.









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Published on: 2005-08-14 (3730 reads)

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