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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