Фортеанские времена: Журнал об аномальных явлениях

British monthly magazine devoted to anomalous phenomena
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2021), and Exponent (2021), as of December 2021 it is published by Diamond Publishing, part of Metropolis International. In December 2018, its print circulation was just over 14,800 copies per month. This now appears to include digital sales. The magazine's tagline is "The World of Strange Phenomena".

The roots of the magazine that was to become Fortean Times can be traced back to Bob Rickard's discovering the works of Charles Fort through the secondhand method of reading science fiction stories: "John Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction (as Analog was then titled), for example," writes Rickard, "encouraged many authors to expand Fort's data and comments into imaginative stories." In the mid 1960s, while Rickard was studying product design at Birmingham Art College, he met several like minded science fiction fans, particularly crediting fellow student Peter Weston's fan produced Speculation magazine as helping him to "[learn] the art of putting together a fanzine", some years before he created his own. Bearing a date of November 1973, the first issue of Rickard's self produced and self published The News was available directly from him.

The magazine which was to continue Fort's work documenting the unexplained was founded by Robert J. M. "Bob" Rickard in 1973 as his self published, bimonthly, mail order "hobbyish newsletter" miscellany The News — "A Miscellany of Fortean Curiosities".) for 20 pages, The News was produced on Rickard's typewriter, with headings created with Letraset, during (as Rickard says in #2) the late 1970s blackouts. The first issue featured a cover (which would become briefly the unofficial logo of The News) drawn by Rickard from a Selfridges advertisement originally created by Bernard Partridge. From the second issue, pictures and photographs from various newspapers were interpolated within the text. The price was raised slightly for #6 — which also had its page count upped to 24 pages — due in large part to rising postal and paper costs. Helping behind the scenes was Steve Moore, a kindred spirit whom Rickard met at a comics convention when the latter was a subeditor at IPC. The two found they had much in common, including a love of Chinese mysticism, and Moore helped inspire Rickard to publish The News.

Moore and Paul Screeton (then editor of The Ley Hunter), both urged on the first few uncertain issues" and Moore frequently joined Rickard to "stuff envelopes and hand write a few hundred addresses" to disseminate the early issues. Issue #8 (or, volume 2, issue #1) got the special "Christmas present" of headings by Hunt Emerson, after Rickard was introduced to Emerson by Carol and Nick Moore, as Hunt was working on Large Cow Comix. Described by Rickard as "as much a disciple of George [Herriman] and my [Rickard's] favourite artists from Mad (Bill Elder and Wally Wood)" as Rickard was of Charles Fort, the two got on well, with Emerson producing not only a series of headings, but also later strips and covers for issues to the present.

After 15 issues of The News, issue #16 (1976) had the magazine renamed Fortean Times, which "new title emerged from correspondence between Bob Rickard and Paul Willis" — the two having talked of creating a Fortean version of The Times newspaper, "full of weird and wonderful news and read by millions worldwide". Included within was an offer for a "4 colour silk screened poster" created by Hunt Emerson for this landmark issue. From the start, this new format compounded earlier financial difficulties for Rickard, following on from #14's plea: "we need more subscribers or we die!". (Fortean Times issues #16–18 — as The News #1–15 before them — were solely edited, published, and in large part written and typed by Rickard himself. Even by passing on rising postal and paper costs to the readership, which Rickard constantly reiterates that he is loath to do, the early Fortean Times was constantly facing an uphill financial battle.) Early editorials of the new FT, therefore (in fact beginning with The News #15) featured a notification of donations received, naming and thanking the hardcore readership (which included many current and future contributors) for monies received, which aided the move towards higher production values. With donations helping to offset costs, the price was held at 50p until issue #20, whereupon the magazine dropped to a quarterly schedule from Spring 1977 (issue #21) — but raised the page count (and price) to continue producing the same amount of material for the same yearly fee (40 pg, 75p ea. or £3/year). Issue #18 received a new semiregular feature entitled "Forteana Corrigenda", aimed at correcting "errors in the literature" that had crept into various Fortean works through misquotation or other difficulties. After 18 more or less solo produced issues, long term supporter and helper Steve Moore was credited as assistant editor for issues #19–21, becoming co contributing editor (with Phil Ledger, Stan Nichols, and Paul J. Willis) on issues #22–26 and associate editor from issue #27. He was joined by contributing editor David Fideler, and subsequently (also as co associate editor) by Paul Sieveking (#28— ) and Valerie Thomas (#31–32). Issue #20 announced that Kay Thompson (a staff member of Ley Hunter magazine, then under the editorship of Paul Devereux, with whom FT shared an address for several issues) would be helping to type parts of subsequent issues to further delegate the burden from Rickard. Moore, Sieveking, and he were also later joined editorially by author Mike Dash (who is mentioned as particularly overseeing the publication of scholarly occasional papers), before Moore moved from full editorial to largely correspondent duties for a dozen issues after #42, returning as a contributing editor in Autumn 1990 (#55). The four — Rickard, Sieveking, Dash, and Moore — are often collectively referred to as "the Gang of Fort", after the Gang of Four. Issue #21 had the debut of FT semiregular column "Strange Deaths" (later descriptively subtitled "Unusual ways of shuffling off this mortal coil"), while issue #22 updated FT's to include (Ivan T. Sanderson's) The Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, alongside INFO. Issue #23 featured an article by Robert Anton Wilson on, aptly, "The 23 Phenomenon," made available a second index (1975, to The News #8–13) and included a 12 page "Review Supplement", issued as a separately bound supplement since the then printers had difficulty binding more than 40 pages. With #24, the printers were changed to Windhorse Press to overcome this difficulty, and FT became officially 52 pages in length, the changes cemented in issue #25 with a new font for the title and a change of address — c/o London based "SF and cosmic" bookshop Dark They Were and Golden Eyed, run by Derek Stokes (who had sold Rickard the four Fort books 10 years previously). The same issue ran an obituary for Eric Frank Russell, of whom Rickard was a considerable fan. He writes that Russell turned down an invitation to contribute material to The News back in 1973, having "earned his rest" after 40 years as an active Fortean. Rickard further states that Russell was one of the key Fortean fiction writers he read in Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and Analog, and the author of "the first Fortean book I [Rickard] ever read": Russell's Great World Mysteries. Issue #26 trailed "a special series of 'Occasional Papers' in Fortean subjects" to be edited by Steve Moore, and #27 — the 5th Anniversary issue — welcomed Michigan native David Fideler (whose Anomaly Research Bulletin was then due to cease publication, although its subscribers, FT promised, would be absorbed by them) as FT's "man in the New World".

In 1978, mutual friend Ion Will introduced Rickard to Paul Sieveking, who recalls, "the Forteans used to meet every Tuesday afternoon above the science fiction bookshop Dark They Were And Golden Eyed in Soho to open post and interact. (Indeed, this was the semiofficial address of FT until that shop closed. With #35, Summer '81, the address was changed.) Sieveking joined the FT team with #28 as co associate editor, and writes, highlighting the intrinsic early difficulties in printing FT that that issue "was printed by an Israeli entrepreneur in northern Greece and shipped to London." That issue (#28), bearing a cover blurb of "Strange Phenomena", featured an early advertisement for the bookshop Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, drawn by Bryan Talbot, while the editorial promised that the next issue would not only see the availability of Index 1976, but also be in a "larger and more professional format, typeset throughout, [with] better graphics, layout, and legibility." Indeed, #29, under a cover by Hunt Emerson, was printed fully typeset in A4 (thanks to art director Richard Adams of AdCo, and,according to Rickard's preface to Yesterday's News Tomorrow, Dick Gwynn) and even distributed on a limited basis through WH Smiths. The move away from production on Rickard's typewriter gave "The Journal of Strange Phenomena," (as it was now subtitled) greater ability to produce longer, better laid out articles. These opened with a seven page guide to "Charles Fort and Fortean Times" by Bob Rickard, explaining the background and philosophy of FT, as well as outlining the influence of Fort, "who is still largely unknown", writes Rickard, and also included the first of Nigel Watson's "Enigma Variations" columns and Loren Coleman's "Devil Names and Fortean Places" article sat alongside comments by Colin Bord, Tim Dinsdale, V. G. W. Harrison, and Rickard on Anthony 'Doc' Shiels' 1977 "Nessie" photographs. The magazine itself dropped the description 'non profitmaking' from its publication information, and ceased to name its stated affiliations to INFO, SITU, and "other Fortean journals" in favour of the more general aim to be a "friend to all groups and magazines continuing the work of Charles Fort". It also contained a considerably higher number of advertisements, including both inside covers — making the page count slightly higher than previous issues, which had previously counted the cover as page 1 — and an early advertisement by Brian Bolland for Forbidden Planet (which would ironically begin to take off only after the closure of Stokes' bookshop). Issue #30 announced that while "over the last couple of issues [the] subscriber list nearly doubled," so too had the "printing, production, and postage bill," necessitating a price rise to 95p/$2.50 — albeit softened by another length increase, to 68 pages. Now published not merely by Rickard, but by Fortean Times Ltd, it was typeset by Warpsmith Graphics and printed by Bija Press. The cover was painted by Una Woodruff (whose Inventorum Natura was reviewed within) to illustrate John Michell's article on "Spontaneous Images and Acheropites," drawing on his 1979 Thames & Hudson book dealing with — and titled — Simulacra. Bob Rickard produced an article on one "Clemente Dominguez: Pope, Heretic, Stigmatic"; Michael Hoffman speculated on the occult aspects of a serial killer in "The Sun of Sam"; Robert J. Schadewald wrote about "The Great Fish Fall of 1859", while Hunt Emerson produced the first cartoon strip under the title "Phenomenomix". Sieveking took over full editorial duties from Rickard with #43, helming the subsequent four quarterly issues (to #46) to give Rickard a chance to "revitalize", which he did, returning with #46 to the position of co editor. Moore, Dash, and Ian Simmons (and others) variously edited the magazine for the next 18+ years, and although main editorship passed from Rickard and Sieveking to David Sutton in 2002, they both continued to contribute. Sieveking semiretired at the end of 2019, handing most of the "Strange Days" news editor role to Christopher Josiffe. Sieveking continues to write the archaeology column, compile the "Extra, Extra" section, and edit the letters pages, also acting as the main quality control proof reader (as well as producing an occasional feature). Sieveking's wife Val Stevenson was book review editor for several years, eventually passing this role on to David V. Barrett in 2019. During the 40+ years of its publication, Fortean Times has changed both format and publishers on a few occasions. Early issues (particularly of The News) were produced in black and white (for ease of photocopying), and the whole was largely produced by typewriter until #29. Colour, professional printing, and wider distribution followed, and a 6.5 x 4.5 in size held sway for several years before the magazine settled into its "normal" A4 (magazine) size in the 1980s, after which glossy covers followed. Several changes of logo and font have occurred throughout its life.

Most of the articles in Fortean Times are written in the style of objective journalism, but this is not a mandatory requirement, and some articles focus on a specific theory or point of view. Although such articles are presented as the opinion of the author and not the editors (who claim to have no opinions), this has occasionally led to controversy. In January 1997, the magazine ran an article by David Percy under the headline "FAKE! Did NASA hoax the moon landing photos?". The article outraged many readers and led to the magazine's most vigorous postbag up to that time. In August 2000, the magazine's cover headline was "UFO? The shocking truth about the first flying saucers". The article in question, by James Easton, proposed a mundane explanation for Kenneth Arnold's sighting — American white pelicans. This suggestion so outraged ufologists that many of them still use the term "pelican" or "pelicanist" as a pejorative term for a debunker. Most Fortean researchers contribute articles, criticism, or letters to the magazine. It has also attracted more widespread coverage and praise. Fortean Times #69 claims, "extracts from FT have featured in at least three publications used for teaching English as a foreign language." Lynn Barber of The Independent on Sunday newspaper described writing in FT as "a model of elegant English."

The magazine has organised an "UnConvention" (or UnCon), most years since 1994 (the "missing" years being 2001, 2005, and 2009), at various venues in London (the University of London Union, the Institute of Education, the Commonwealth Institute, and in recent years, Friends House). Many "hot topics" of the day have been discussed, such as the Ray Santilli "alien autopsy" film at the 1996 UnCon, and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales at the 1998 event, which also saw Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince discussing Templar conspiracies and hidden symbolism in the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, years before these were turned into mass media subjects by The Da Vinci Code. Besides the formal lecture programme, UnCon normally features exhibits by organizations such as the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena and the Centre for Fortean Zoology. The event often ends with a panel discussion, as was the case in 2002, when the subject was "Is Ufology Dead?". This was widely reported in the British media as an "official" statement by Fortean Times that "Ufology is Dead".

Fortean Studies, the magazine's more academic sister publication published yearly volumes in the late 1990s. The seventh and last issue was published in 2001. Its website tracks Fortean news stories and holds a small archive of articles and photographs. For many years, it also supported a busy internet forum for the discussion of Fortean topics. With the advent of GDPR legislation in 2018, this forum was moved to the website of the Charles Fort Institute. The magazine has also occasionally published both academic and lighthearted books on various aspects of Forteana.

Many of the earliest issues of FT were collected in book format in the early 1990s. In recent years, the print volumes have been overtaken by digital files, available on CD. In addition, several smaller collections have been compiled on various themes and sold, or given away as 'free gifts' with the magazine. A more academic journal, Fortean Studies, has also been printed and is an ongoing venture. In the late 1990s Polygram Spoken Word released an audio version of several Fortean stories, written and produced by Steve Deakin Davies and featured Brian Cant and Joanna Bowen amongst its actors, this project was licensed from John Brown Publishing. ( (c) 1997 Polygram Record operations ltd, Speaking Volumes no: 5361444)

A sister publication, Fortean Studies, began in the mid 1990s and was edited by Steve Moore. In the words of frequent contributor Neil Nixon, it "compiled serious research and opinion on a range of paranormal and conspiracy related issues", and was a more academic counterpart to FT.
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 1 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1994)
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 2 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1995)
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 3 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1996)
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 4 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1998)
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 5 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1998)
Rickard, Bob (producer) & Moore, Steve (ed.) Fortean Studies: Volume 6 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 1999)
Simmons, Ian & Quin, Melanie (eds.) Fortean Studies: Volume 7 (John Brown Publishing Ltd, 2001)