JOHN WISDOM GONCE III has had a life-long fascination with religion, supernormal phenomena, history, and the occult. As an ordained minister in a Charismatic/Pentecostal denomination, he served as assistant pastor to a small mission church for several years. Now, as a Neo-Pagan and a practicing occultist, he occasionally provides exit counseling for victims of destructive cults. As a student of both fantasy fiction and cinema, John has studied the relationship between film, fiction and the occult for over ten years. His personal magickal style is an eclectic blend of such disparate elements as Tantra, Ceremonial magick, Witchcraft, and Classical Hermetic magick, as well as a form of "Chivalric Tantrism" based on the romantic/sexual practices of the medieval Troubadours.
John is also an expert on medieval and Renaissance arms, armor and martial arts, and jousted for three years on the Renaissance fair circuit as Lord Draco Vulkea and as Sir Kay of Camelot with the Freelancers of the Cimmerian Combatives Company. In 1993, he had the honor of competing in the first authentic full-contact jousting tournament ever fought on North American soil - the First Annual Memorial Day Jousting Tournament at Scarborough Fair, Texas - where he was made a Knight of the Royal Order of Scarborough. Active in heavy weapons combat for over a decade in the Society for Creative Anachronisms, he once won the title of Queen's Champion for the Kingdom of Meridies. Trained in Renaissance-style rapier and dagger fencing by Roy Cox of the American Academy of Stage and Screen Combat Choreographers, John has performed combat choreography with live steel for such diverse revivalist and re-enactment groups as the Stormy Knights, the National Re-enactment Society, and the Cold Fury Fighters Guild.
John took on his role as a champion in the astral realm when a friend was psychically attacked. His investigation turned up a small group using the Necronomicon as part of their tactics of harassment and terror. Having investigated the Necronomicon, John realized that there was more going on than he had realized. Calling out for assistance, he discovered Mr. Harms, which has turned out to be less problematic than it seemed. John has spoken on the Necronomicon twice at the Starwood Festival outside Sherman, New York, and has had an article co-written with Daniel Harms translated into French in Le Bulletin de l'Universite de Miskatonic. He devotes much of his time to the study of mythology, film, horror and science fiction literature, and magick, so that he might understand the forces he opposes. Besides, he enjoys this crazy stuff.
John is an anti-artist of the local "alternative" culture and was formerly theatrical director of the infamous and now defunct Grinning Plowmen rock band. Much of his time is spent ransacking libraries and bookstores in search of exotic volumes for his various research obsessions. And, although he is basically a primitive barbarian from the Middle Ages, Gonce exhibits a child-like fascination with computer technology which caused him to join the famous 2600 hacker's club. In an effort to make himself even less compatible with modern society, Mr. Gonce adheres to an archaic code of chivalry and honor based on a heroic standard of conduct that seldom existed in actual practice among historic knights - just for the sheer quixotic fun of it.
DANIEL HARMS met John at a local radio show, and his life hasn't been quite the same since. Daniel has been an appreciator of the works of H. P. Lovecraft for over a decade. He began with the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game by Chaosium, and worked his way back to Lovecraft stories, biographies, and criticism. During this time, he wrote the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, a book on the Cthulhu Mythos as delineated by Lovecraft and other authors. The Encyclopedia won a 1996 Origins award, the RPG industry's highest honor, and the revised edition was nominated again in 2000. His work has appeared in magazines such as The Unspeakable Oath, Imelod, and Le Bulletin de l'Universite de Miskatonic, and he has contributed to such works as Delta Green: Countdown (Origins) from Pagan Publishing, and Chaosium's Keeper's Companion.
Through his interest in Lovecraft, Daniel encountered the Necronomicon as a book shudderingly mentioned by many fiction writers. Intrigued by the various hoaxes surrounding the book, he became ensnared in the nefarious schemes of mastermind John Gonce. As a result, Daniel completed an independent study course at Vanderbilt University, the results of which would become the first sections of The Necronomicon Files.
Daniel has obtained a M. A. in anthropology (SUNY-Buffalo), with an emphasis on magic in modern society, and has spoken on the topic at the NEAA meetings in 2001. He spends more time on the Internet than is proper, and can sometimes be found on the Usenet group alt.horror.cthulhu. He is also the keeper of the unfortunately-named Official Cthulhu Mythos FAQ, one of the better compendiums of lore relating to the Cthulhu Mythos on the web. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys reading about other cultures, paranormal events, history, games, and anything else fits into whatever project he happens to be working on. At the present time, he is preparing for anthropological fieldwork among the Maya of Guatemala.
1998 © Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce III. All rights reserved.