“My principal purpose in granting
this interview,” said Kim
Mohan, DRAGON® Magazine’s
male Editor-In-Chief, “is to let people
know what sex I am.”

“I’ve had fun at conventions
when people see my name tag and
then do a double-take when they see
my beard, but now it's time to let the
world in on the truth.”

Kim was born in Chicago on May 4,
1949, and moved to Williams Bay,
Wis. (just a few miles west of Lake Geneva),
when he was five. He grew up
in Williams Bay as an avid science-
fiction and fantasy reader and oc
casional wargamer, and graduated third
in his high school class.

He enrolled in Beloit

(Wis.) College (right on the Wisconsin/
Illinois border), where he
switched majors a lot — philosophy,
mathematics, etc. Everything, in fact,
except for English and Journalism.

“I decided that what I really wanted to
do was write, so I sort of fell into a job
working for the Lake Geneva Regional
News as a reporter, and dropped out of
college. That lasted for a few months,
then I joined the staff of the Beloit Daily
News, where I stayed for nine years."

During that time, Kim was a sports
writer, an editorial writer, the state editor,
the wire service editor, and just
about everything else. “I was a handyman,
doing a little bit of everything as it
needed to be done. Come to think of it,
that’s what I’m still doing,” he said.

After nine years, he had grown tired of
the newspaper business, but wasn’t
sure what he wanted to do next. So he
quit his job to become a freelance writer
for various newspapers. That wasn’t financially
viable. “Besides, I discovered
that I really needed someone to tell me
when I had to be at work,” Kim said.

One day, in the summer of 1979, Kim
drove over to Lake Geneva, walked in
the door of what was then the TSR Periodicals
headquarters, and invited himself
for an interview. They gave him
some freelance editing assignments as
a test, and when he brought them back
in, they hired him on the spot.

Kim started as the number-three man
on a three-man staff. Not too long thereafter,
he was promoted to Assistant Editor
of the magazine, and then to
Editor-in-Chief with issue #49 (May
1981).

“I suppose I shouldn’t say this, but
I’m not much of a D&D® game player.
This helps me keep my objectivity,
which is all to the good. When I look at a
manuscript, my judgment isn’t influenced
by my experience as a player or
DM. I see everything as an editor.

“I was very interested in playing the
D&D game when I first heard of it, but
by the time I found people to play with,
the game was my job — and after working
with it all day, I didn’t want it to be
my hobby, too,” Kim said. “This helps
keep the game fresh for me.”

Kim describes himself as a “computerphile,”
and enjoys writing programs
and tinkering with his Commodore 64 in
his spare time. He also collects stamps.
“Well, I accumulate stamps, actually.
Sometime I’m going to take six weeks
off and put them all in albums.”

In addition to his regular duties, Kim
served earlier this year as the editor and
general handyman for the Unearthed
Arcana rule book, and he
edited Saga of Old City,
Gary Gygax’s first novel.
"The extra projects are extra 
work, naturally," he said.  "but 
they were also very fulfilling."

The magazine has grown tremendously
since Kim took it over, and that
has resulted in a number of changes —
some of them not good ones. “I’ve
never wanted to discourage amateur
writers from submitting, but we just
don’t have as much time for personal
feedback and nurturing of new talent as
we used to. We’ve become somewhat
impersonal, and that bothers me — but
there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“I like to get letters from our readers. I
always read them, even if I can’t print or
answer all of them. What our readers
think is a very important factor in what
kind of magazine we make,” he said.