Cinefantastique

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cover of the Winter 1977 issue (Vol. 6 No. 3) of Cinefantastique

Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. Intended as a serious critical/review journal of the genres, the magazine immediately set itself apart from such competitors as Famous Monsters of Filmland and Monster Times due to its slick paper stock and use of full color interior film stills. Cinefantastique's articles and reviews emphasized an intelligent, near-scholarly approach, a then-unusual slant for such a genre-specific magazine. Advertisements were few, with most of them being only ads for other titles and materials by the publisher. This lack of "page padding" assured the reader a high proportion of original editorial content.

The magazine quickly came to be known for its lengthy, information-filled "retrospective" articles devoted to the full production details of such classic films as The Incredible Shrinking Man and Planet of the Apes. Based on the popularity of these articles, Cinefantastique began producing huge double-issues centering on comprehensive Making-Of looks at such movies as Star Wars (the magazine's first double-issue), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and The Thing. Many of the articles have since become accepted as the definitive source of production information regarding these and other genre titles. The magazine was responsible for introducing the work of several writers who have continued to produce important work in the field, including Don Shay, Bill Warren, Tim Lucas, Mick Garris, Paul M. Sammon and Alan Jones.

On October 17, 2000, Clarke committed suicide at the age of 51. Editorship was briefly assumed by long-time contributor Dan Persons, until rights to the continuing publication of Cinefantastique were acquired by Mark A. Altman's Mindfire Entertainment, who formally re-named the magazine CFQ. In November of 2006, CFQ editor Jeff Bond announced that the magazine would be "going on hiatus into 2007", promising that in the near future it would return "on an irregular basis for in-depth spotlights & special issues".[1]