Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The Spring 1979 double issue of Cinefantastique — Volumes 8, Numbers 2 and 3 combined — devoted to Forbidden Planet is one of the most celebrated single issues in the magazine's history and a landmark document in the serious critical literature on science fiction cinema. Forbidden Planet, released by MGM in 1956, occupies a unique position in the history of the genre: it was the first science fiction film to depict humanity having achieved interstellar travel in a self-contained future, it introduced Robby the Robot — one of the most iconic mechanical figures in popular culture — and its screenplay drew explicitly on Shakespeare's The Tempest, giving it a literary ambition that most genre films of the era did not attempt. By 1979, the film had been thoroughly reassessed by a generation of critics and filmmakers who recognized it as a foundational text of serious science fiction cinema, and Cinefantastique's decision to devote a full double issue to it reflected that critical revaluation at its peak. For collectors building archives of vintage Cinefantastique issues, double issues on canonical subjects represent the magazine's most substantial editorial achievements and are among the most persistently sought material in its entire run.
The Spring 1979 publication date places this issue in a specific and important context for science fiction film culture. Star Wars had been released in May 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind in November 1977, and Alien would arrive in May 1979 — the same season as this issue. The late 1970s were the moment when science fiction cinema had transformed from a genre associated with B-movie production values into the dominant commercial and critical force in Hollywood, and the simultaneous critical reassessment of earlier genre classics like Forbidden Planet was part of that transformation. Cinefantastique was the primary serious critical journal documenting this entire development, and a double issue on Forbidden Planet published at this precise moment was both a retrospective scholarly achievement and a statement about where the genre had come from. Collectors of 1979 magazines focused on film culture will find this issue occupies a specific and irreplaceable place in the critical literature of science fiction cinema's most consequential transitional decade.
The double-issue format itself carries collector significance. Cinefantastique reserved its double-issue designation for subjects it considered worthy of extended treatment — more pages, more depth, more photography, more critical apparatus than a standard issue could accommodate. The Forbidden Planet double issue was understood by the magazine's readership at the time of publication as a major editorial event, and subsequent decades of citation in film scholarship and reference works have confirmed that judgment. It remains the most comprehensive single-publication treatment of the film's production history, visual effects, and cultural legacy produced during the era when many of its original creators and technicians were still available for interview.
About the Publication
Cinefantastique was founded by Frederick S. Clarke in 1970 and published as a quarterly — and occasionally as special double issues — through the 1990s, establishing itself as the preeminent serious critical and journalistic publication covering science fiction, fantasy, and horror cinema in the United States. Its editorial format combined in-depth production histories, director and actor interviews, visual effects analysis, and retrospective critical essays with a scholarly seriousness that distinguished it from fan-oriented genre publications. Its readership included working filmmakers, film students, academics, and devoted genre enthusiasts who wanted substantive engagement with the films they cared about rather than promotional coverage. By the late 1970s it had built a reputation as the publication of record for serious science fiction and fantasy film journalism, and its double issues on major subjects — 2001: A Space Odyssey, Forbidden Planet, King Kong — are recognized as primary research sources in film history.
Key Highlights Inside
- Double-issue comprehensive treatment of Forbidden Planet — The extended format allowed for depth of coverage — production history, visual effects documentation, cast and crew interviews, critical analysis — that a standard issue could not accommodate, making this the definitive Cinefantastique treatment of one of science fiction cinema's foundational films.
- Behind-the-scenes production coverage — The listing confirms behind-the-scenes content, consistent with Cinefantastique's editorial specialization in production history and the technical dimensions of filmmaking that mainstream film journalism largely ignored.
- Interview content — The listing confirms exclusive interviews, which for a 1979 issue on a 1956 film would have involved surviving cast, crew, and production personnel while they were still available — making this a primary source document for Forbidden Planet film history research.
- Newsstand edition, no label — The absence of a subscription mailing label confirms retail newsstand origin, preserving the full cover image without address obstruction — the preferred state for display-grade collecting of specialty film publications from this era.
- Very good to excellent condition with minimal wear — A strong condition grade for a forty-five-year-old specialty quarterly, indicating careful preservation and representing an above-average survival state for a publication that was actively read and referenced by its original audience.
Condition & Rarity
Very good to excellent condition with minimal wear and no label represents a strong evaluation for a Spring 1979 Cinefantastique double issue. The magazine was printed on paper stock of better quality than standard newsprint, which gives surviving copies more inherent stability than comparable weekly newsstand publications — but forty-five years of storage still presents risks of toning, spine stress, and cover wear that this issue appears to have avoided. The no-label newsstand origin confirms complete cover presentation. The plastic protective covering indicates deliberate preservation. For a double issue — which is physically thicker and therefore places more stress on the spine binding than a standard number — the specific condition point most worth confirming in any surviving copy is the integrity of the staple binding along the spine, where thickness-related stress most commonly manifests over time. A very good to excellent copy of this particular double issue, with its cover art intact and interior pages clean, represents the upper tier of what the collector market encounters for this title.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
The Forbidden Planet double issue is consistently cited as one of the most important single issues Cinefantastique ever published, and finding a copy in very good to excellent condition with no label takes real patience — it was read hard by its original audience. The broader Cinefantastique archive at OriginalMagazines.com is the best place to search for other double issues and landmark coverage from the magazine's most productive decades. For collectors focused on the extraordinary late-seventies science fiction film moment this issue sits within, the full 1979 magazine collection documents one of the most consequential years in genre cinema history across a range of publications.