Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
Cinefex No. 10, published in October 1982, documents two of the summer of 1982's most significant visual effects productions at a moment when that summer was already being recognized as one of the most remarkable in the history of Hollywood effects filmmaking. Poltergeist and Firefox had both been released in the summer of 1982 — a season that also included E.T., The Thing, Blade Runner, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, making it arguably the most effects-rich summer in cinema history up to that point. Poltergeist's effects were produced by Industrial Light & Magic under visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund, and the film's combination of supernatural spectacle — the imploding house, the spectral apparitions, the dimensional portal — with genuinely terrifying practical makeup and mechanical work by Craig Reardon and Michael Wood represented a high-water mark for horror effects of the period. Paul Mandell's "Stilling the Restless Animus" provides direct testimony from Edlund and the ILM team that constitutes a primary source of unusual value for researchers working on the film's production history, the history of ILM, or the history of supernatural effects in cinema. For collectors building a serious archive of Cinefex's documentation of the foundational period of modern effects filmmaking, the Cinefex magazine collection is the definitive resource, and this issue is among its most historically significant entries.
The Firefox coverage is equally significant from a technical history perspective. Apogee, Inc. — the effects company founded by John Dykstra after his departure from ILM following Star Wars — had developed a specific technical approach to optical effects and motion control work that was in productive competition with ILM's methods throughout the early eighties, and the Firefox work documented in Paul M. Sammon's "Mach 5 Effects" feature captures Apogee at a moment when the specific challenges of aerial combat effects and reflective surfaces were pushing the boundaries of available optical and compositing processes. The film's requirements — high-speed dogfights, reflective jet surfaces, Arctic ice sequences — necessitated technical innovations that Sammon documents in the detail that only Cinefex consistently provided. The broader significance of documenting Apogee's work alongside ILM's in a single issue is that it captures both of the era's dominant independent effects houses simultaneously, providing a cross-section of the state of the art in practical effects as of the summer of 1982. The broader publishing context of the early-eighties effects industry is documented across the 1982 magazine collection, which provides cross-title context for where this issue sits within the year's larger cultural and technological landscape.
Issue No. 10 carries a specific institutional significance within Cinefex's publishing history: it represents the magazine at the end of its second full year of publication, by which point its format, contributors, and editorial approach had fully matured into the model that would define it for the following four decades. Paul Mandell and Paul M. Sammon were among the most respected technical writers in the field, and their presence as the sole contributors to this issue — each responsible for a complete, deeply reported feature — reflects the magazine's commitment to the kind of comprehensive, single-subject long-form coverage that no other publication in the effects world was producing. The October 1982 issue is, by any measure, a model of what Cinefex was and why it mattered.
About the Publication
Cinefex was founded by Don Shay in 1980 and established itself within its first few years as the definitive publication covering the art and technology of cinematic visual effects — a quarterly journal that combined the production values of an art book with the rigor of technical journalism. Unlike the general entertainment press that covered effects as spectacle, Cinefex engaged with the craft at the level of process: how specific problems were solved, which artists made which decisions, what the technical constraints were, and what the intended results were supposed to achieve versus what was actually achieved on screen. By October 1982 it had published ten issues and had fully established its format, contributor relationships, and reputation among effects professionals and serious film enthusiasts. Its coverage of the early-eighties practical effects era — when ILM, Apogee, and a cluster of independent effects houses were developing the techniques that defined Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking for the following decade — constitutes the most valuable primary source archive available for researchers of this period in cinema history.
Key Highlights Inside
- "Poltergeist — Stilling the Restless Animus" (Paul Mandell, p.4) — a comprehensive feature on ILM's supernatural effects work under Richard Edlund, with direct testimony from Edlund, Michael Wood, and Craig Reardon covering spectral apparitions, the dimensional portal, the imploding house sequence, and the mechanical and makeup work that gave the film's haunting its visceral impact.
- "Mach 5 Effects — The Apogee of Firefox" (Paul M. Sammon, p.40) — an in-depth profile of Apogee, Inc.'s work on Clint Eastwood's film, documenting the technical innovations in optical effects and compositing that the film's reflective jet surfaces and aerial combat sequences required, with direct testimony from the Apogee team.
- Poltergeist front cover and Firefox back cover — production photography from both films framing an issue that documents two of the summer of 1982's most significant effects productions, within a single-summer context that was already being recognized as one of the most effects-rich in Hollywood history.
- Documentation of two of the era's leading independent effects companies — ILM and Apogee — in a single issue, providing a rare cross-sectional view of the state of the art in practical and optical effects as of the summer of 1982, from two organizations whose approaches were in productive technical competition throughout this period.
Condition & Rarity
A very good, no-label copy of Cinefex No. 10 from October 1982 is at the upper end of what the collector market can offer for this issue. Cinefex was printed on high-quality coated stock significantly superior to standard magazine newsprint, which gives well-preserved copies from this era exceptional longevity — pages retain color saturation, the photography remains vivid, and the physical construction holds up well over decades of appropriate storage. Very good condition with only minor edge wear indicates a copy that has been stored carefully and never subjected to the kind of sustained reading use that produces spine stress, corner rounding, and page tanning in lesser-condition copies. The no-label condition confirms newsstand or direct subscription origin without label obscuration, meaning the Poltergeist cover photography survives fully intact as originally printed. The protective plastic sleeve is the appropriate archival measure for a publication of this production quality, preventing further handling wear. Cinefex issues covering landmark productions from the foundational period of modern effects filmmaking attract strong and sustained collector demand, and an issue covering both Poltergeist and Firefox from this summer of extraordinary effects work is among the more actively sought in the publication's early run.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Cinefex No. 10 in very good condition is a genuine find — this issue sits at the center of the early-eighties effects era that serious collectors and film historians prioritize, and copies at this condition level from the publication's first decade circulate less frequently than the collector demand for them would suggest. If this particular issue is no longer available, the full Cinefex magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the most comprehensive source for exploring other issues across the publication's run, with strong representation in the early-eighties issues that document the practical effects era at its most technically ambitious and historically consequential. For collectors building a broader archive of the early-eighties filmmaking moment, the complete 1982 magazine collection brings together titles from a year that produced some of the most technically and culturally significant films in Hollywood history.