Warren CLOSE ENCOUNTERS (1977) Official Magazine

During the late Seventies, Jim Warren's Warren Magazines (publishers of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and Famous Monsters of Filmland) put out a number of "Official" tie-in mags for a variety of genre films, from Star Wars and Alien to Moonraker and Meteor.

Here's the cover of their Close Encounters Of The Third Kind magazine, with a striking close-up of Carlo Rambaldi's featured animatronic alien.

As I've said before, these publications were basically full-issue, Famous Monsters-styled "filmbooks," featuring detailed plot summaries, actor profiles and behind-the-scenes articles, all written for 13 to 15 year-olds. And... then there were the pages of "Captain Company" mail order ads in the back....

Warren Magazines ALIEN (1979) Collector's Edition

Warren Publishing, publishers of Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Vampirella, Eerie and Creepy, put out several authorized, B&W "collector's" magazines in conjunction with major genre films of the Space: 1970 era. Among these were Moonraker, Meteor, and Alien. These were basically full-issue, Famous Monsters-styled "filmbooks," featuring a long, detailed plot summary, actor profiles and behind-the-scenes articles, all written for 13 year-olds. Which, of course, was pretty much the exact target audience.

Each of these Warren collector's magazines also had plenty of ads in the back for Warren's mail-order outfit, The Captain Company, which offered thousands of genre products - from Warren magazine back-issues to paperback novelizations, posters, models, action figures, masks, t-shirts and LPs. Looking at the representative Captain's Co. ad above, I'm still amazed how many kid-targeted items of merchandise were licensed by 20th Century Fox for an R-rated horror film. Such a thing would hardly raise an eyebrow today, but in the 70s...?