Day 30 of the Halloween Countdown: Souvenir Magazines are like archaic DVD special features…

Before special edition DVDs and devoted internet fan sites there was pretty much only one great place to find out about all the fun little tidbits and facts on your favorite films, the souvenir film magazine. Well, they weren’t really the only place for info (there were plenty of other magazines, newspapers and books helping to cover the ins and outs of film), but they sure were a good place to find out a lot about a particular movie. Of course you were limited to only the films that were deemed important enough to have a souvenir magazine, flicks like Rambo: First Blood Part II, the Karate Kid, Back to the Future, and presented today, Gremlins…

Growing up in the 80s I bought, read and re-read the magazines released for the Karate Kid (and it’s sequel), Willow, and Tim Burton’s Batman. Though I was just as obsessed with Gremlins, I never came across the magazine (though I did have an over-sized hardback story book, a book and record set, and a few smaller floppy storybooks that were illustrated instead of featuring film stills.) When I came upon this copy in a used bookstore recently I couldn’t help but pick it up.

These magazines were great, usually featuring a ton of film stills, interviews and peeks behind the scenes. This particular issue features a ton of storyboards, a poster and a lot of behind the scenes trivia…

I used to cover my walls with this sort of pull-out poster. In fact when I turned 10 and became a hardcore Metallica devote, I cut out every single picture in the special Metal Edge Metallica souvenir magazine (even went so far as to but two copies so I could get the pictures from both sides of the pages) and cover one entire wall with clippings. What’s weird is that the older I got the more I felt like I needed to grow out of this trend, growing into only hanging full-sized movie posters and such. Now I don;t even hang posters anymore. I guess I’m sort of a fuddy duddy that way…