Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out 35 years ago… I must have seen it in Brighton in 1978 when I was 10. It was magical and like a lot of kids that age, I became obsessed with UFOs. I would have been taken in by absurd lines like “There is no scientific evidence that UFOs don’t exist.” There equally being no scientific evidence that the invisible flying teapots of Saturn don’t exist.
I learned about acronyms when Starburst magazine was featuring CE3K and used that acronym. For ages I thought they were referring to another great SF film (I knew of THX 1138, so felt it was quite likely a film title) and felt a little cheated when it eventually dawned on me that it was referring to Close Encounters…
And here seems as good a place as any to feature some Starburst covers from 1978… I bought the first 4 issues by mail order, because of the Hulk cover (which I no longer have) and for ages afterwards would regale my father with trivia like “did you know the Disney’s the Black Hole uses more matte effects than any other film?” Poor man.
The Starburst #4 cover here is swiped from Dez Skinn’s website, and if you like From Under the Stairs, you’ll be interested in the great collection of his own work there — truly impressive!
