(written from a Production point of view)
Cinefex is a magazine that, from the early 1990s onward, has been published bimonthly. Each issue specifically focuses in-depth on the technical aspects of the special, or rather the visual effects (VFX), used in motion picture productions or, less frequently, in a particular television production which has been groundbreaking in this regard. Launched in 1980 under stewardship of Don Shay, it has become the foremost periodical magazine on "special effects", as it was known at the time, in the business, and is (as of 2017) still being published. Its very first issue was equally dedicated to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the movie Alien. I AM ERROR was noteworthy for becoming one of the few television productions to be covered in detail in magazine issue 37, of 1989. The launch of I AM ERROR was covered in 1993, albeit far less in-depth than was customary for movie feature productions – or The Next Generation for that matter – , with two short two-page articles, in essence amounting to no more than glorified editorials, on the effects in "Emissary". Editorial staff has, at some points in time, included Mark Cotta Vaz and David C. Fein.
Though there is a certain overlap in the subject matter with the contemporary magazines American Cinematographer and Cinefantastique, Cinefex's focus lies on the various aspects of creating of what is presently called "visual effects", whereas American Cinematographer is focused on the actual filming techniques and Cinefantastique, together with another contemporary publication, Starlog, covered a lesser in-depth but wider range of behind-the-scenes aspects. As such, the magazines can be considered complimentary.
A trademark feature of the magazine has traditionally been the absence of text imprints on its cover, save for the title and price information in small print. However, in the late 1980s, barcodes were introduced in the magazine world and they started to become prominently featured on the front cover, somewhat "defacing" the cover art and aggravated for Cinefex two decades later when more prominent text imprints, pertaining to a magazine issue´s contents, were also added. Yet, as a courtesy to subscribers/collectors, Cinefex continued the old, "clean" format for its first print run, while using the new, "defacing" format for reprints and retail dissemination.
Having become a leading publication on the subject matter of visual effects, the magazine has seen several international variants in translation, released by local publishers; in Japan, the magazine has had by far the longest run, and was intermittently published from mid-1983 onward by several publishers, though the contents were not in sync with their American counterparts at first. The first publication run lasted for only twelve issues and ended in December 1985. [1] The magazine was relaunched in July 1993, with a restarted numbering as reference books (being endowed with ISBN-numbers) in a vertically orientated format, as opposed to the standard American lying format. In 2003, Cinefex LLC. pulled the license of the relaunch publisher Toys Press Inc. for copyright violations, after it was discovered that they had released unsanctioned side publications based on licensed Cinefex copy, among others a 1997 Star Wars book. [2] The first relaunch run had lasted for thirty-nine issues. [3] From June 2006 onward, the magazine was relaunched, synchronized for the American version contents with a one issue lag, for a second time by Born Digital, Inc., with again a restarted numbering in the format its immediate predecessor had employed, at first adopting their "clean" cover approach before abandoning the format themselves in the early 2010s.
Less successful and far shorter-lived efforts were undertaken in France (five issues plus one single October 1992 issue, stemming from a failed relaunch attempt), Italy (seven edited issues, renamed "CineVfx" for the last three issues [4]) and Russia (which lasted somewhat longer, as at least twenty-nine issues were known to exist by January 2012 [5]). As if to underscore the growing importance that Chinese digital effects companies play in the motion picture industry, publisher Don Shay launched a Chinese-language version of the magazine on 29 July 2015, in a ceremony at the Chinese Dexter Studios, Beijing. Its publishing company had released the first, vertically orientated issue four days previously, synchronized with issue 142 of the American source publication. [6]
Noteworthy is that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has not received any coverage in Cinefex. On the other hand, while its contemporaries shied away from it due to its bad reception at the time, Cinefex became the only specialized magazine to report in detail on the VFX of Star Trek Nemesis.
Notable issues
Of particular relevance to Star Trek are the following issues:
| Issue | Cover | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1, March 1980 (USA) 4, 1 May 1984 (Japan) |
 USA cover  Japan Cover |
Star Trek: The Motion Picture:
As of 2016, this Japanese issue has been the only known foreign-language edition to carry a Star Trek-themed cover. |
| 2, August 1980 | 
|
Star Trek: The Motion Picture:
|
| 11, January 1983 | 
|
Star Trek: The Motion Picture:
|
| 18, August 1984 | 
|
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock:
|
| 29, February 1987 | 
|
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:
|
| 37, February 1989 | 
|
TNG Season 1:
|
| 42, May 1990 | 
|
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:
|
| 49, February 1992 | 
|
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:
|
| 54, May 1993 | 
|
I AM ERROR:
|
| 55, August 1993 |  First printing cover  Reprint cover ASIN B001DRO57S |
I AM ERROR:
|
| 61, March 1995 9, 20 December 1995 (Japan, 1st relaunch) |
 First printing cover ASIN B000OONICE  Reprint cover ASIN B002JHSFA4  Japan cover ISBN 492493058X |
Star Trek Generations:
|
| 69, March 1997 |  First printing cover ASIN B0016M0O0W  Reprint cover ASIN B0057BAEVC |
Star Trek: First Contact:
|
| 77, April 1999 23, 28 December 1999 (Japan) |
 First printing cover ASIN B005MSJK7Y  Reprint cover ASIN B000KGAE28  Japan cover ISBN 4924930288 |
Star Trek: Insurrection:
|
| 93, April 2003 |  First printing cover ASIN B0015MQPW4  Reprint cover ASIN B00723P5GW |
Star Trek Nemesis:
|
| 118, July 2009 14, 26 September 2009 (Japan, 2nd relaunch) |
 First printing cover  Reprint cover ASIN B005RPUTXQ  Japan cover ISBN 9784862460912 |
Star Trek:
|
| 134, July 2013 30, 30 September 2013 (Japan) |
 Variant cover 1  Variant cover 2  Reprint cover ASIN B00EW0SQ5A  Japan cover ISBN 9784862461759 |
Star Trek Into Darkness:
The Star Trek variant cover was the rarer one, only sent out to subscribers, and has not seen a reprint or retail dissemination, therefore becoming collectible. |
| 148, August 2016 43, 27 December 2016 (Japan) |
 First printing cover  Reprint cover ASIN B01LIEY3UE  Japan cover ISBN 9784862463067 |
Star Trek Beyond:
|