Richard J. Anobile (1947–2023)

It is hard to emphasise how groundbreaking the concept of the photostory film book was, in a world before personal VCRs, let alone the modern full media internet. When the only way to re-view your favourite movie was reading the novelisation and using your imagination, the photostory came along and bridged the gap between this and actually watching the film itself (in the days when that was not an option).
The range of these books were limited (Star Trek the original series, and the first couple of movies, etc) The actual printed numbers were also limited and hard to find.
As a result, in the short 15 year window between when VCRs were owned by only a few, and when pre-recorded videos dropped in price overnight from £100.00 to just £9.99, these Movie Novels were priceless, and jealously coveted by their lucky owners.

I remember being invited to a kids house, after school, just for him to show-off his Alien Movie Novel book; and I remember being blown away at the time, and that I was only allowed to look through it for a couple of minutes before having to hand it back - not being worthy to handle it too long lest I absorb too much of the magical value of this rare item (yeah. He was a bit if a dick about it).
It was undoubtedly the most impressive single item of comercial movie memorabilia of its time and very expensive from what I remember. I have no idea if it was true, but I think he said that it cost him £50 from Forbidden Planet 2 (the then film and television off-shoot of Forbidden Planet - the comic book store), although that may have all been part of the general boasting (since the cover price was $8.95) Either way, it felt a little believable at the time.

The value of this book, both monetary and as a tool, has depreciated drastically sinse those days; but, when I got my hands on a second hand copy recently I still felt a great sense of awe and wonder - something probably limited to those of my generation, for an item few would give a second look at today. Still, if you have watched the film 100 times and miss that special 'first time' feeling; you may be able to recapture it by re-viewing the film in a different way with the Movie Novel (a.k.a. fotonovel).

If you fancy capturing the retro feeling; why not give it a go!

...and if you find yourself humming the background music and 'doing the voices' and 'sound effects' too, then you'll see what this book was like when it came out in 1979. ;)… (more)