Cinefantastique Magazine began as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by editor and publisher Frederick S. Clarke, who began producing the original fanzine at the age of 19. Intended as a serious critical review journal of fantasy, horror and sci-fi genre movies, the magazine immediately set itself apart from competitors such as Famous Monsters of Filmland and The Monster Times due to its slick paper stock and use of full color interior film stills.

There were 8 issues of the original fanzine, Numbers 1 to 7 and number 20. Number 6 was apparently never published, only the cover exists, and there were no issues 8 to 19. The first official issue of Cinefantastique Magazine followed three years later, in 1970, and soon becomes one of the seminal magazines covering fantastic cinema under editor Dan Persons.

Early Cinefantastique Magazine issues featured 64 color pages in A4 size format.