In Memoriam: SF and Fine Artist David Schleinkofer

Summary

We’re sorry to report the passing of American SF and fine artist David Schleinkofer, who died earlier this week, of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. David was a professional artist and illustrator for over 40 years who had a distinct airbrush style, who received his art training at Bucks County Community College and The Philadelphia College of Art, now The University of The Arts, both in Pennsylvania. David Schleinkofer’s distinctive cover for the seminal Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction, edited by Ian Summers, published by Windward in 1978 “His work was eminent in the 1970s, especially on the cover to a book called Tomorrow and Beyond in 1978,” noted fellow artist Bob Eggleton on Facebook, “sort one of the first books to collect the works of many many SF/Fantasy artists of the 1970s. It became the granddaddy inspiration of the Spectrum annuals in the 1990s. “David’s work featured in this book and he was on many SF paperbacks and in the 1980s, on a short-lived but visually stunning magazine called Science Digest.” In a 2013 interview, David himself felt he had inherited his talent from grandfather, who was also an artist, and revealed his first commercial work was for Cars Magazine, after touting his portfolio around New York agencies for some time, followed by work for Stereo Review, the latter thanks to support from fellow artist Alan Magee. Illustration of an orbiting space station for Science Digest magazine by David Schleinkofer Early cover art by David Schleinkofer, for an edition of The Preserving Machine by Philip K. Dick, published in 1976 Cover art for the 1990 edition of the SF novel A World of Difference by Harry Turtledove, published by Del Rey A reworking of cover art for Red Planet by Mick Farren Box cover art for the Absolute Zero game Across his career, David’s commercial work was used by many of the advertising agencies in New York, utilised by companies such as Bailey’s Irish Cream, BASF, Levis and in a TV commercial for Schmidt’s Old Tim...