A spectacular, large format, science fiction painting by Dean Ellis which was first used as the paperback cover for the 1970 Corgi published compilation of science fiction writing, SF-5 New Writings in Science Fiction, one of a series of 30 British science fiction anthologies released from 1964 to 1977 under the successive editorships of John Carnell from 1964 to 1972 and Kenneth Bulmer from 1973 to 1977. The painting later appeared on the cover of SF-17 and was then reworked to be part of the cover art for the 1995 Monster Magnet record Dopes to Infinity.

This is a commanding and inventive example that bears stylistic similarities to the artist’s most iconic work, a cover for The Illustrated Man, which recently sold for $42,000 at Ray Bradbury’s estate auction. Here is a view of that painting.

Artist Dean Ellis : 1920 – 2008, was born in Detroit, MI. Ellis studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, and served in the Pacific during WWII. He worked as an illustrator and painter after the war, and in 1950, Life included him in a list of the 19 most promising young American artists. He moved to New York in 1956, and created covers for Ray Bradbury novels in the 1960s, which led to jobs painting cover art for many of the SF publishers at the time. He also designed postage stamps for the US and other countries, and his paintings have been collected and exhibited widely.