The original gouache cover painting by Lloyd Birmingham used for the December 1964 Stories of Imagination – Fantastic pulp magazine illustrating the Philip K. Dick short novel “The Unteleported Man.” The image, which foregrounds a skeleton seemingly turned inside out through technology gone awry, explores visually Dick’s obsessions with individual frailty and the psychological dangers presented by humanity’s increasing dependence on machines. Very rarely has a cover illustration so well captured the tenor of an author’s intentions.
This fresh to the market cover published pulp painting had remained for decades in the artists upstate New York estate. A rare surviving work that is handsomely framed in a retro looking limed oak fine gallery frame behind glass, comes with the complete published December 1964 edition of Fantastic Stories of Imagination.
Lloyd Birmingham was trained in painting and illustration at the Parsons School of Design and the School of Art Studies in New York. He worked in tempera and gouache on illustration board and was prolific creating covers for many of the Ziff-Davis pulp titles during the 1950s – 60s.