David Schleinkofer (1952-2025)

American science fiction artist David Schleinkofer died in April 2025, of Lou Gehrig's Disease. If you've been following this blog for even a few months, you've seen plenty his work.

His career began in the 1970s, although he didn't get into science fiction until after Star Wars debuted. His most recognizable work might be in advertising and box art: Fans of Transformers, SimCity, Battlestar Galactica, or Robotech have him to thank for those toys or games' most iconic 80s and 90s illustrations.

This 1984 Transformers Generation 1 back box art is apparently "the Mona Lisa of a generation of toy robot loving kids," according to this charmingly lo-fi 2013 Usenet interview with Schleinkofer that I found through downthetubes.

I reached out to Schleinkofer back when I was writing my art book Worlds Beyond Time, and while he responded warmly, I never heard back from him beyond one email – he likely had more pressing concerns given his neurodegenerative disease.

Schleinkofer's detailed, vivid, airbrushed artwork stood out for its focus on humanity. Sometimes that means humans and their emotions are front and center, as in the explorers' horror at an alien encounter here –

– or this couple staring into each other's eyes rather than at the cool space armada behind them.

But the humanity also comes from the types of emotions that Schleinkofer chooses to highlight: In my favorite Schleinkofer artworks, these emotions tend to be quiet, avoiding the bombast that many covers leaned into. That loving couple above is one example, but here's my favorite.

It's a magazine illustration, and one of the Schleinkofers that I tried getting into my art book, for my two-page spread on cryosleep. My caption would have argued that cryosleep has never looked cozier.

The contemplative woman in the 1989 cover for Nightside City, by Lawrence Watt-Evans, is another example. I already highlighted it as my favorite retro sci-fi coffee illustration a few months back, but let's take another look!

Schleinkofer dipped into whimsical satire as well. This one, “Skyscraper on a Megayacht,” really reminds me of Ron Cobb's silly speculative architecture.

This particular one combines humanity and whimsy.

Schleinkofer had a lot of range, though: There's not much quiet human emotion in that Transformers battle! He completed plenty of more typical future-looking space art assignments, too.

Schleinkofer did a lot of magazine illustrations. This particular one falls into the "technology surrealism" bucket that always reminds me of Robert Tinney and his work on Byte magazine, although Schleinkofer has a more detailed style.

I love the spacesuit fashion sense on display with this one, used as a 1987 cover to Noninterference, by Harry Turtledove.

This one picks a unique perspective that really makes it stand out.

No idea what's going on with these two.

This one's great - Schleinkofer's 1977 cover to Casey Agonistes and Other Sci-Fi Stories, by Richard McKenna.

Many of these images are taken from Schleinkofer's Flickr account, where he has uploaded a lot of art along with some brief descriptions. Some of these artworks can't be found anywhere else: Here's a haunting early 1970s sample illustration.

Schleinkofer earned a retro science fiction art highlight early in his career, with his cover art for the 1978 art collection Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction, edited by Ian Summers.

Paying subscribers can check out my old review of that one, but it's an influental collection, notable for relatively presciently featuring four Michael Whelan artworks a few years before he won his first Hugo.

Schleinkofer's gone too soon, but he leaves a legacy of beautiful, complex, human work.

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