"Blue Cadillac" Magazine Fiction Illustration by Peter Lloyd
A two-page magazine spread presenting the opening of a work of fiction titled "BLUE CADILLAC," with the subtitle "that incredible girl! that gorgeous car! braxton was in love." The spread is credited "ILLUSTRATION BY PETER LLOYD" and "fiction / BY MICHAEL MALONE." The source magazine, issue, and date are not identified on the artifact; no masthead, folio, or page numbers are visible. The illustration dominates both pages: a blue tail-finned Cadillac of late-1950s style, license plate reading "58 CAD," shown speeding along a road at an exaggerated low rear three-quarter angle, with a blonde woman amid starburst sparkles. The story text occupies the lower left of the left page, opening: "WEST OUT OF NASHVILLE in a red-and-white Mustang, Braxton Cox swung too fast around a curve, and his body remembered old times." The visible text ends "(continued on page 130)," indicating the story continues deeper in the issue. The fiction is the short story "Blue Cadillac" by Michael Malone (1942-2022), later collected in his book "Red Clay, Blue Cadillac" (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2002). The publisher's description of the story - a blonde woman named Marie who shares dinner and her love of Elvis with a high-tech sales rep on his way home to Memphis, after which the two part ways - is consistent with the spread's opening text, in which Braxton Cox, described as a high-tech sales rep, is driving home to Memphis. Peter Lloyd (1944-2009), credited as the illustrator, was a British-born freelance illustrator whose magazine work in the 1960s included Playboy and Esquire; he later worked as a visual concept artist in the film industry, including on Tron (1982), alongside Syd Mead and Moebius, and received the New York Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. As an artifact, the spread documents the magazine fiction illustration tradition at its most cinematic: a full two-page painting commissioned to open a short story, with the automobile rendered as the story's second protagonist. The pairing of a noted illustrator and an award-winning author on a single spread makes it a representative example of the form.
Category: Art & Museums
Rarity Class: B
