The Illustrator's Introduction

    In the 1980s, I was making animated commercials at a small, well-known studio in London, England. After living there for a few years, I was approached by a writer to collaborate with her and illustrate a few children’s books. I ended up illustrating those, as well as several more books, for the publisher Gollancz.

    After completing a number of projects for them, the publisher asked whether I would illustrate Philip K. Dick’s only children’s book, Nick and the Glimmung, which had never been published before. I had read one of his novels previously—I don’t remember which one—but even at that time, reading this short book felt like encountering a world that was strangely familiar to me. I loved the richness of its creatures and how they spanned the full range of human types and traits, from evil to good—archetypal characters for a novel.

    Twenty years later, after I had lived in Los Angeles for some time, a screenwriter friend suggested we adapt Nick and the Glimmung for the screen. I got in touch with Electric Shepherd Productions, run by Philip K. Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick Hackett. Her company is involved in producing films and TV series based on her father’s work.

    We agreed that my friend Chris Carlson and I would develop a treatment and create designs for a movie. Although I loved the book, Chris and I were aware of its flaws. It didn’t feel fully fleshed out, but it clearly carried the central themes of Philip K. Dick’s work. We expanded the story, made the transitions more dynamic, added new elements to strengthen the structure, developed the characters further, and did what screenwriters do to engage an audience—building suspense and visual excitement.

    However, Electric Shepherd had too many projects underway and put ours on hold. They also felt there was too much competition in the feature film market at the time. Some years later, they returned to us suggesting we approach it as a TV series, so Chris and I invested more time and energy into developing it in that form. Still, the production company remained largely unresponsive.

    This is a familiar Hollywood scenario: artists and writers become deeply invested in a project, work hard on it, and yet never receive meaningful engagement from producers—only to be dropped without much explanation.

    The book itself, however, did relatively well and was translated into French and Japanese, and likely other languages I’m not aware of.

Paul Demeyer

December 24, 2025