Animals of the Past as Painted by Matthew Kalmenoff

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animals, charles mcvicker, dinosaur, dinosaur books, golden books, Matthew Kalmenoff, painting, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric birds, prehistoric fish, prehistoric mammals, stamp book, trading cards

Today’s images come to us courtesy of reader Edward Dietrich, who recently discovered a 2012 post with my scans of a 1960s booklet, Sinclair and the Exciting World of Dinosaurs. Another reader had informed me that the artist was Matthew Kalmenoff, and Ed added that Kalmenoff did the full-color paintings on the stamps in a book I loved when I was a kid: The Golden Stamp Book of Animals of the Past.

The cover, featured above, has art by Charles McVicker. Ed sent the following scans of Matthew Kalmenoff’s paintings for us all to enjoy. He included notes about different versions of this book, of which there were many!

Though the blog Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs has scans of some pages from a 1950s version of this book, the art was apparently recycled into many editions. Ed says he’s owned a third printing from 1968 (priced at 59¢), plus an eleventh printing from 1975 and an eighteenth printing from 1980 (both priced at 89¢).

Most of Ed’s scans are not from the stamp book edition, but a 1961 version called Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals Trading Cards, and branded “Golden Funtime Trading Cards”. Instead of printing the artwork on sheets of lickable stamps to affix to the pages, this version presented the images on heavy cardstock and had oversized pages. This version only had 45 paintings, compared to the 48 in the stamp books, so Ed thoughtfully scanned the remaining stamps from the other editions.

Some updates to the captions happened between the 1950s stamp book version and this 1960s trading card version. For example, the Protoceratops is clearly labeled as such in Ed’s scans, but was labeled “horn-faced dinosaur” in the 1950s version. Also, the Ichthyosaur is named in this edition, where it was labeled “fish-like reptile” in the 1950s book. “Winged reptile” got updated to Rhamphoryncus. Other captions changed, too, but why should I ruin all the fun of letting you find them?

If you’re like me, you now want wall-sized prints of several of these gorgeous (if somewhat scientifically outdated) paintings. If you’re willing to settle for something smaller, I’ve seen some of them on Amazon repackaged into a 1988 book called Ready to Frame Dinosaur Paintings. I hope Kalmenoff got paid well for this artwork, considering how many times it was repurposed into different publications over the years.

If you’re digging these paintings and want to see more of Matthew Kalmenoff’s vintage artwork, cruise back to the original post that started all this madness, because I updated it with more images and links. I was excited to learn about this connection to one of my childhood treasures via total strangers’ commenting on a post about a book I randomly found on eBay. Talk about going full circle!

A big “thank you” goes out to Ed for taking the time to scan and share these images! This blog would be nothing without the people who have dropped by over the years to share my enthusiasm about dinosaurs, prehistoric animals, comic books, poetry, and mutant brains from outer space. Happy New Year to you, and may your dreams be filled with prehistoric mammals!

The next three images are the ones from the stamp books that did not appear in the 1961 trading cards version.

If I ever get around to recording another album of guitar instrumentals, it’s going to be called “Skull of the Uinta Beast”. Hell yeah!

Here are two images of the cover from the 1961 trading cards version!

 

insect

Tags

evolution, insect, poems, poetry, Prehistoric Animals

insect

for 80 million years she crawled
flightless as her arthropod ancestors

she grew wings in the devonian period
and flew away faster than six legs ever carried her

no flowers bloomed or scented her flight
no brutes with torches or electric moons

she flew in a night without fire and she dreamed

remember her under your porch lights
in your desolate parking lots at 3 a.m.
in your isolated rooms where sunlight
never penetrates

remember her millennia of yearning
for a place to swarm and burn completely
and in that brief flash before dying
tell an ancient story written with buzzing wings

outlined with keratinous hairs
segmented like carapaces into paragraphs
stories you could never understand
until you too had lived in darkness

 

This poem appears in the collection Inner Planets: 50 Poems by Matthew Howard. Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook.

The World Around Us #15: Prehistoric Animals

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Al Williamson, Classics Illustrated, dinosaur, dinosaur books, dinosaur comics, Gilberton, illustrated story of prehistoric animals, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric mammals, Sam Glanzman, vintage dinosaur books, World Around Us, World Around Us 15

Gilberton published The World Around Us #15: Prehistoric Animals in 1959 as part of its Classics Illustrated line. World Around Us is a must-have for any collector of dinosaur comics. Despite the way current advances in understanding dinosaur anatomy have made much of this book obsolete from a scientific perspective, it has a quaint historic charm and many stunningly rendered pages. It features uncredited artwork by Sam Glanzman and Al Williamson, according to Steve Bissette’s essay on PalaeoBlog. While dinosaurs take up much of the book, it also features prehistoric mammals, the origin of the planet Earth, and biographies of important biologists and paleontologists.

Collectors can often find a low-grade copy of World Around Us #15 at MyComicShop in the $5-15 range. Copies in various grades appear on eBay, with Fine and Fine+ grades listed in the $30-50 range.

In our second year on this blog, we presented the individual stories in this book as a series of posts. But now, here it is all in one shot for you prehistoric animal enthusiasts. Enjoy!

sketchbook saturdays

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animals, art, drawing, ellie, fine point, pen and ink, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric birds, prehistoric fish, prehistoric mammals, Rod Ruth, sharpie, sketch, sketchbook sundays

Ellie the Studio Cat advised us that it was entirely too nice a day to be drawing inside, so the two of us chilled at the little picnic table outside sketching prehistoric animals. We’re doing some very rough studies to get a feel for rendering these ancient critters with a combination of Sharpie and fine-point pens.

And yes, Ellie does look like she’s scowling in this photo, but she is just relaxing, contentedly hanging out for sunshine and sketching.

Anyway! Trilobites seemed like they would be simple, but their unique anatomy presents some conceptual challenges. Since this sketch we found some more photo references from the Burgess Shale that depict a few different types of trilobites with anatomical variations. We will master the trilobite yet!

Rod Ruth has a pencil drawing in Album of Prehistoric Animals that makes a great reference for Diatryma feathers and anatomy. This was the easiest one of the bunch to pin down where we would want fine lines versus bold chisel-tip inking.

Smilodon smiles on, with Rod Ruth’s cover of the same book giving a perfect snarly pose to work from.

The skull of Dunkleosteus appears in one of our favorite books, Extinction. The interesting plate structure of this placoderm’s head easily lent itself to bold black lines.

An Archaeocyathid from the same book was rendered in ink by one of the contributing artists, so we studied the way light and shadow define the curves.

Here is our first rough pencil study of a panel by Bob Powell with a whacky sci-fi wasp from another planet who comes to earth in a globe of pure force. The sketch isn’t so great, but this is how we get to know our subjects.

Our previous posting of Somewhere Between Mars and Earth got some encouraging response. We returned to it and filled in the lower right corner with more mega-doodle madness. Framed, it looks pretty darn trippy.

Our first Sharpie study of And One of Them Was Destroyed felt good enough that we want to do a more finished version on some high-quality artist paper. While we get materials together for that endeavor, our two-page sketch can enjoy this 12×18 frame!

Last but not least, we framed our little frog from our book of watercolor paper postcards. It will list on eBay soon, and we will be picking up another book of those blank postcards. In the next round, though, we will take care to leave a border around the edges. Frog looks great, but another one of our cards really needs to be matted to a 5×7 frame to preserve the details at the edges. Live and learn! UPDATE: Diving Frog sold on eBay to an overseas buyer. Rock on!

V.T. Hamlin’s Prehistoric Fish!

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alley oop, Dinny's Family Album, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric fish, VT Hamlin

For years, Alley Oop’s creator V.T. Hamlin included a special panel each Sunday called Dinny’s Family Album. It offered a non-fiction look at the early 20th century’s best take on dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and other prehistoric animals.

Today we take a look at all the Prehistoric Fish features from 1934-1936. Enjoy!

V.T. Hamlin’s Prehistoric Man!

Tags

alley oop, Dinny's Family Album, golden age, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric man, VT Hamlin

For years, Alley Oop’s creator V.T. Hamlin included a special panel each Sunday called Dinny’s Family Album. It offered a non-fiction look at the early 20th century’s best take on dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and other prehistoric animals.

Today we take a look at all the Prehistoric Man features from 1934-1936. Enjoy!

V.T. Hamlin’s Fragments: Odds and Ends of Prehistoric Lore!

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alley oop, Dinny's Family Album, dinosaur, Fragments, golden age, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric mammals, VT Hamlin

V.T. Hamlin included Dinny’s Family Album, an educational dinosaur feature, in his Alley Oop strip for many years in the early 1930s. But alas, all good things must come to an extinction.

Hamlin subsequently ran a series about prehistoric man: “Fragment’s of Man’s Early History.” It was a decent series, but let’s face it: here on Mars we want prehistoric beasts! From 1938-1939, Fragments became “Fragments: Odds and Ends of Prehistoric Lore.” NOW we’re talking! Let’s rock those dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, prehistoric birds, and other prehistoric animals.

Sadly, Fragments eventually got demoted from a huge single panel into a small strip at the bottom of the page called “Odds and Ends.” It abandoned prehistory almost completely by the end of 1939, becoming a strip called “Science Says.”

Today we will share with you our collection of images from Fragments: Odds and Ends of Prehistoric Lore. We’re leaving out a few about human pre-history, because, well… DINOSAURS RULE! Enjoy!

V. T. Hamlin’s Dinosaurs: Dinny’s Family Album in Color!

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alley oop, cephalapsis, ceratosaurus, dimetrodon, dinichthys, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, eohippus, glyptodon, golden age, plateosaurus, plesiosaurus, prehistoric, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric birds, prehistoric mammals, pterichthys, tyrannosaurus rex, v. t. hamlin, VT Hamlin

In our quest for what Steve Bissette called “Pure” Dinosaur Comics, we discovered V.T. Hamlin. Hamlin wrote and drew Alley Oop, a caveman with a pet dinosaur named Dinny. For years, Hamlin included a feature called Dinny’s Family Album. It was a single panel in the Alley Oop strip showcasing a prehistoric dinosaur, fish, bird, or mammal. Alley Oop may not have been pure dinosaur comics, but Dinny’s Family Album sure was!

Here are some of the color images we found on the web. You will find here cephalapsis, pterichthys, dimetrodon, dinichthys, eohippus, glyptodon, phororhacos, plateosaurus, plesiosaurus, and tyrannosaurus rex!