A big one for our twentieth, as today we discuss what is, so far, probably the most influential palaeoart book of the 21st centruy: the seminal All Yesterdays, by John Conway, Memo Kosemen and Darren Naish, which came out ten years ago (insert obligatory reference to how old we are).
The book is famously full of outlandish and speculative takes on dinosaurs andotherprehistoricanimals and shook up the palaeoart world like a whirlwind… but does it hold up now? In anticipation of the book’s ten year anniversary event at the upcoming TetZooCon, Marc, Niels and Natee discuss the not-quite-vintage dinosaur art title and its many unique illustrations.
For the interview, illustrator John Conway himself reveals how the book came to be, his opinions on the book’s legacy and the surprising way All Yesterdays has set the course for his subsequent work. Has the All Yesterdays movement become boring? Is there going to be a new edition? Are the authors ever even going to be in the same room together in the first place? What new works has John got up his sleeve? Is Marc allowed to come to John’s birthday anymore? Stay tuned for John announcing the launch event to his latest book!
In the News
Not Quite Vintage Dinosaur Art
Do we need to introduce this book anymore? In 2012, this book broke open palaeoart like the shell of a walnut, and we are still living in its shadow. If you haven’t heard of it, this very blog and podcast might be the perfect place to get aquainted with it!
Interview
John Conway is an Australian digital artist living in the United Kingdom (and not the late English mathematician nor the Irish visual artist of the same name). He co-authored and illustrated All Yesterdays and Cryptozoologicon, both together with Darren Naish and C. M. Kosemen. His upcoming book is called A History Of Painting (With Dinosaurs). John’s personal website can be found here. Information on the upcoming book launch event is here. Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Kings College, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, at 5:30–7:30pm on Saturday the 19th of November.
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2 Comments
llewelly
November 4, 2022 at 7:41 amWith respect to the speculative implulses _All Yesterdays_ encouraged, I think most of that quickly got diverted into the spec evo art movement, which was growing rapidly at the time, and continues to do so. It didn’t become a problem because there was another outlet for it.
paleocharley
December 15, 2022 at 2:52 pmRe Mummies being more common than recognized: On my listing of fossilized soft tissues, I have a notation for Corythosaurus that “Barnum Brown noted that MOST hadrosaur fossils have some degree of skin impressions that are carelessly missed & destroyed by collectors.” with no direct source or date. (It would have been one of the books that I listed in the general bibliography for that listing.)
Also, were there sound problems during the talk on “All Yesterday”? The sound keeps fluctuating to almost muted on the copy that I downloaded. It’s fine during the fossil discussion.