Vintage Dinosaur Art: Otokar Stafl

A simple post this week, for an oddball of a piece. This illustration, by Otokar Stafl, comes from a 1931 Czech children's title called Naměsíc a ještě dál. This translates to Naměsíc and beyond, according to Google Translate. Or, more likely Farther Than The Moon, according to the blog Curious Expeditions, who shared the book a few years ago. The book is full of cool illustrations, and seems to deal with a party of explorer-insects.

For some reason, it includes this page depicting a scene from the Mesozoic, with a Nazgul-like pterosaur, a plesiosauresque sea monster, and a positively charming theropod.


Image from Curious Expeditions, via flickr.

Perhaps, as Curious Expeditions guesses, the insects have traveled back in time. Or maybe they've discovered a planet of dinosaurs. Regardless, I'm glad they went where they went and shared this with the rest of us. Hopefully they were intrigued enough to write a sequel fully devoted to dinosaurs. Anyone familiar with old Czech children's books know if that might have happened?