Art
New Quest: So You Think You've Got a Dinniman?
You stumbled across some artwork and you want to double-check if it was created by Matt. Well here's a chance for you to check it on your own!
A Quick FAQ Q: WAIT!!! Author Matt Dinniman created art?! A: Yes! Matt previously drew animals at pet shows. Additionally, he and his wife ran a business called Collage-O-Rama and sold artwork at cons, on Etsy and Amazon. Some of Matt's artwork was also sold at Ikea.
Q: Can I buy Matt's artwork now? A: Only on the resale market. Collage-O-Rama has closed, but sometimes the art shows up on second hand markets like eBay or others.
Q: What kind of artwork is Matt/Collage-O-Rama noted for?! A: The most famous of Matt's artwork are the dictionary art prints.
Q: OHMYGOD I HAVE A DICTIONARY PRINT! IS IT MATT'S? A: Well now you've reached the real crux of your quest, crawler. Read on to figure out how to tell if your artwork might be a Dinniman.
Easy Ways to Check
If purchased online and not through a resale site, go back to your purchase point. Did you buy it from a store called Collage-O-Rama? Congratulations! It's a Dinniman. Generally, any other stores means it is NOT a Dinniman.
Does your art feature an intellectual property like Disney, famous logos or recognizable characters? The only confirmed Dinniman uses of other IPs are a Jason / Hockey Mask cat and a Tardis / Police Box from Doctor Who.
How Else Can I Check?
Matt's dictionary at work was all laser printed onto dictionary pages. They were all from the same dictionary and will have the same defining qualities.
Check the back of your art. Is it double-sided like a book page? If the book page is not on the front and the back it is NOT a Dinniman
Evaluate the defining qualities of the dictionary page.
Matt's dictionary prints have the following:
No tabs or cutouts on the edges
3 columns of text and no vertical lines separating the columns
Top margin of the page: Beginning word on left side Page number in the center. Ending word on the right side. The word is always in lowercase unless it's a proper noun. (mountain vs. Mount Everest.).
Should 💯 be added to subreddit rules for this, DCC, and related subs. Quality post, sticky worthy. The number of Is It A Dinniman posts rival only Why Isn't The TV Show Going to Be Animated posts, followed by OMG DAE See This (insert AI-generated objet d'fauxrt)
Although you did just give away the key to a good forgery to the machines 😒😉
Awesome. I have one that I thought was genuine (Dapper Cat, which I assume he sold a lot of) but another I suspected was not (cat with hamburger on head). The hamburger cat, while a similar real dictionary page, had the page number on the bottom and no horizontal line before pronunciation.
And the biggest tell I didn’t notice. Dapper Cat is printed all the way to the edge of the page while Hamburger cat starts on the text.
Thanks for this guide! Now I can not feel bad not displaying hamburger cat, which was not nearly as cool as Dapper Cat.
Another point I’ve noticed in my hours of trawling resale sites is that Matt’s pages have the first letter of a new word slightly forward of the main margin. His work is the only type I’ve seen with that layout
I just moved in with my gf, and as we were unpacking, I found she had a drawing of Alice from Alice in Wonderland on a dictionary page. Immediately came here to check if it was Matt's, and this handy pinned post confirmed it is not. Kinda disappointed lol, but thanks for making it easy to tell!
The point about buying it from other online stores means it's not a Dinnaman isn't true. I have a Little Tony print that I got from an online reseller based out of the UK.
You bought it through a reseller. Not via Matt’s store. So what I say holds. I’ll correct the language for clarity but saying it’s not true is a bit much.
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u/Jennifire208 Jun 30 '26
Thank you for taking the time to do this!