RETRO TOY FLASHBACK #35: Coloring Books!

I post today in praise of coloring books, those fun little booklets that allow children in some small way to be "a part" of the adventure. I've written about this subject before in relation to novelizations, colorforms, model kits and other toys, but I've always believed the MSM (that's the mainstream media...) has it all wrong regarding television.

So many reports and academicians mistakenly view TV as some sort of passive activity - vegging out on the sofa or some such thing; couch potato-ism - whereas I don't think that's the case at all. I'm speaking for my generation now because that's where I have experience: Gen X. But I firmly believe that we grew up watching TV shows like Star Trek and movies like Star Wars and then took that love - through novelizations, through coloring books, through action figures, whathaveyou - into our own universe of creativity.

When reading a coloring book, for instance, with crayon in hand, we are taking control of the universe we admire and like and actively engaging it, deciding what colors (and crayons...) to use, and for how long. Simple you say? Perhaps so, but it never ceases to amaze me how many folks who started out with coloring books and action figures are now writing their own books, drawing their own comics, filming their own movies, or otherwise fully immersed in the creative process. I think this must have indeed started very young, with just such "products" as film/tv-related coloring books. Doesn't matter if it was Holly Hobbie, The Sunshine Family, or Roy Rogers.

For me, my earliest memory of a coloring book is from about 1975. I had a Planet of the Apes coloring book emblazoned with a yellow cover, and remember laying on the carpeted floor in my grandparents' home in Verona, NJ, coloring away while my folks visited. I remember everything about that evening: the red sofas lining the wall, where the TV was positioned, that this was the first occasion wherein I learned the word "jabberwocky" (because I heard my parents use it...) and so forth. Perhaps because - even at age 5 - I was engaged in some kind of creative activity - my antennae were up and in "receiving" mode.

Over the years I collected a number of coloring books. There were some great Space:1999 coloring and activity books (which I sadly no longer own...) wherein children could de-code alien languages, create a kind of "film strip" for the Big Screen in Main Mission, and so on. I've also collected Star Trek, Black Hole and Buck Rogers coloring books over the years and though I don't actively color in them (god forbid, they're collectors' items!!!) I always appreciate them because I see them as the beginning of creativity. Even choosing a color and putting a crayon in hand...that's the starting line for individuality and creativity, even if the images come from a TV show.

I don't mean to be pretentious or make an overreaching case for coloring books. I simply mean to say that they're cool and fun, and valuable for the kiddies. I know when I'm a Daddy, I hope to spend time coloring with my child; sparking his or her imagination. It may not be high art, but coloring books nonetheless lead one to an appreciation of art or at least to the knowledge that one can actively participate in it. You think?