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The book that helped to launch the adult coloring book craze is being reprinted:
In 1955, Harold and the Purple Crayon, a children's book about a four-year-old and his titular instrument, promised kids a world of unbridled creative potential, an infinitely flexible reality produced from their imaginations. Six years later, three ad executives in Chicago offered a counterpoint with The Executive Coloring Book, a dispatch from the adult world that offered bleak instructions like, "This is my suit. Color it gray or I will lose my job." This was a coloring book, but one that eschewed innocence for the corporate hamster wheel and landscapes of elevators, sales charts, and company cars. Even the odd dash of color was grim: pink for the pill that "makes me not care," and mahogany deskware ("I wish I were mahogany").
Written by—and dedicated to—Marcia Hans, Martin A. Cohen, and Dennis Altman, The Executive Coloring Book is an artifact from the Mad Men era that also has the distinction of being the first adult coloring book. Since then, coloring books for grown-ups have become a fad—over 24 million of these books were sold in the last two years alone. Titles have included Die Hard: The Authorized Color and Activity Book, Color Your Own Dutch Masters, and the Cunt Coloring Book from houses as prestigious as HarperCollins and artists like Tony Millionaire (David Bowie: Color the Starman). These books mostly have a twee, feel-good Punky Brewster sort of vibe. A cult of the eternal child, in other words.
Previously: Adult Coloring Books are Big Business
(Score: 2, Funny) by its_gonna_be_yuge! on Monday April 03 2017, @02:18PM (8 children)
My wife gave me a colouring book for my birthday. The "Divorce and Breakup Coloring Book" by Kate Harper. Yes, it's real.
I'm glad my wife has a healthy sense of humour.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Taibhsear on Monday April 03 2017, @03:18PM (2 children)
I'm glad my now estranged wife has a healthy sense of humour.
Fixed that for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @04:36PM
She was always strange - that's why they got along as well as they did.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday April 03 2017, @07:35PM
Does "estranged" mean the same thing as "disposed of"?
Asking for a friend.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Monday April 03 2017, @07:53PM (3 children)
Oh, Hahaha. Yes. I used to think my wife had a healthy sense of humor. That was before she graduated law school, became a divorce lawyer, then divorced me, sticking me with half of her eleven-years-worth of student loans, to the tune of $120,000 (with interest) as well as $40,000 of credit card debt. What a hoot!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:54PM
That's like launching into space with a pyrotechnic trainee.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:13AM
I'm not sure how divorcing you is supposed to mean that your ex doesn't have a good sense of humor, but people don't initiate divorce proceedings unless they're extremely unhappy in their marriage, and there's fairly logical rules that determine the financial outcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @07:34AM
Divorce/Alimony: "The screwin' you get for the screwin' you got."
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:25AM
My wife gave me a colouring book for my birthday. The "Divorce and Breakup Coloring Book" by Kate Harper. Yes, it's real.
Perhaps it's time for a new personal theme song [youtube.com]?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr