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"The Executive Coloring Book" Helped Launch the Adult Coloring Book Craze

posted by martyb on Monday April 03 2017, @12:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the purple-reign dept.

takyon writes:

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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Monday April 03 2017, @03:06PM (9 children)

    by looorg (578) on Monday April 03 2017, @03:06PM (#488216)

    I was expecting a bit more tits and ass in the adult coloring books. Very disappointing ...

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Nerdfest on Monday April 03 2017, @03:16PM (2 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Monday April 03 2017, @03:16PM (#488223)

    "Adult Lifestyle Community" does not mean what you may think either. Colour me disappointed.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday April 03 2017, @03:39PM (4 children)

    by VLM (445) on Monday April 03 2017, @03:39PM (#488233)

    I would imagine there's a photoshop filter to turn rando pr0n on the internet into coloring sheets.

    I donno about the dutch masters (although I did day trip some distance to see actual pix like 10-20 years ago and they are super cool) but the Monet/Impressionist book came out last spring and my wife was working thru while my daughter works on the little mermaid coloring book. There's that click bait "reeeee" about psuedo-adults having a safe space to color in, but I bet at least some fraction of the population is parents coloring along with their kids tired of kid subject matter. So it would be awkward if my wife had a T+A coloring book while my daughter was working on the little mermaid "See thats how they look without the seashells" etc.

    I will confess if they had "classic 1960/70s minicomputers from DEC/HP/IBM" I'd probably buy it and join right in. How about 60s era ham radio equipment coloring books, hey kids color your SB-102 "heathkit green" LOL. At least chassis pix could have resistor color codes.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday April 03 2017, @03:46PM

      by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Monday April 03 2017, @03:46PM (#488234) Journal

      I would imagine there's a photoshop filter to turn rando pr0n on the internet into coloring sheets.

      I bet it looks like ass.

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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hoeferbe on Monday April 03 2017, @03:55PM (2 children)

      by hoeferbe (4715) on Monday April 03 2017, @03:55PM (#488242)
      VLM [soylentnews.org] wrote [soylentnews.org]:

      I will confess if they had "classic 1960/70s minicomputers from DEC/HP/IBM" I'd probably buy it and join right in.

      Not 1960/70s minicomputers, but some jokers at Red Hat published a coloring book for SELinux [redhat.com].  I've also seen a Linux containers coloring book, but cannot find a link for it.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:58PM (#488405)

        Red Hat published a coloring book for SELinux.

        A found a page from the Windows Coloring Book" [fineestateliquidation.com]

      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:22AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:22AM (#488544) Journal

        Yikes, some of the drawings in that SELinux coloring book are seriously disturbing — like the evil Tux holding the dog's leash (several pages), druggy cat with one paw upside-down on 7, humpback dog on page 8...

  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:29AM

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:29AM (#488525) Homepage Journal

    You're welcome [amazon.com].

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