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| Images copyright DC COMICS |
Let's now travel back in time and space to a dark winter's eve in Glasgow in 1967 or '68. The precise location is under a bridge (now gone) in Stockwell Street, where I'm gazing through a shop window at the cover of a BATMAN colouring book (above) which was simply crying out to be mine. The shop was shut, so my mother promised to buy the book at a later date for my fast-approaching birthday. And she did, though I've no idea whether she purchased it from another source or had to return to that particular shop to obtain it.
I recall once taking it to school and colouring various bits in during the break, and letting ROSS CAMPBELL colour-in one of the pages in return for allowing me to do the same in his different Batman colouring book. His book may well have been the other one featured here - but then again, may well not have been - so don't go betting your house on it. You wouldn't want to have to live in a cave, would you? (Unless it was the BATCAVE of course.)
Ah, many happy hours of innocent fun, to be had from the mere application of some coloured pencils or wax crayons - why aren't kids today so easily pleased?
11 comments:
I have to marvel at the amount of detail you remember from your childhood etc. I have partial recall of things like this which can be quite annoying ( and I tend to get things mixed up with different events/times). On a similar theme I remember one cold autumn day around 66/67 looking at a Batman colouring book (or dot to dot book) in a shop window where I lived at the time (Halfway, Cambuslang, for the locals on your blog) and my mum buying it for me - but thats it I don't remember if it was a colouring book or dot to dot book or what the cover looked like or even what I did with it but I do recall the memory of being excited and thankful to get it. I also seem to recall from the same shop and time period getting a book that was in effect a card cut out model that you made of the Bat-mobile (or Batman ) think I had a Dalek like that as well.
It's funny what you remember and what you don't, isn't it? What annoys me is that I can't recall whether the 2nd book shown in this post is the actual one my classmate had or not. For everything I remember, there's probably far more that I don't. Things tended to make an impression on me when I was younger, which is why the associations remain in my mind. I look at that Robin book and I'm standing under Stockwell Bridge looking in a shop window, or sitting in a classroom with the book in front of me on my desk. Thing is, PM, if you were to see again the items you talk about, you'd probably remember them instantly. Sometimes you just need that visual prompt to reignite the memory.
Well that is true - I saw a Casdon table football game when I was in Glasgow (near City Centre Comics) a few months ago . I had this as a kid (about 8 years of age) and loved it but had forgotten all about this game (Subbuteo taking over my football game passions) but as soon as I saw the box with(the great) Bobby Charlton on it, I was taken right back to 1969 ish for a micro second it was really very strong flashback that literally drew me up for a second - it was pretty surreal (and nice)
Weren't you tempted to buy it? I probably would've been if it had been something from my childhood. In fact, it was a bit like that for me when I saw that 'Magic Robot' a few weeks back. Although I didn't have one as a kid, it just conjured up the '60s for me in such a tangible way that I had to buy it. Just out of interest, have you got around to buying your Dr. Strange Omnibus yet? Grab one while they're going.
For a few seconds I thought of buying it but it would just have ended up in my loft rotting away - if it had been a Corgi or Matchbox car (at a reasonable price) or a more aesthetically pleasing toy ( a model soldier/knight, subutteo players, robot etc) I might have bought it but Im in a major "de-cluttering mode now. I'm more likely to buy an old memory jogging comic as I still love me comics. I did get a copy from the internet of the box
Well, as long as you have a photo of it to prompt your memories, that'll do I suppose. It's better than nothing. I keep meaning to 'de-clutter', but it's an impossible task - so far.
That Robin In the Batcave one definitely rings a bell, although I don't remember actually owning it. For some reason, I associate it with my late aunt & uncle's house. Maybe she had bought it and kept it there for when we visited. (I doubt if it belonged to either of my cousins, who were teenage girls, and would have been into the Beatles and Tommy James, not Batman. Or coloring books in general.)
I have no memory at all of the one with the Bat-speedboat cover.
I wonder if they publishers were trying to attract female fans of Burt Ward with this cover, as Robin was really second-fiddle and it was unusual for him to be featured more prominently than Batman on any merchandise. Maybe your aunt and uncle bought it for their duaghters because they'd heard them wittering on about Burt Ward/Robin?
Many, many coloring books kept me occupied as a kid, kid (couldn't resist) and I either had one or both of those Batman's. The thought or images of those coloring books conjures up a time and place, usually an image of me on laying on the floor of my house, or my grandparent's or Aunt's and Uncle's or some friend of my Mom's. I was a quiet kid and coloring, drawing and reading comics kept me busy when adults were chatting and no kids were around.
Besides Batman, I recall purchasing coloring books based on cartoons, particularly Space Ghost and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Along with comic books and coloring books I also recall buying lots of non-sport (as they categorize them today) trading cards. I once had entire collections of favorites Marvel Super-Heroes, Batman, Dark Shadows and Planet of the Apes but bought everything from Ugly Stickers to Laugh In. Ah, those were the days!
The predominant images I associate with the Robin In The Batcave colouring book are that of the shop under Stockwell Bridge, and the classroom in my old (now demolished) primary school, Nick. The only other colouring book I remember having is a Clangers one (a BBC kids show), but I probably had others that I've now forgotten. If I saw them again 'though, I'd probably remember them. As for cards, I had the Batman ones, and the Champions (an ITC show), plus various cards from sweet cigarettes. Oh to be a kid again, eh, Nick?
Oops, that should be daughters in one of my above replies, not duaghters. (Why didn't I spot it at the time? Typing too fast probably.)
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