Coloring books from beyond beyond

When I was quite young I had a lot of coloring books.  Some of these have been documented in issues of Xenorama, such as Space Ghost,  Moby Dick,  Samson and Goliath and even The Valley of Gwangi.  Some of these were essentially film books or extended episodes of the cartoons, though I barely remember the "plots" that were in Samson or Space Ghost.  A lot of times pictures got torn out to be stuck on fridges or somewhere else, and at that young age I rarely finished a page I had started.

The only coloring book I have any more is Moby Dick, as most of them disintegrated.  I did give my Valley of Gwangi to a friend of mine, which later turned up in a book about stop-motion.  I keep trying to find some of the ones I had,  but the only one I was successful in tracking down and purchasing was the Moby Dick one, which is pristine.  Not bad for a book that's nearly 50 years old.  I know the others just lost front and back pages until they weren't worth having around.  Newsprint does shed ever so much.

Aside from the Thunderbirds coloring book, I had Land of the Giants, Flipper and at least one Batman version.  I'm sure I had many more, probably Looney Toons and other "funny" animal kinds, but as readers here know, I'd be much more interested in the superhero or science fiction ones.

There just wasn't that much marketing of TV shows back then.  Dolls or playsets were rare, and of course there was no such thing as home video.  Home movies were around, but danged expensive.  I loved being able to color my heroes in.  Except, Space Ghost used up white crayons in a hurry!