It looks like coloring books for adults inspired by comic books are becoming a very real thing (see: our review of The Doctor Who Coloring Book), and it looks like comic publishers are jumping on the bandwagon — at least if Image Comics' recent announcement of a Spawn-themed coloring book and/or plans from DC Comics are to be believed.
Spawn is another superhero getting the coloring book treatment. From the onset, the character might seem like an usual choice from the outset — after all, the Image Comics antihero last saw popularity in the '90s, the apex of which probably coincided the 1997 release of the negatively-reviewed Spawn live-action feature. In reality, not so much: Image Comics has been pushing Spawn pretty hard lately. Creator Todd MacFarlane himself announced plans to make another Spawn-centric movie back in 2015 and updated earlier this month that the script is complete. So, with a Spawn revival inevitably upon us, a coloring book dedicated to the black ops agent-turned demonoid isn't really out of left field.
However, even if a Spawn movie weren't the case, the coloring book would still have a strong marketing appeal in a world proliferated with #throwbackThusdays and #flashbackFridays; the "Proustian madeleine of nostalgia marketing," as Digiday said in a piece, has resurrected everything from a hipster-ized Hamburglar to the soft-drink Surge. Remember Hi-C's Ectocooler? Yup, that's a thing again.
Image isn't the only publisher taking advantage of its publishing rights and a mainstream trend. If a blank page on Amazon is a definite indicator for anything, DC Comics will publish a Watchmen coloring book. Given the fact that creator Alan Moore more or less became a household name after the release of the V for Vendetta screen adaptation in 2006, along with his Watchmen franchise in 2009, chances are DC might be leaning more toward trend bankability than the collector's market on this one (the fact that a Zack Snyder-helmed Watchmen HBO TV series might also be in the works doesn't hurt, either).
Besides an empty Amazon page, there isn't any info on DC's Watchmen coloring book, but you can preorder the Spawn coloring book on Amazon now, which is set to be released in April of this year.
Source: Amazon
