"Retrospective: The Official Advanced Dungeons ..." Topic

…& Dragons Coloring Album

"Over the years, I've made occasional posts in which I've shared an image from The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album, but I've never written a full Retrospective post about this curious – and amazing – product. Today, I intend to correct that oversight.

Released in 1979 just a few months prior to the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, the Coloring Album is a remarkable relic of the time just before Dungeons & Dragons ascended to the heights of name recognition that it's continued to enjoy ever since. Consequently, this 32-page, oversized book is something of a rarity nowadays. I knew nothing of its existence until I started writing this blog, despite the fact that it appeared shortly before I began playing D&D. I've likewise never seen a physical copy of thing, though one can easily find electronic versions online with only a little effort.

One might well imagine that, aside from the simple oddity of an AD&D coloring book, there's not much to say about this product, but that would be mistaken. Let's start with the obvious – the illustrations. In addition to the beholder battle I included earlier this week, there's this one, featuring a bulette…"

Gorgnardia Blog

link

Armand

Oh gods…Egberts name was used….sigh….

(smile)

Armand

Nice find. There was a D&D Colorforms as well (1983) which I still have; didn't know about the coloring book, but I was too old for that in 79', back then, only little kids used coloring books. I lived very close the MSU campus, where Egbert LAPRed. My friends used to LARP in the Steam Tunnels beneath MSU at this time, too, but I was only interested in miniatures and boardgames, so never attended one of these crazy sessions. His death caused quite a stir; a lot of misunderstanding and heated criticism of the game, primarily due to overly zealous religious types linking D&D to the occult. Zeitgeist before the age of the internet was more limited in breadth, but I would argue just as high intensity as today. We even spoofed the anti D&D craze on an episode of East Lansing public TV, "The 666 Club" which was a parody of "The 700 Club" where they picked up on the anti D&D culture of the day. This episode featured shots of my miniatures as examples of the ultimate evil in society. Very amusing for HS age kids.

Thanks!

Armand