Oldtimes Digest Brings Back Your Childhood

Written By: Clint McCallum

Whitman’s World of Coloring Books is the latest trip down memory lane from author Jason Young; his fourth installment under the Oldtimes Digest brand.

By day, a mild-mannered CPA, Jason is also a life-long collector of vintage action figures and other pop culture items; a collection dominated by Mego Toys.

In 2018, Mego Toys returned after going out of business in the 80’s and Jason found himself living out a childhood dream, designing the card art for a Mego Stan Lee action figure. As a freelance graphic designer, Jason would go on to design approximately 20 other Mego packages, some which appeared at the famed New York Toy Fair. His success would make local newspapers. Jason’s card art designs would include such characters as Willy Wonka, Star Trek, Chucky and even Creature From the Black Lagoon.

In 2020, after the world pandemic hit, Jason would write his first book; an 80-page full color oldtimes digest titled The Wonderful Artwork of Wax Wrappers. The book utilized his graphic design skills with a visual look back at the wax wrappers of nostalgic non-sport trading cards. The book would see five print runs all sell out, making a second book a no brainer. This book may be out of print but still sees success as an eBook on Amazon.

Jason’s second book, an Old School Halloween, would see similar success. This book would be another visual trip back in time looking at those old Ben Cooper Halloween costumes we grew up with. While writing the book, Young discovered the name Frank Romano, who was the art designer for Ben Cooper for 30 years. He would track down Romano, then 97 years young, to be interviewed for the book.

The book would ultimately introduce the world to the real star of those costumes and showcase Romano’s impact on pop culture. Frank Romano would appear at Chiller Theatre’s event where he sold and signed copies of these books before passing away a short time later.

“I’m happy Frank got to have that spotlight on his talent and read just how much of an impact his body of work had on generations of kids in his final years,”

– Jason Young talking about Frank Romano

The book would be nominated for a Rondo Hatton Award and featured in local newspapers as well as magazines like HorrorHound. After selling out it is currently in its third run with limited copies available. Click Here to check current availability.

The third book from Oldtimes Digest would focus on a more niche collector area; Peter Pan’s popular 70’s label Power Records. These were the comic book & record sets that often-helped children read as they listened to the record and followed along with the book. Power Trip would be 160-page full color digest, jam-packed with every 45 and LP book and record released by the label. For this book, Jason tracked down the current owner of Peter Pan Records and son of the company’s founder, Donald Kasen. The book offered the history of the company, which was vetted by the family itself. Power Trip recently sold out of its second print run.

This brings us to Oldtimes Digest’s fourth and latest installment, focusing on vintage coloring books made by Whitman’s Publishing.

Whitman’s World of Coloring Books is their thickest book yet, clocking in at 265 full color pages! The book offers a history of the Whitman Publishing company followed by countless old coloring books, both covers & interior pages. A true nostalgia trip fans will appreciate. The book is available here, and a sellout seems inevitable.

Outside of publishing books, Jason continues to keep busy. He recently returned to designing action figure packages with two different companies. He designed box art for White Elephant Toyz upcoming SuperJoe Unlimited line as well as their 12-inch Combat Man line. He also designed the card art for Power Comics’ upcoming Mego-style figures. And, when asked what his next book will focus on he answered,

“I’m actually working on two new books at the same time. Details on those will be posted on my social media page when the time comes.”

Jason’s work can be found at the following links:

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