Once Upon a Geek

On Monday I featured quite a few comic book related t-shirts from my closet.  Today I’m finishing up the tour of my wardrobe by showing off my DC comics shirts.  Please feel free to share any of your favorite t-shirts you own either by commenting or via e-mail!

A great Superman t-shirt given to me by my family a couple years ago.  I really like that the “S” symbol is large.  I strongly believe the “S” on a Superman shirt should stretch across the entire chest horizontally.  Additionally, I like the “ringer” look of this shirt.  A “ringer” t-shirt typically features the jersey shirt fabric in one color, but the ribbing used for the collar and the sleeve bands are of a contrasting color.  I wear this one a lot.

A fun classic Superman style shirt I picked up in the 1990’s. I love the squinty 1940’s Superman!  The primary image above is the back of the shirt with the insert being the front left hand side.

A present from my friend Ed back in the 1990’s.  This shirt came in a cool telephone booth shaped box.

Another gift from the family.  Obviously this one was pre-stressed.

This was a clever idea for a shirt.  The primary image above is the back of the shirt, with the insert being the front left hand side.  I liked the idea of having a Daily Planet staff shirt.  The fading on the word “Staff” happened after one wash.  I was kind of bummed, but it sort of makes it look cooler.

Okay, what comic book reader in the 1990’s didn’t have a crush on Death?  I’m not talking Thanos-style, but the Death character from the Sandman comic.  She was absolutely adorable.  This 1993 shirt was the first Death shirt and was drawn by Chris Bachalo.  It’s still my favorite Death shirt.  The fading/stress on this shirt is genuine; I wore it a lot.

Here is another Death shirt.  I believe this one was done by Chris Bachalo also.

A great Death shirt from 1995 featuring a line from her first appearance.  You can clearly see the Bjork influence on the artwork at the time.

I got this Barry Allen Flash t-shirt from Target just a few months ago.  This was a pre-stressed item that looked so classic I had to get it.  Interestingly enough, if Target had waited just a few more months this wouldn’t have been “classic”, it would have been “current”.

I got this shirt in the 1990’s specifically because I thought it was awesome they made a Jay Garrick Flash t-shirt.  Additionally, this is the only comic book t-shirt I own that’s long sleeve.

A very thoughtful present from my friend Ed.  DC has never produced a t-shirt that just focuses on Firestorm, so Ed made me one!  The image is taken from a cover during Firestorm’s elemental period.  You can see the fading on this shirt is pretty severe.  I wore the heck out of it back in the mid-1990s.  Once it started fading, it became a frequent nightshirt.

Another present from a friend.  This one was a gift a couple years ago from my old college roommate, Serv.  You can see the image is a classic version of Aquaman; early 1970’s Super Friends era.  I really like the “ringer” look on this one along with the pre-faded image.

Another great classic Aquaman image; this time from the late-1970’s/early 1980’s.  The image has a little bit of pre-faded effect which suits it well.  This particular shirt was also given to me by Serv last year.  So do you think by giving me all these Aquaman shirts that Serv is trying to tell me he’s gay for me?

A white pocket t-shirt from the WB store with an embroidered Aquaman swimming out of the pocket.  I got this in the mid-1990s.  Fun!

Not truly a T-SHIRT, but still a comic book related SHIRT.  This embroidered denim shirt came from the WB store in the mid-1990s and is all kinds of awesome.  The top image is obviously the front, with the bottom image being the back.  Interesting observation, Aquaman and Green Lantern look all buddy-buddy here.  However, did Green Lantern freak out when Aquaman was killed (like he did when Martian Manhunter was killed)?  Nope.  I’m not even sure Hal has realized that Arthur kicked the bucket.  Well… Hal will know for sure soon enough.  C’mon “Blackest Night”!

This is a really fun take on superhero t-shirts.  This shirt presents the one-page origin of Batman from the earliest days of Detective Comics.  If I remember correctly, I got this shirt in a record shop in Atlanta in the mid-1990s.

This is another unusual item (and I know, not a t-shirt).  It’s a silk robe featuring the Superman “S” symbol.  If you look closely, you can see small versions of the symbol all over the fabric.  Then there is the obvious red “S” symbol on the front pocket and backside.  The robe is really pretty to look at, but somehow a silk robe just doesn’t scream manly to me.  Especially Super-manly.  Needless to say I haven’t worn it much.  But on my wife it looks hot!

Well there you go, a brief look into Shag’s closet.  Don’t forget, share your favorite comic book t-shirts if you’d like!

I bought a new comic book t-shirt this weekend at Kohls and it got me thinking about what to wear to Dragon*Con.  I looked through my closet and was amazed at how many comic book t-shirts I had amassed.  I mean seriously, these things pile up.  Back when I managed a comic book store, you could consider  these to be work clothes.  Nowadays, I don’t get many chances to wear these t-shirts.  So I decided they needed to see the light of day one way or another.  Therefore, today and tomorrow you get to stroll through my wardrobe.

Over the past 15 years, I have gotten so many t-shirts that I’ve split them across two days.  Today I’ll be showing off my new shirt, Marvel comics shirts, Scud the Disposable Assassin shirts, and Astro City t-shirt.  Some designs were purchased pre-faded (or pre-stressed).  Unless specifically mentioned, assume any fading occurred naturally with these shirts.

To see the other comic book t-shirts I’ve previously displayed here at ONCE UPON A GEEK, please click here and then scroll down.

Here is my new shirt!  The image is of the late-Bronze Age Justice League of America (with a few extras thrown in for good measure).  I love the strong white outline on each character; it’s really sharp.  Also, it’s nice to have Aquaman, Flash, and Firestorm all on one shirt!  This is  the second officially-licensed shirt I’m aware of that features Firestorm. Poor Matchhead, he doesn’t get much play.

Cool Marvel Comics t-shirt bought by family a couple years ago.  Certain parts are high gloss (like Cap’s shield).

Pre-faded Marvel t-shirt from Target bought by my wife and kids within the past year or so.  The faces are very reminiscent of the 1980s corner box images.

“Daredevil Yellow” t-shirt by Tim Sale.  I bought this shortly after the series because I’ve always loved Daredevil’s original costume.

Andy Warhol-style Spider-Man shirt.  I believe this is Mark Bagley art from his original run on Amazing Spider-Man.  I wore the heck out of this shirt in the mid-1990s.

Havok from X-Factor drawn by Joe Quesada.  I bought this shirt around the time he was drawing X-Factor, long before his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics.  The faded design on this shirt is genuine.  Because I enjoyed Peter David’s run on X-Factor so much, I wore this shirt all the time.  Once it started to fade, it became a frequent nightshirt.

Jim Lee Xtinction Agenda shirt.  Got this for my birthday around the time this story was published.

Astro City shirt I bought in Colorado on vacation a few years ago.

Fantastic Scud t-shirt I bought back in the 1990’s (when Scud was being published the first time around).  Back then you didn’t have internet shopping; you had to order shirts like this via the mail from an ad in the back of the comic book.

Another Scud t-shirt I bought back in the 1990’s.  The stress on this shirt is genuine.  I did everything I could to get people to read Scud, even promoted it on my own body.

Another Scud t-shirt.  The primary image above is the back of the shirt, with the insert being the front left-hand side.  This shirt was designed to look similar to the body of the Scud robot.  The only downside to this shirt was that it was bright yellow.  It takes a brave man to wear a bright yellow shirt.

Drywall, Scud’s sidekick.  Great shirt!  Very colorful and fun!

This is a fairly unusual one.  I got this for attending Diamond Comics 11th Annual Retailers Seminar.  It was held in Baltimore in 1994.  Diamond Comics distributes the majority of comic books in the United States.  That particular year they took us to a Baltimore Orioles game; thus the baseball jerseys.  Very cool!

As promised in a previous blog entry, here is my “Tony Was Right” t-shirt!  I can’t wait to wear this to Dragon*Con!

There were a few other comic book t-shirts I owned previously that I’ve gotten rid of over the years.  A few that spring to mind:

• A Rob Liefeld drawn “New Mutants” shirt from around the time of issue #90.  This was before his art got too wild.  If you exclude Superman t-shirts as a kid, this was the first comic book t-shirt I ever owned.
• A mega-print shirt of Jae Lee’ Doctor Doom from the “Namor” comic book series.  Mega-print shirts were all the rage in the 90’s.  A mega-print shirt would feature one primary image that had been blown up to cover the entire shirt.  For example, this Doctor Doom shirt featured a close-up of Doom’s face, but was blown up so the image spread to the entire shirt (including the sleeves), and was then repeated on the back side.
• A mega-print shirt of Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man.
• A Kyle Rayner Green Lantern t-shirt.  Essentially designed to look somewhat like Kyle’s original uniform.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of “Shag’s Closet”.  Come back tomorrow for the DC shirts…

This t-shirt design is crazy funny, but I’m sure also very controversial.  It was worn by Matt Fraction, writer of The Invincible Iron Man comic book, at the recent San Diego ComicCon.  I’m not entirely certain who to thank for this awesome design, but Matt was pointing everyone to “Tony Was Right.com”.  Personally, I stumbled across it on the “For the Love of Comics” blog.

I am so very tempted to get this printed on a shirt and wear it to Dragon*Con.  Oooooooooo… I think I’m gonna have to do it.  I love stirring up trouble.

I recently got a new geek-related t-shirt I thought I would share.  This one I picked up from Kohl’s.  I absolutely love the image, especially the bit across the top, “#1 in a Twelve-Issue Limited Series“, just like the comic featured. I wish it wasn’t on dark gray, it makes the colors look muted.  But otherwise I love the shirt.

One of the reasons I like this shirt so much is my own personal connection to the “Secret Wars” comic series.  When I was in sixth grade, I was the victim of peer pressure.  “Peer pressure in sixth grade, surely not?!?!”, you think astonished.  I know… shocker (read as sarcasm).  I had just started a new middle school and was still getting to know my new friends (including Ravenface).  During lunch one day, they started talking about all these fantastic sounding characters from some comic book I had never heard of.  I was really only familiar with a few Marvel characters; mainly the ones who appeared in the “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends” cartoon.  When I acknowledged that I didn’t know many of these characters, my new friends pounced on me as all sixth graders typically do when they see weakness in a fellow classmate.  “You don’t know what Secret Wars is?!?!?!”  “You don’t know who Galactus is?!?!?!”  “Everyone knows who Magneto is, don’t they?”  And so on…

So there I was, an eleven year old outcast.  I felt ridiculed and incompetent.  Surely there must be some way to redeem myself.  And then the answer appeared before me…  I was in the local convenience store (Sing store for us Tallahassee folks) getting some candy and an icee.  I happened upon the comic book rack and staring me in the face was “Secret Wars” issue #2.  A big bold image of Magneto on the cover.  I immediately purchased the comic and devoured the information.  I refused to be the butt of my sixth grade class.  So from there forth, I made sure to buy all the issues of “Secret Wars”.  I even paid the painful sum of $5 for a back issue of #1 (considering cover price was $0.75, that’s a hefty mark-up).  In order to prepare for any unexpected, yet vitally important sixth grade conversations, I started to buy other comics also… a little Uncanny X-Men here… a little Marvel Saga there…

And that’s how it begins.  A life long addiction… all because of sixth grade peer pressure. 

I blame Ravenface… a.k.a. Ravenface, the pusher.  DAMN YOU, RAVENFACE!

What a great Father’s Day I had!  My wife made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, I spent the morning playing with the kids, then we all swam in pool for the first time this season, next I got to eat Sonny’s barbeque for lunch, and finally we went to the comic book shop!  What a fun stress-free day!

In addition to some nice typical Father’s Day items, I gotta mention the geek-related swag I received.  I got a cool Marvel t-shirt from Target that I’ve been eyeing lately (see picture to right).  Then I also received two plates that my kids drew for me! You can see the plate on the left was done by two-year old daughter.  She’s currently in her Impressionist period.  Don’t worry, we’re watching her closely to ensure she doesn’t cut off her ear and give it to anyone.  The plate on the right was done by my eight year old step-son.  You can see he’s done a Doctor Who themed plate for me.  This may just be my favorite piece of Doctor Who related merchandise now!  You can clearly make out the 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, K-9, and the remains of a recently-destroyed Dalek!  He got all the colors right, and even drew in the Sonic Screwdriver.  I’m so proud of my budding little geek!

In regard to the shirt, I love the 1960’s/1970’s era Marvel apparel.  The fake fading makes them look even cooler! However, I gotta ask you (my geek buddies) to help me identify one of the faces on my new shirt.  I recognize everyone except this guy.  Who the funk is he?  He’s not Reed Richards and he’s not Nick Fury.  I’m clueless.  A little help here?

Doctor Who’s first bad ass (and one of my favorite characters) was Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer.  He first appeared in 1980 in a back-up comic strip published in Doctor Who Weekly (later called Doctor Who Magazine).  He was created by writer Steve Moore and artist Steve Dillon.  Dillon went on to fame as one of the primary artists on Garth Ennis’ “Hellblazer” and “Preacher”.

Daak was a hardened criminal that was sentenced with D-K duty.  This entailed being teleported from the human empire to a planet deep within enemy Dalek territory.  While there, condemned criminals served the human empire by killing as many Daleks as possible before being killed themselves.  The life expectancy of a D-K was about 2 and 1/2 hours.

To give you an idea just how bad ass Abslom Daak was, here is the dialogue from his first couple panels…

Judge: “Abslom Daak… you have been found guilty on 23 charges of murder, pillage, piracy, massacre and other crimes too horrible to bring to the public attention. There are two choices: death by vapourization or exile D-K!!”

Daak: “Vapourization doesn’t hurt… I’ll take Dee-Kay!!”

Awesome!  Abslom cut a swathe through the Daleks with his chainsaw-sword, blaster, and his never-give-up attitude.  Along the way he found love, friends, booze, and adventure.  Interestingly enough, the Doctor did not appear in any of Daak’s adventures until 1989. Abslom appeared in several issues of Doctor Who Magazine over the years, ending in 1993.  He also appeared in one of the Virgin “Doctor Who New Adventures” novels (well… sort of).

Throughout his appearances, he remained a bad ass, a bastard, and killed a bunch of Daleks.  He was a real jerk, but you couldn’t help liking him and cheering for him.  I think that’s why I love this character so much.  I’m always drawn toward the heroic assholes - Guy Gardner, Nathan Petrelli, and guys like that.  Y’know, the irredeemable type. 

You can still find copies on eBay of the collection reprinting his appearances, “Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer” by Marvel Comics.  Additionally, a group called Altered Vistas has produced some Abslom Daak audio adaptations that might be worth checking out.  Finally, at one point you could get a t-shirt with Abslom Daak (see picture to right).  My good friend Ravenface bought me this t-shirt when he visited England in the early 1990’s.  I seriously doubt you could find one nowadays.  I’m eternally in Ravenface’s debt.

So if you find yourself trying to decide who is the toughest/coolest Doctor Who character, and you’re wondering is it Captain Jack Harkness, Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, or Duggan?  Forget all those bitches… its Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer!