Note: click any thumbnail below for a closer view of the shirt.
It's gotten to the point where I basically wear the same outfit every day of the week: 1.) Vans 2.) Jeans 3.) a hoodie, sweater or fleece jacket and 4.) a T-shirt. (Wearing fancier stuff to work is inadvisable as I often pull comics from dusty longboxes, climb on stepstools, etc.) Thankfully, this is no longer the stone age of the comics T-shirt, when there would be about three XXXL Men's shirts (one Green Lantern, one Batman, and one Flash) and one miniature Sailor Moon baby tee hanging forlornly on a rack at the local comics shop: with webcartoonists such as
Achewood's Chris Onstad making the majority of their income from merchandise such as T-shirts, cleverly designed tees are now available for fans of all shapes and sizes (and genders). It's gotten to the point where I figure, when I buy clothes, I might as well support an indy comics creator or company while I do it. So, without further ado, my top five favorite comics/cons T-shirts (and one hoodie):
Tied for fifth place:
Giant Robot Hoodie (San Diego Comic-Con '06)/Battle Royale T-shirt (Sakura-Con '06)
Neither of these is strictly comics-related (although there is a
Battle Royale manga), but I bought both of them at comics-related cons. At SDCC, they pump the AC up high in the exhibition hall to compensate for the body heat of the masses, which means it's freezing in there before the doors open. I often notice various Top Shelf and Fantagraphics employees and artists, in particular, wearing the warm and comfy Giant Robot hoodies (although men tend to favor the throwing-stars design) because our booths are usually clustered together at that con. In regards to the latter tee, I find the high-contrast red-green blood-splatter design much more visually arresting than the
Battle Royale shirts that sport just the plain logo.
Fourth place:
"Read Irresponsibly" Emerald City Comicon '08
The
Unshelved T-shirts caught my eye long before I read the print collections of Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes' daily webcomic about librarians (if it isn't obvious by now: librarians are my heroes). This one in particular is a respectable (and succinct) example of T-shirt philosophy. The text is also well placed.
Third place:
Catandgirl.com '08
When I was studying for the Dorothy Gambrell column, I came across a panel in one of her comics that combined the Ramones logo with the names of the four founding members of the Baby-Sitter's Club. I thought to myself that I
had to have it as a T-shirt. Lo and behold, I went on to her website and there it was. I bought it, thinking it was a funny, but pretty obscure joke (and especially confusing, as one of the characters and I have the same name) only to have my coworker's wife, Janice, get it immediately the first time I wore it, which was pretty gratifying.
Second place:
Olympia Comics Festival '07
Ellen Forney art: (full disclosure — my employer, Fantagraphics, publishes Forney's work). You can't see it in this picture, but the sleeves have a red embroidered hem, which is a nice detail.
First place:
Scarygoround.com late '06 or early '07
There are a lot of factors that combine to make this my favorite comics T-shirt. 1.) I've been following John Allison's webcomic about a group of British friends who get into supernatural hi-jinks for several years now 2.) this was a gift from a loved one 3.) Allison has a knack for T-shirts; I own more than one of his designs 4.) I'm a coffee-and-tea fiend and 5.) comics and non-comics people alike seem to respond favorably to this tee.
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Emerald City Comicon 2008All designs are ©2008 by the respective cartoonists. Photos are by Kristy Valenti.
Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2008
