December 1 marks the end of an era, and the dawn of a new beginning in my life.
December 1 is the day that will be equivalent to a lesbian shaving her heterosexual head in protest of her own guilt.
December 1 will be the day I raise my flag at Iwo Jima. The day that I instantly re-visit puberty. In short, it's a fucking MILESTONE.
It's no secret to anyone that I have had a One-Man Sisterhood-of-the-Traveling-Pants thing going on with my Basket Case t-shirt for years. Much like the women of the Siterhood's magical pants that fluctuated in size and somehow fit both the fat AND the stupid perfectly, my Basket Case shirt has always fit snuggly around my torso, despite my rapidly changing weight due to my 6 unwanted pregnancies and my spontaneous urges to enter hot dog eating contests.
So where did this everlasting fabric of fun originate in the first place? Well, to quote my favorite football player, Tommy Wiseau, "It's quite an interesting story." In 1994 I discovered the internet. Probably later than most people, but nonetheless, there it was. I stumbled upon a T-shirt company online called Rotten Cotton Graphics, who sold amazing bootleg horror movie shirts during an era of my life that consisted of me wearing more black than Venom and watching more horror movies than the MPAA. But because of the "GREAT SCARE OF BUYING THINGS ONLINE BECAUSE OF MYSTERIOUS MISUNDERSTOOD THIEVERY OF 1994", I had no way of getting these perfect chest-covers, as this was even (GASP) pre-Hot Topic days. I think the coolest store in the mall was fucking MERVYN's for shit's sake. But then, though I couldn't order the shirts online, I noticed that Rotten Cotton originated in Antioch, CA! In addition to Antioch being the most populated home for famous kidnap-victims, it was also where i lived! So the hunt began. A hunt that spanned like 4 minutes, since they ended up residing about a half a mile from my home. The Rotten Cotton folk had my dream job, as their duties consisted of A) Watching horror movies, B) Selling Bootleg shirts of their favorites, and C) Giving 2 fucks about anything.
And until I started my own apparel company years later and started doing my best effort at shameless self-promotion, Rotten Cotton was my sole supplier of everything that graced my abdomen, with my very first purchase being Basket Case & Bad Taste and my last ones being Henry & Phantasm. For some reason, Basket Case was the sole survivor of the 30 or so Rotten Cotton shirts I gathered over the years. For 15 years I have worn that shirt at least once a week, and, like its Traveling Pants Counterparts, it has been around the world with my consistently fluctuating chest. We went everywhere together. In a way, we mimicked the very movie we were advertising, considering it's about a boy and his killer symbiotic twin named Bilial. Speaking of, if you have never seen Basket Case, you have some serious catching up to do if we are ever going to be friends. Heres a starter kit:
Well, I may be rambling, as trying to fit in 15 years of memories into one little blog entry is proving to be difficult. But it all leads to this upcoming moment in starving artist history. Exactly 15 years after my original fanboy-purchase of a bootleg shirt from one of my favorite horror movies of all time:
On December 1st, Mondo Tees, in conjunction with the Alamo Drafthouse and Basket Case Director Frank Henenlotter himself, will be debuting a brand new, OFFICIAL BASKET CASE SHIRT & POSTER THAT I DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS RELEASE AS A COMPLETELY HONORED THANK YOU TO FRANK FOR GIVING ME A GOOD HANDFUL OF CINEMATIC AMAZINGNESS OVER THE YEARS!
Now, don't get me wrong, one of the reasons why I have LOVED that shirt my entire adult life is because i think, in addition to the movie being awesome, the DESIGN of the original poster and shirt is UNTOUCHABLE. Its perfect. In color, or in black and white. Doesnt matter. It's flawless. But regardless, I gave it my best shot in hopes of doing Basket Case as much vintage horror justice as I possibly could. Both this shirt and the limted 7-color screenprinted, 24" x 36" poster will be for sale starting DECEMBER 1st exclusively over at MONDO TEES!
Btw....theres MORE secrets to come. In like 20 minutes. Yah, thats right, im fasttracking this shit. Word.
