365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

T-shirt #96 - The House of Secrets

T-shirt #96 - The House of Secrets or why my T-shirt is cooler than yours


Another short post as the hammer time for Grading Robot continues.

I bought this shirt because I thought it was cool. Unlike the normal purchase process, my initial reaction for this shirt was not one of "oooooh, I MUST have that shirt to wear with the pride of my fan love" but rather "that's a cool shirt even though I am not reading that book."

I am not going to go into depth about House of Secrets, but here's a quick primer. The Silver Age House of Secrets ran originally from 1956-1966. After a three year hiatus, it returned in 1969 and ran until 1978 with great artists like Neal Adams (mentioned in T-shirt #43 and T-shirt #83), Bernie Wrightson, and Michael Kaluta working on stories for the comic. I was not a huge fan of this run, but I do own many issues and enjoy the work of all three of these great artists and many others who worked on the comic back then. The series was revived in 1996 by DC's Vertigo imprint written by Steven T. Seagle and art (mostly) by Teddy Kristiansen. I read some of it, but I did not keep up with it religiously. It's good stuff and on my list to read in trade paperbacks when I have time.

But that's not why I bought the T-shirt. I just bought the T-shirt because I liked the image and the text, and I liked the "cool" the shirt provides as if I am part of a secret brain trust (which I am). I also love the shirt as a well-made piece of clothing. I consider this one of my "dressy" T-shirts as this one is still in mint condition after 17 years (I bought it in 1996), and the collar is still tight.

I have written about why we wear T-shirts before on this blog (most notably in T-shirt #83, T-shirt #77, and T-shirt #87). I have realized that this blog will continue to explore this idea throughout the remaining 269 days. Why? Why do we wear the shirts we wear?

Or maybe a more interesting question is this one: "Do other people select T-shirts for the reasons that I select T-shirts?"

I will explore this question more in the weeks and months to come.

- chris tower - 1306.25 - 8:30