Sunshine Superman

T-Shirt Of The Week #12: Comic City tee (3rd of a series)

This is my weekly feature on a favorite t-shirt that I own, number twelve. Comic City was a comic book store on Allen Street across from the old Pink. We designed the logo, advertisements and 3 different t-shirts (same design, different colors). This was the heather gray with ringed collar, Summer version. The other two were the white on dark blue and the dark blue on red which was supposed to be the Spiderman colors but the shirt color didn't quite match. There was also a rare reject tee-- that Comic City sold on the side-- which was a misprint of the red shirt where the art was printed backwards creating a reverse version.

The logo was a fun job as it was for a friend's shop. It consisted of the 3 dimensional masthead with the Buffalo cityscape floating behind it. I had originally designed the cityscape for another project (the cover of an infoTech Niagara membership guide) and recycled it for the CC logo. The store also had a mascot which is the hero featured on the shirt designs. Lovingly referred to as The Captain (or The Cap'n), this dude was based on Jack King Kirby's square-jawed Marvel characters with a extruded font dingbat for his emblem. Add a full moon shape rising over the city and a few sparkle stars... and you got yourself a cool t-shirt.

The comic book store was only open for a few years but it was a really cool location in Allentown. We sold our Where to Roam tees out in front during one of the Allentown West Art Festival one Summer. That was a blast! Unfortunately, as all good things must pass, the store eventually closed but I still have the tees- one of each- but this is my favorite.