This LeShirt was the most infamous shirt I've created. With the Marilyn Manson Valentine's Day show in Dayton looming, and the realization that this was to be the largest Spooky Kids List gathering ever, I determined that this would be the perfect opportunity to make a shirt to celebrate this rather momentous occasion.

The hard part was coming up with a great shirt that not only would reflect the importance of this event (the live recording of Irresponsible Hate Anthem) but also be a genuine souvenir of this List gathering. Since almost everyone coming in for the show (from literally all over the country including Canada) was staying at the Motel 6, this would become the impetus that started the design of the shirt. With a slight adjustment to the Motel 6 logo and adding some Manson/Spooky Kids flavor, the front was established.

The back of the shirt became the true challenge. I knew it had to include the words "IHA" somewhere on it as well as the date. But the design itself was another problem. Somehow, I thought by incorporating the "shock" symbol it would give the back some life. That's how the circle was born. Adding the "Love=Hate" around the circle seemed only natural following in tune with the song, but the difficult part was the style for each of the words. After hand-drawing several different "love" & "hate" words, I found it much easier and simplier to go with fonts from the computer.

The rope and barbwire border for the circle was something I had planned. But the most interesting addition to the back was the first four lines from "IHA" drawn in between the rope and barbwire; because that was totally unplanned and I added that at the very last moment. Something I'm rather proud of that seemed to work well into the design. Looking back, I can't imagine not having those lyrics in there.

What made this LeShirt special was the tagline added at the bottom, "i was there." Something even Zim Zum would relish, liking it to the rollercoaster ride shirts displaying a similar phrase. Barely unseen on this photo of the back are the "broken shock" hearts just above "February 14, 1997" to the right and left. They were meant to be solid red but the printer used an outline instead.

The Spooky Kids List logo was the mint green color used in the Motel 666 on the front and, as with the other LeShirts, the logo was on the right sleeve. The colors used were red, white & mint green on black shirts. I actually took a copy of the Motel 6 logo to the printers so they could match the proper mint green color. There were only 37 total shirts produced, all in short sleeve except two long sleeves (for HooDoo and myself).

All these shirts went to List sibs who attended the Dayton show with a few notable exceptions. Manson and Zim Zum were both presented with shirts after the show, and my one remaining short sleeve I gave to Thomas Thorn of Electric Hellfire Club the following evening at a Danzig concert for whom they were opening. Thomas loved the shirt and pleaded to have one of his own. So in exchange, he offered up a EHC shirt. My long sleeve has since been retired after the entire Hellfire group signed over the Motel 666 that same evening.

The greatest tribute I could ever imagine was seeing a dozen and a half of these shirts at the Dayton show. One could easily see that the List Spooks were there in force (taking up most of the front barrier). That made this wonderful event that much more special and made me real happy that I even considered to make these shirts on a moment's notice! This was truly a special shirt in the history of Dark One Designs.

If you have any questions regarding this LeShirt or the others, please email me.

All images are copyright © 1997 Dark One Designs

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