This LeShirt was the only shirt in which I collaborated with someone else. This person was Mike Jakubiak whom I had met via the Spooky Kids List and seen at a show before I came to know him well. Mike had created some very cool shirts himself and this was how we decided to become partners in crime.

Unfortunately, this was the only shirt we co-produced in what was to become a line of LeShirts with shared ideas and designs. We came up with several designs that merged the "spooky kids" era of Marilyn Manson with the current AntiChrist Superstar theme of the time. It appears, as of this writing, that those ideas will never come to fruition, sadly to say. Those were some great ideas.

The general design of this "throwback" LeShirt was entirely from Mike. Particularly the back of the shirt. On the front he wanted to use the "Wonka" Manson logo which, to this day, would be the only shirt produced by Dark One Designs that featured the words "Marilyn Manson." Even to this day, I have regrets about using the band's name on this shirt despite how well it fits into the theme of the shirt. When I originally decided to make shirts, I was of the notion to make shirts that were recognizable to fans of the band, not necessarily the general populace. Therefore, including the band's name on the shirts was unimportant and kept them strictly "fan-based." But that's neither here nor there. It happened. Once.

Besides the "don't hurt me" phrase (taken literally from the liner notes from Portrait Of An American Family), Mike's original idea was to use the Berkewitz symbol for the main image on the front of the shirt. I had decided that the Berkewitz symbol didn't really encompass the "feel" of the shirt nor would it really represent the band as a whole. So I looked through some old "spooky kids" era images and found this tree created by Manson himself to be a more effective graphic. After discussing this with Mike, he agreed. I did censor the tree by removing the genitals from the children, determining it may be a problem with some of the parents of the kids out there who purchased the shirt. This was a decision I labored over since I had felt that by altering Manson's original design was almost like being sacrilegious. Silly, I know, but the thought occurred to me.

The back of the shirt was done completely by Mike's own hand. For the "boy" figure, Mike used the same figure Manson used in an early Reality Transmission (newsletter sent to fans during the Portrait era). And this "boy" figure was the basis for the "girl" figure Mike came up with. It was his intention to have them matching. Naturally, Mike did the lettering for the back as well. The most often asked question I receive regarding this shirt is where the phrases on the back come from. Of course, any observant fan ("old school" anymore) will recognize those immediately from the Dope Hat video during the part where Manson and Twiggy are licked the fruits on the walls, a la Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

There are two variations of this shirt. In the original batch of 30 or so, the printer failed to enlarge the back graphic. Therefore it appears on those shirts the same size of the actual drawing sent to me by Mike, roughly 8" x 10". On the subsequent runs of the shirt, this back design was enlarged considerably to cover the majority of the shirt. This proved to have a much greater effect and feel.

Overall, this LeShirt conveyed the "spooky kids" feeling perfectly, hence the name "throwback." The colors used were simply red & white on black shirts. The production run of 78 shirts expressed the popularity of the shirt as I went back to the printers twice to have more made including short and long sleeves. As with the other LeShirts, the Spooky Kids List logo is on the right sleeve in red. Also on the front, near the bottom of the tree, is Mike's own personal symbol.

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

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