This Mickey Mouse With a Skull For a Head t-shirt is completely awesome, and what’s more, it’s a lawful parody (though I’m sure that won’t stop the Disney lawyers from trying to get it yanked — they don’t care about the law, they just wanna control Mickey. I ordered mine right away, just to be sure I got it before the legal fireworks start.) Holy CRAP it’s expensive, though! 53 Euros, shipped! Wow.
(Thanks, Henrik!)
Update: Eric sez, “Kevin Dixon and I wrote the Mickey Death graphic novel, featuring a very similar-looking character, back in the early and mid-nineties. We recently republished the book, which you can get on amazon.com.”
Update 2: Kate sez, “this death’s-head Mickey Mouse is painted on an outer wall of the lovely and somewhat run-down Oakwood Cemetery in east Austin.”
Update 3: Royal Stuart sez, ‘The attached image is from a Saks Fifth Avenue ad I saw in the NY Times Magazine last Fall. I wanted one of these sweaters very badly, and contacted Saks to find out how to get one, because it couldn’t be found on their website. Turns out their email and phone “help” couldn’t help me at all, and said that “sometimes the models bring their own props to the photo shoot.” Yeah right, it’s a SWEATER, and it’s a SAKS ad. If they weren’t advertising the clothes, what were they advertising? Long story longer: I ended up finally finding the sweater, at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. It was made of cashmere, cost $400, and was a licensed Disney product.’
Update 4:
Matt sez, “This site shows that Ian Astbury, lately singer of an updated version of The Doors and formerly singer/songwriter of The Cult, was using a death’s head-Mickey as a graphic device back in 1983 in Death Cult (an earlier incarnation of The Cult). A large rendering of the Mickey Skull used to appear on the band’s backdrop at the time, and was used on the front and back cover [TV design] of their ‘Ghost Dance’ EP.”
Update 5:
Matt sez, “Disney seamstresses in Bangladesh work 14 hour days for less than 20 cents an hour. This logoknit pattern is inspired by 2 designs from new book “Stitch N’ Bitch” written by BUST magazine’s editor Debbie Stoller.”
Update 6: Cloroxenima sez, “This picture was actually taken at our shotgun-courthouse-steps-wedding in Chao Zhou, China (as you can see it was a very formal affair). We actually picked up the this T in Yantai China where my wife and I were living, and I had to buy this shirt as it, well for lack of a better adjective, rocked!
Update 7: Joshua sez, “I designed a Mickey Mouse skull t-shirt a while back, this one is a little more graphic than the ones you’ve got. Currently not in production, though if I get enough feedback I can certainly make it happen.”