Hey guys, here’s some artwork to check out.   The first one is my attempt to emulate Stephen Gammell, the amazing artist that illustrated the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series.   I grew up on those books and it’s a shame that publisher Harper Collins decided to remove Gammell’s artwork for the 3oth anniversary edition and replace it with much tamer yet much duller content.  Those illustrations by Gammell scared the hell outta me and it was the best thing about the series.  Anyhow, the second piece is a sketch I did last week.  Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for supporting Fright-Rags. 

- TK

Hey, gang, greetings from your Shipping Manager.   Here are a couple more drawings for your viewing pleasure.  Since I’m a huge fan of Stephen King’s  “It”, I often find myself sketching various renditions of  Pennywise the clown.   The character intrigues me in a way that few other King characters do.  The other drawing is a sketch I did on a Taco Bell napkin.  Many of my best drawings have their humble beginnings on Taco Bell napkins.   I’d like to thank all of our fans for making 2011 a great year for Fright-Rags and I hope all of you have a happy and safe new year.  Until next time.  TK

So with that, I have to say thank you. Thank you for your support and for allowing me—and each of us at Fright-Rags (Tim, Kristy, and Jes) to be able to do this, day in and day out. Hardly a day goes by where we don’t make some mention about how much our customers mean to us…. And it’s true; I consider our customers like an extended family, and kind of like some cool club that I always wanted to be a part of. We keep that in mind always and talk about how we can continually up the ante and provide even higher levels of service and experience. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Thank you also for making 2011 our biggest year yet. I’ll be the first to admit that we took some risks this year. We stretched the limits and released shirts out of the ordinary—even for us. Some of you loved what we did, and responded in a very positive way. Some of you were disappointed (dare I say downright hated) with many of the shirts we released this year and have asked us what the hell we’re thinking. I can see both sides and I understand that even within our small, tight-knit horror community there are various segments of fans who only like certain things. I will admit that some of what we put out this year was a departure for us, but our intent has always remained the same—to put out kick-ass horror shirts.

Hell, that’s how this entire company began over eight years ago. The first shirt I ever designed was WWJD? (What Would Jason Do?) and it was conceived with one sole purpose in mind—to do something different. And that is what I’ve strived to do ever since. There are plenty of other sites that put out what I consider to be “typical” horror shirts. They are a dime-a-dozen, and many of these places even have lower prices than us. That’s totally cool with me and I think it’s great that other people are out there doing it. But we’re not trying to compete with them. Our aim is to push the envelope and challenge conventions with what we do. To get out of our own comfort zone of just designing another shirt and instead try to innovate and take our work to another level. Yes, that means taking risks with some of our designs. And like any risk, some things will fail. My hope though, is that—more often than not—we will strike a chord and offer something truly unique for you to add to your wardrobe and to make your friends say “Where’d you get that shirt? It’s amazing!”

That said, I am truly looking forward to resurrecting more of the designs from our graveyard to give our new (and old) customers a chance to grab some classic designs. The best part is that we’re only bringing back what YOU want, which allows us to use our time, energy, and money in the best way possible. It will also allow us the chance to focus on many new designs that we will be releasing on a regular basis. I can tell you that we’ve got some great things lined up for 2012. We’ll be releasing new designs more often, reprinting the top voted designs from the graveyard regularly, and we’ve also got quite a few limited editions lined up as well. As if that weren’t enough, we are getting closer and closer to announcing our brand new website, which will be home to our vintage shirt line. I expect to make an announcement in the next month or two with more details, but I can tell you that we are planning more than just our old line up of vintage shirts. There will also be many more designs available, some of which we’ve tested out on Fright-Rags already this year that will transition to the new site.

So if you’re brand new to our company, or an old friend who has shopped with us for years, I hope you will tune in to see what we’ve got cookin’ in 2012 and maybe pick-up some shirts along the way. Thank you again for another amazing year, and stay tuned…we have such sites to show you…

Ben

However,  with releasing so many shirts over that period of time, it is inevitable that some designs fade away. After all, it is impossible to keep all sizes of all the shirts in stock at all times. So, over time designs die off as we continually pump out new stuff. But even as each design sells out, we still face the all important decision: do we reprint it, or not?

REPRINTS ARE DEAD…LONG LIVE REPRINTS!
Up until now, the decision to reprint a design was based on several factors; how well it sold, how many we have left, how long has it been available, etc. Sometimes it pays off and a reprinted design can see new life on the site when we restock it. Other times, well, the shirts gather dust on the shelves and we wonder if anyone got the memo that it’s back in stock. Quite frankly, it’s a guessing game. So in order to keep putting out new shirts,we are going to stop reprinting designs as they sell out.

Yes, you read that correctly.

From now on, every new shirt we release will get one print run. If you like it, grab it before your size is gone because once sizes sell out, they will remain sold out. When all the shirts are gone, the design will be considered dead, and out of print.

But wait, this is a horror shirt site…can’t designs come back from the dead???

Yup, they sure can…keep reading.

ENTER….THE GRAVEYARD!
When designs are sold out and considered dead, we will put them in our graveyard. The Fright-Rags Graveyard is a place where all of our out of print designs can rest in peace. There you will also find many of our older designs dating as far back as 2003, when I first started Fright-Rags. There are designs that some of our oldest customers may have never seen, or for our new customers, a look into our history and all the designs we’ve put out in the past.

But what if you could do more than look at the dead designs and pay your respects? What if you had the power to bring them back to life?

ONLY YOU CAN RESURRECT THE DEAD
The graveyard isn’t just a final resting ground for you to pay your respects to designs that have come and gone. It is also a place where you can vote on what design(s) you want us to raise from the dead and bring back to life! All you need to do is click on any design you like, enter your email address, and your vote will be counted. Every other month, we will choose the designs with the most votes and reprint them. If a design you voted on has been chosen for a reprint, we will notify you via email letting you know it’s coming back.

THE GRAVEYARD LAUNCHES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20! MAKE SURE TO CAST YOUR VOTES FOR THE SHIRTS YOU WISH TO BRING BACK – THE FIRST ROUND OF REPRINTS WILL BE DECIDED ON JANUARY 3!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’ve posted some information below to help answer any questions you might have about the graveyard and how we’re doing our reprints now. But if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at ben@fright-rags.com

WHAT DESIGNS WILL BE IN THE GRAVEYARD WHEN IT LAUNCHES?
The graveyard will hold many of our old designs, but not all of them. There are exceptions that prevent us from including every single design we’ve ever released. For instance, no limited edition shirt  wll be included in the graveyard as we do not reprint those. Other factors include expired licenses, so some designs might be omitted because we are unable to legally reprint them. That said, we will be opening the graveyard with over 80 designs, so there will be more than enough to start voting on.

HOW OFTEN WILL YOU ADD NEW SHIRTS TO THE GRAVEYARD?
Well, the easy answer is, when they sell out. In order to keep pumping out new stuff, we have to let shirts sell out without reprinting them all the time. So once we release a design, we will continue to sell it until all the shirts have sold out. At that point, it will be moved into the graveyard. Some designs might take months to sell out, or weeks, or even days. The best advice I can give you is, if you like the shirt grab it before it’s gone because it might never come back. There is never a guarantee that a dead design will come back to life as it is solely based on demand.

WILL YOU EVER REPRINT A DESIGN BEFORE IT GOES TO THE GRAVEYARD?
The short answer is no. However, there have been a few rare instances where a shirt takes us by surprise and sells out in hours so we’ve ordered more right away to meet the demand. In those instances where demand clearly exceeds supply on the initial release, we will do our best to restock sooner than later. For the vast majority of shirts, one run is all they will get initially and will have to get voted back for a reprint once they sell out.

DOES THIS MEAN ALL YOUR SHIRTS WILL BE “LIMITED” IN SOME WAY?
Yes, I suppose you could say the shirts will take on a bit more of a “limited” quality to them due to the uncertainty of when (or if) a design will ever come back it has sold out. So you’re better off buying the shirt you like when you see it because there is no guarantee that it will be reprinted. However, this isn’t much different than what we have been doing for awhile. Many of the shirts we’ve put out over the last year or so have only seen one or two prints. And if you have been following us for awhile, you will have noticed that we have not brought back many designs lately. The main thing that is changing is that all reprints will be decided by YOU. So if a design does sell out, at least you have a chance to vote for it to come back. After all, if we’re going to reprint a design I’d much rather print what you want rather than take a stab as what we think should come back.

Hey, gang, here’s some more artwork for your viewing pleasure.  For years now I’ve been working on becoming proficient with watercolor paints with varying degrees of success. . .lol.   This is one of my more successful attempts.  The other piece is a pen and ink rendition of the beloved Uncle Creepy.  Don’t forget to take part in the Fright-Rags Last Minute Holiday Sale going on this weekend.  30% off Hoodies and Girl shirts, get ‘em while you can, they’re going fast.  Just a reminder, if you want your order to arrive in time for Christmas, be sure to place your order by tomorrow.   This applies to US customers only, we cannot guarantee holiday delivery for International orders.    Have a greet weekend, gang.  – TK

 Greetings from your Shipping Manager.  I hope you guys are having a great holiday, I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping and I couldn’t be happier.  I’d like to say thanks to everyone who purchased our newest Re-Animuppet release last week, I still can’t believe how fast they went.  Keep an eye on your inbox next week for a shipping confirmation as I will be shipping the rest of the orders so that you guys can get them in time for Christmas.  Hopefully, this will add to your Ghoul-tide cheer.  For my drawings this week I went into my vault and pulled out a portrait of Stephen King that I did a few years back.  Being a huge fan of King’s work, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to draw a portrait of him.  One of these days I’ll get around to doing portraits of Lovecraft and Poe.   The other one was a drawing I did about a month ago.  If you like my artwork, feel free to check out my store over at Zazzle where you can get my art on t-shirts, mousepads, stickers, etc.  Here’s the link:  http://www.zazzle.com/kilmerkid  Thanks for checking out my work and, as always, thanks for your support of Fright-Rags.  – TK

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK, ANYWAY?
I’d like to start by explaining how we print and ship our vintage shirts, and how they are different from the other shirts on our site. Our main shirts are professionally screenprinted, and are all stocked on our shelves, ready to be shipped (with the obvious exception of our limited edition pre-orders). So when we have a new design, we order a quantity of them from our printer, and when we receive them we make them available for you to purchase.

Our vintage shirts, on the other hand, are custom made to order. That means we do not stock them and have to print each t-shirt when we receive the order. The main advantage to this is the customer’s ability to choose his/her size, style (regular shirt, long sleeve, girl shirt), and even color of the t-shirt. There is a wider variety because we print them one at a time.

The process we use to print these t-shirts is called direct-to-garment, and is essentially like a large inkjet printer for t-shirts. (You can see it in action by clicking here) While they cost more to print, they are able to do full color artwork without any set up time or cost. In fact, this method is best when reproducing a photographic image as it plays to the technology’s strengths. And while it will never replace screenprinting, it is a worthwhile process to use when offering custom shirts.

THE LONG AGONIZING WAIT FOR A T-SHIRT
Up until now, each vintage shirt ordered on our website would take approximately 4 weeks to ship. The reason for the wait is because we have to send the orders to our supplier (who is out of state), wait for the shirts to be printed and shipped back to us, then we ship them to you. Lately, however, there have been delays out of our control as our supplier has been increasingly busy with other work, which has pushed back our orders. Given that we have to then receive the shirts, then ship them out to customers, people were starting to wait 4, 5, sometimes 6 weeks or more to get their order. And that is not acceptable.

Over the past year, I’ve been discussing ways to change our business to help create more of a separation between our vintage shirts and our core line of screenprinted shirts. After all, they are two different beasts, and I feel they should each have their own space. These recent delays have only expedited those plans, and I am happy to report that we are moving swiftly in that direction.

A COMPLETELY NEW BUSINESS
Over the next few months, we will be moving our vintage line to a completely different website. This new website will still be run by Fright-Rags, but it will have a completely different name, and will only be for our vintage shirts. Our Fright-Rags website will remain the same and we will continue to focus on creating kick-ass horror shirts there.

We are working with a new supplier that will take over the printing and fulfillment of the vintage t-shirt orders. This means orders will ship in a few days, rather than several weeks. Another benefit to working with this new supplier is the ability for us to put out new designs more often, as well as new products like customized calendars, laptop skins, and even prints. We’ve also even been working on ideas to integrate many of our licenses into working with us not only on Fright-Rags shirts, but also on this new site as well, which will offer an even wider variety of designs for you to choose from.

We’re still a few months off from getting this new site up and running. But rest assured we are working hard on getting it off the ground and will release more details as we get closer. I just wanted to let you know what was going on.

Thanks again for your support and stay tuned… And as always, please feel free to share your thoughts below!

We have decided to re-release the We Belong Alive shirt this October. However, in an effort to differentiate this design from the original one last year, we are going to change the color of it, and also print it on a different colored shirt. I echo the sentiments in some of the comments that limited should be just that, limited. And while I do feel the cause is worthy of bringing the design back, it should be changed in some way so as not to detract from the very reason for its existence, which was for Leisha. Also, this will be the last time we plan on bringing this design back – in any form or modification – for reasons I will later in this post, so please keep reading.

WHEN WILL IT BE AVAILABLE?
The shirt will be revealed and available for pre-order from October 11 – 23. We will then print what is ordered and ship them in late November. If there are any shirts left over when orders are filled, they will go back on the site and we will leave them up until they are sold out.

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?
We will be donating 60% of the proceeds to help support breast cancer research and treatment. At this time we have not decided on which charity will be receiving the funds, as we want to make sure the one we choose will be using the money appropriately. It’s something we’re researching now, and I am open to suggestions so please post below if there is a fund that you might want to recommend. Once we decide, I will make sure to post it here and on the product page so you know how your contribution is helping this cause.

MOVING FORWARD
The main reason for even bringing up the re-release of this design was to help others, plain and simple. What happened last year was so special, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of doing this more often. After all, we could help many others out there, and you get a kick as limited edition shirt each time we do this….all the while raising awareness and expressing our common love of horror. How cool is that? So I am going to explore our options at making this a yearly tradition and create a new design each year without reprinting the older designs. And if it all goes well, I’d love to do this for other causes/charities in the future.

Thank you again for all of your comments, emails, and support. And as always, I welcome them, so feel free to post below.

Last October, we released this very special t-shirt (left) to help one of my friends as she battled an aggressive breast cancer. The decision to do this came after I heard about her illness and spent the day thinking of way I could use Fright-Rags as a vehicle to help in her time of need. I decided that we would create a t-shirt to sell and donate 100% of the proceeds to her. So I came up with a concept , and enlisted talented artist Jared Moraitis to help bring it to life. After it’s initial release sold out in just hours, we allowed customers to pre-order it for a second print run. It sold so well, that we were able to donate over $7,000 to her to help pay her bills during her treatment.

Not only was I overwhelmed at the out-pouring of support, but I was astonished by how much this disease had touched so many of our customers. Emails poured in from people talking about how their mother or sister fought it, or even their wife or girlfriend battled the disease. Some bought the shirt to honor a loved one who passed, others bought it as a memento to celebrate their survival. It was nothing short of amazing to see how this one t-shirt could rally so many people in our horror community.

I am honored to have been a part of this, and it remains a highlight of this company’s history.

In the months since its release, the one question I receive most is, “Are you going to bring the shirt back?” I get emails like that not just from people who missed out, but from those who purchased it the first time, and would like the option to buy another one. It’s something we have talked about in our meetings for awhile now, and I’ll be honest, we haven’t come up with a definitive answer.

On one hand, this shirt was designed for one purpose — to help Leisha and her family. The only reason it was even conceived was for that one cause. I am very conscious of that fact, and would never want to tarnish the original intent in any way.

However, I also think about how this shirt could help others if we do decide to re-release it. So I’ve been thinking about the possibility of doing another run of them in October, and donating the majority of the proceeds to a charity such as The Breast Cancer Fund or  Susan G. Komen for the Cure as a way to further raise both money and awareness for this deadly disease.

But I would like to get your thoughts/opinions on this before we make any decision. If you could, please place your vote in the poll below and feel free to post any additional comments. Thanks for reading.

UPDATE – 9/20/11 1:00pm EST

Wow, thanks so much for the comments so far! It really means alot to me that you have all taken the time to let me know how you feel, even if you may not agree with the idea of a reprint. I just wanted to take a moment to address some things that came up in these comments, and share what I’m thinking at them moment.

1. In regards to any comment asking why we wouldn’t be donating to a specific person, the main reason is so we can donate through proper channels. Giving money to specific individuals causes some issues with taxes. Not only does the person who receives the money have to pay taxes on it, but would as well since the person isn’t set up as a charity. Donating to a charity is a way to do it on a more “official” way, especially if we plan to do this on a yearly, or more regular basis. However, I do want to make sure whatever charities we choose will be the best in terms of how they use their money. Stiney brought up a great point about this, and I will be researching other charities as well.

2. I’ll be honest, the thought of doing another design wasn’t even a consideration when we first began thinking about this. However, I love the idea and I think it would be best if we do this on an ongoing basis. That way it allows us to keep giving money, but keeps the shirts limited.

3. However, I’m also leaning toward doing a reprint for this year only – but altering the design and color shirt. I am very conscious of the fact that limited means just that. And while the only reason I’m even considering a reprint is to help raise more money, I still would like to change it up a bit from the original so that they are the same design, but clearly different. But I do stress that this would be for this year only, and next year we would offer a completely new design.

4. I will also be talking to Leisha about this and get her opinion on these ideas. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, keep the comments flowing!

Thanks!

-Ben

UNFORTUNATELY THE POLL ISNT WORKING PROPERLY
Please put “YES” or “NO” in the comments section. Thanks!

This morning I did what I try to do at least 2-3 times a week. After dropping my two kids off at my parents house, I go home and before I start my day, I jump on my bike for a 12 mile ride to the beach. The trail I use takes me behind the neighborhood where my wife grew up, over the creek I used to fish in, and even by the old mom and pop video store where I used to rent all my horror films as a kid. In many ways, the trail is a trip through my life as I’ve lived in this town since I was six years old.

And like every bike trip I take, I put on my iPod and listen to something the entire time. Usually it’s a book . I love to read, and I always have at least two books going at all times…an audiobook to listen to while working out or in the car, and a regular book I like to curl up with at night or any other time I have a chance. This morning however, I opted for music as I really wanted a decent workout and music usually gets me going for a good ride. So, I hit my “top rated” playlist and put it on shuffle. This is a collection of all the songs I’ve rated 4 or 5 stars in iTunes over the years. But as I got going I started to realize something. With each new song that
came on, I was instantly transported in time. Here is just a sample of what I heard…and where each song took me.

“Red Barchetta” by Rush
I am 4 years old listening to Moving Pictures in my older brothers’ room at my old house in the city.

“Dream Warriors” by Dokken
I’m 8 years old watching Nightmare on Elm Street 3 on laserdisc at my friend’s house in the middle of the night.

“Whale and the Wasp” by Alice In Chains
I’m at a friend’s graduation party, swimming at the beach with the girl of my dreams, who I thought was out of my league but would later become my wife.

“Red Hill Mining Town” by U2
I’m in the middle of endless corn fields in the southern tier where I spent an entire summer gathering soil samples for an agricultural consulting firm.

“I’ve Been High” by REM
I’m hiking in the German Alps by myself with no map, and no one around for miles.

“The Best Of You” by Foo Fighters
It’s 2005 and  I’m out for a run at dawn, dreaming about what it would be like to quit my job and do Fright-Rags for a living.

And so on and so forth…as each song came on, another memory came with it. It was then that I realized, if my life is like a movie, then this is my soundtrack. Each song captures a moment in time, and strung together, they make up a story of my life.

I know I’m not alone in thinking this. We’ve all got songs that conjure memories of our life…so what’s your soundtrack?