See you space cowboy...

This is a custom shirt that was made by a woman who is a fan of the show and makes t-shirts and accessories that are all anime/game related.
I purchased it when I saw her table at Anime Expo 2010 walking though the artists alley. It was about $10 ad was the very last one she had (and it was in my size!) I don't think I would ever be able to find the actual artist or a place to buy more if I tried.
The front is Spike Spiegel, of Cowboy Bebop fame. One of my favorite characters from my favorite anime of all time. And of course he's looking very sly and cool. On the reverse is a line from the end of many of the episodes. It would read, "See you space cowboy..."  kind of a "to be continued" but with a little smirk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Bebop
A traditional black graphic tee if I ever saw one. Anime, dark on dark colors and subtle, just the way I like it. The character is in high contrast on the front and had to have been made from a stencil that was bleached and then dyed I believe. The lady said she washed it 3 or 4 times to make sure the ink didn't come out, so I'm not really sure what that indicates. Since it is in the stencil style and it carries these strange oil spill/tie-dye colors it's got an underground feel to it. Of course the Cowboy Bebop reference is what really does it for me. Since there's so little Bebop merchandise these days I always want to pick up anything I see. With that though, wearing a piece of apparel from a series so old is rare, providing an aura of unique-ness and rarity for yourself.
I gotta wear something like this when I think someone will get the reference. It's not a shirt to be wasted walking around just anywhere, because hitting that one person in a crowd who gets it is high odds for most places. This beauty has got to be taken to an anime club, or when going down to Little Tokyo, maybe another convention, where shirts of this nature are plentiful but no one will have this nearly one of a kind t-shirt.

When I bought it at Anime Expo this year the nice lady who ran this booth kind of started up a conversation to attract customers. We ended up talking for a while about the stuff she makes, which were like little hair pins and some sweet steampunk items, mostly stuff for girls. As we were talking about art, inspirations and anime I saw this shirt under some other ones she had (Ghost in the Shell themed I think). By the end of the conversation she had made a sale of one of her shirts, and Alyssa had found out the shopkeeper had a secret bat fursona that had used as her logo. Maybe she was just patronizing us but, it was funny to watch as it was developed and revealed right then and there.