I did it, 35 minutes ago...

This shirt was bought by Zan -online- as a pair and shipped here.
It was from a website called CafePress where you can design and print your own shirts, hats, bags, etc. The cool part is that you can print almost anything you can imagine. Back when we got these, they had a few restrictions on color brightness, printing area and location but I managed to achieve the effect I envisioned without too much sacrifice. When Zan bought it he also got a sister shirt to this one for himself.
I don't remember ordering a large but I think they sent us a large and a large instead of a medium so it's a bit big on me. It is very hard to keep this shirt pristine. It attracts all kinds of little dust fuzzies and epic stains with so much clean, white fabric area. The shirt has to be white though, the concept would not have worked on another color. I have a few white t-shirts but I don't have many custom designed shirts; definitely a keeper.
Let me start off the description with a little back story on its reference. In the late 80s a man named Alan Moore wrote a comic series entitled "Watchmen". This cult classic had a resurgence in the mid-2000s when a movie adaptation was scheduled. On the front of this shirt is the cover of issue #11. During this part of the story the characters are trekking to the antagonist's arctic bio-dome. The picture is of a wet spot on the glass which has cleared away the snow revealing the lush tropical habitat inside. This is a spectacular graphic image that lends itself to a t-shirt print. When Zan went out and purchased all the singles for Watchmen I immediately wanted to make this shirt because it was so obvious to me that day. Since CafePress allows you to put something on the back of the shirt as well for a dollar or two extra I added the quote from the climax of the book: "I did it, 35 minutes ago..." I'm not going to spoil the plot here but you can believe me that it's an awesome enough scene to warrant putting on a shirt.
This is a sweet shirt to wear around comic book geeks. It is a fairly obscure reference to a comic that isn't even that popular anymore. It is this obscurity that makes it so much more fun as a rare and unique item. I get the feeling of being an elite nerd when I wear this. It is a blatant test of Watchmen fandom. If you can get the reference you are Awesome Tier, if you fail to notice then you can just go about your business. The design is also nice because you can wear it in a normal situation and it is colorful and detailed enough to pass for just a "cool shirt". Because there are two of these in existence I need to make sure to not wear it at the same time as to avoid being "shirt buddies".

The only exception to this would be the opening day of the movie. The film's premier is pretty much what these two shirts were made for. On the race up to the movie there was a lot of merchandise and selling out. Now I'm not gonna lie, I love me some official merchandise. But in this particular case the theme of the comic and the tone of the author almost explicitly condemn this mass consumerism and soul robbing cash grabs. It came to be that anyone who bought the Hot Topic shirt or the DC Direct figures were just a noobie who jumped on the bandwagon for the movie. This design tries to stay loyal the comic book in every way while still keeping a piece of our souls intact. The cherry on top is the one fan who got it that day and made it all worth it. It is not for everyone, it is for the special few who were there early, who praise and fear the name Moore and who will jump to picket a sequel if they dare utter the words.