Fashion Victim: Heterosexual Sports Fans Don Their Princess Sparkle Pony Apparel

Ha, ha, what you're seeing above is a group of straight men (like, probably with wives and, ew, kids and even, like, pets), members of a "fantasy football league" (first and last appearance of that phrase on this blog, I bet) brandishing citrus fruit and holding a sign that says Lemon Party. If you don't know why that's funny, and you decide to Google that phrase, be prepared to see explicit pictures of naked men in their eighties having sex, OK? God, jokes lose all their sizzle when you have to explain them.

But what's this? What's that on their shirts? Why, it's my caricature of Rob Halford, nelly overlord of Judas Priest. How on earth did that end up there?

No, no, don't get righteous-indignationy. It just so happens that one of the guys in the photo above contacted me and asked if they could use the image, something very few people who "re-purpose" my artwork bother to do. He explained that Rob Halford was, in fact, the patron saint of their team, so how could I refuse? I happily prepared a nice greyscale png file with a transparent background for "Serious Business" to use, and provided it to them with the sole proviso that I had to, had to, had to see a photograph of them wearing the shirts to believe that it was real.

I'm happy because I have a soft spot for that drawing. I originally did it as part of a cover design for Genetic Disorder magazine in 2002. Later, I rejiggered it for a post here. It never garnered any response at all, and I was miffed, because I'm terrible at caricatures and I thought that, for once, I had gotten one right. So the 9-year delayed rave review was thrilling.

I have a funny Rob Halford story! And it's a funny Arizona story, too! I was in the Phoenix area in about 1992-3, presenting the Festival of Animation at the wonderful Valley Art Theater in Tempe. One night I was relaxing with some locals at a hairdresser watering hole when a very familiar-looking man walked by. I turned to my companions and the following conversation took place:

Me: OMG!
Persons A and B: What? What?
Me: Wasn't that... Judas Priest guy? Rob Halford?
Person A: Oh, her?
Person B: Yeah, she's here all the time. She lives here.
Person A: Honey, she's a tired old queen!

So anyway, four glittery hooves way, WAY up to "Serious Business" for having the courtesy to ask my permission to use my design (flattery will get you everywhere) and for making good on their promise to model the results.

The system works! Looking good, fellas!