I've been in this icons game for over a decade and a half, while steering the ship here at Chop Shop Store. The whole concept was kicked off back in 2008 with this t-shirt design featuring famous robots:



That idea was actually a spin-off from a previous design I did on famous web-memes. That original had 3-4 colors, but when I applied the same concept to the robot design, I realized they were too close to the actual characters. I could imagine the cease-and-desists as they landed in my email post-launch. So, I decided to ditch the colors altogether.

That robot design ended up going viral, and it opened the door to a whole series of similar concepts – from renowned aliens and monkeys to legendary ‘60s rock stars, and later celebrated interplanetary missions.

Fast forward to today, and a big chunk of my catalog is dedicated to space exploration, thanks to collaborations with groups like The Planetary Society and SETI Institute. But I haven't stopped having fun with the original concept. A few years ago I did one for famous starships in sci-fi to last year's famous cats. Now, I'm diving into the world of famous dogs.



I'm just getting started with this latest project. I might even scrap the blue color I've been using – most of these characters are actually more associated with red. One of my early favorites is that small rectangle next to Santa's Little Helper.



It's a nod to the infamous National Lampoon cover from January 1973, the one with the caption, “If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog”. I remember my brother had that issue. I didn't find it funny back then – I was probably about 7 years old and didn't get the satire.

Then there are odd things that I nearly forgot about like this… 



While working on the Wacky Races' Muttley icon, I remembered Mumbly – a spitting image of Muttley who later showed up in Laff-a-Lympics with "The Dread Baron," a clone of Muttley's partner Dick Dastardly. The crazy part? Both doppelgängers came from the same Hanna-Barbera stable. There’s a theory that Hanna-Barbera didn’t fully own Muttley, so they replicated their own characters for use in other shows. At least there would be no cease-and-desists coming from their own legal team.

There will be more updates as it comes along. If anyone is curious (or even reading this), I will post the cats poster “We Are Cats” here to give an idea how the final version might look.