Tri~Gamer
21-08-10, 04:51
http://www.tamstreasuresonline.co.uk/ekmps/shops/TamsTreasures/resources/image//Michael%20McGloin.jpg
Michael McGloin art director at The Mountain
1. First off, there are a few people out there who don’t understand what the whole Three Wolf Moon shirt is about. Can you give us a little background as to what it is, exactly?
Three Wolf Moon is a t-shirt by artist Antonia Neshev, The Mountain’s best selling wolf artist. The climb to fame is an internet meme of epic proportion. What started with a single snarky review on Amazon.com (http://amazon.com/) turned into the most famous T-Shirt in history.
Brian Govern was searching for Law books on amazon.com (http://amazon.com/). During his search our Three Wolf Moon shirt popped up. Because a wolf t-shirt came up in his search for law books, he decided that he had to leave a snarky review because it was such a random event. He remembered some past memes on amazon and decided to try his hand at it on Nov. 10, 2008.
His review sat alone for the next 6 months until someone at collegehumor.com (http://collegehumor.com/) saw it and posted it on their site. Collegehumor.com (http://collegehumor.com/) users started adding their own reviews to the Three Wolf Moon page and very quickly the # of reviews went from 3 to 150. Around this time I was told what was happening and got involved first hand. First thing I did was leave comments on the one star reviews, advising the customer of how to wear their shirt properly for best results and to reprimand them for leaving a one star review (had to do my part). In the next few weeks the meme exploded nationally. Digg.com (http://digg.com/) picked it up and it was dugg over 8000 times, pretty much single handedly making it the most popular news item on the planet. During this time Dr. Coolsex was doing a parody video for it with a Pocahontas theme, hundreds of people were using their photoshop skills to add the t-shirt on to every famous person, magazine cover and religious icon on the planet and the shirts were flying out the door.
Over the next week it really started to get crazy, this was around May 20th. I was interview first by the BBC, then The Washington Post, The New York Times and then ABC News called to put it on TV. By sending someone in the White House press corp a shirt for a dinner (because everyone was sold out of it and they couldn’t get one), I was able to get the AP to pick up the story… which blew it out to every newspaper in the US and many others around the world.
http://www.adrants.com/images/three-wolf-moon.jpg
Three Wolf Moon shirt made by The Mountain
2. Did you get contacted by a lot of people after the shirt became internet famous?
Lots of people in the media, the White House, TV show producers. A few actors and professional sports people. We already had a great following with our line. We’ve become a well known brand with pro and semi-pro skiers, snowboarders and skaters. We are always sending shirts out at the request of producers. We also sponsor a bunch of skaters, skiers, down hill bikers and boarders. But there was definitely a massive influx of folks in the first 6 months or so. I really didn’t get to do anything at work for 6 months except manage Three Wolf Moon.
3. What did you think about all the (incredibly funny) user comments on Amazon about the Three Wolf Moon shirt?
I think it’s fantastic. What happened to us was a free 50 million dollar worldwide publicity campaign. It really put our brand on the map and allowed us to secure our place in history. Three Wolf Moon defines a moment in internet history where the people and networking of those people made an icon out of a t-shirt. We were just lucky to have been the shirt (or was it the power of the Three Wolf Moon?).
4. Are there any plans for a “sequel” shirt?
We have a Three Wolf Moon Glow-in-the-dark exclusive on our retail website right now: http://shop.themountain.me/products/Three-Wolf-Moon-Glow.html
I think that everyone else has the rest of the sequels covered. I’d really love to see more artist interpretations of Three Wolf Moon. Different artists redrawing the image in their style. That’s why I loved the Okamiden shirt so much.
5. Have you seen many parodies? What has been your favorite so far?
I’ve seen all the parodies. My favorites are the the 8 bit version that DieselSweeties.com (http://dieselsweeties.com/) R. Stevens did for the ROFLcon shirt. http://roflcon.org/2010/03/10/official-roflcon-ii-conference-shirt-pixel-art-three-wolf-moon/ I love the Okiden shirt by Gerald de Jesus, and I like the Three Ewok Death Star. There is one more that I love that no one has ever seen that I did digitally only (you may get sued if you use it though) : I designed and we proposed this to Sesame Street, but we couldn’t get a license…
*Cookie Monster® & Sesame Street® are registered trademarks.
*The Mountain® has never printed this shirt and is has no plans to do so.
*This was a proposal to Sesame St. which was rejected by Sesame Street.
http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/vabor/blog_photos/20657eac0f79ba06bdc8aa4effaaf34c.jpeg?v=232650
6. What do you think about our Okamiden Three Wolves Sun shirt?
I love love it for all the reasons stated above and more. When an artist reinterprets the design in his/her own style, not losing too much of the original magic, those are my favorite Three Wolf Moon tribute shirts. They respect the art and the artist Antonia Neshev.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/100715-okami-1.jpg
Three Okami Sun shirt inspired by the Three Wolf Moon shirt.
7. Will you play the game, Okamiden, now that you know about the shirt?
One of my guys in the art department Michael Sanford loves Okamiden. He had the shirt on (I gave him one that you guys sent), playing the game. Now that’s a fan!!! I’ll check out the game definitely.
8. Do you consider yourself a gamer?
Yes. But sadly I don’t have much time for them right now, minus the occasional iphone and ipad quickie.
9. What games have you played recently?
Last game I played (and LOVE) is Osmos for the iPad. It’s simply brilliant and the soundtrack is mesmerizing.
10.Any Capcom games?
Street Fighter iPhone/iPad edition, makes me happy to be alive!!!! Old school meets new school…
11.Finally, can YOU give us a quick tongue-in-cheek review for the Three Okami Sun shirt like you had for your Three Wolf Moon original shirt?
I wore my Three Okami Sun shirt over my Three Wolf Moon Glow shirt during a full moon and instantly felt the shift of bones and tendon, muscle and cells transforming my core into a wolf. I don’t remember much of that night, but based on the number of texts I receive from the female wolves in the furrydom forums, I’m guessing I was a Wolf GOD!
Michael McGloin art director at The Mountain
1. First off, there are a few people out there who don’t understand what the whole Three Wolf Moon shirt is about. Can you give us a little background as to what it is, exactly?
Three Wolf Moon is a t-shirt by artist Antonia Neshev, The Mountain’s best selling wolf artist. The climb to fame is an internet meme of epic proportion. What started with a single snarky review on Amazon.com (http://amazon.com/) turned into the most famous T-Shirt in history.
Brian Govern was searching for Law books on amazon.com (http://amazon.com/). During his search our Three Wolf Moon shirt popped up. Because a wolf t-shirt came up in his search for law books, he decided that he had to leave a snarky review because it was such a random event. He remembered some past memes on amazon and decided to try his hand at it on Nov. 10, 2008.
His review sat alone for the next 6 months until someone at collegehumor.com (http://collegehumor.com/) saw it and posted it on their site. Collegehumor.com (http://collegehumor.com/) users started adding their own reviews to the Three Wolf Moon page and very quickly the # of reviews went from 3 to 150. Around this time I was told what was happening and got involved first hand. First thing I did was leave comments on the one star reviews, advising the customer of how to wear their shirt properly for best results and to reprimand them for leaving a one star review (had to do my part). In the next few weeks the meme exploded nationally. Digg.com (http://digg.com/) picked it up and it was dugg over 8000 times, pretty much single handedly making it the most popular news item on the planet. During this time Dr. Coolsex was doing a parody video for it with a Pocahontas theme, hundreds of people were using their photoshop skills to add the t-shirt on to every famous person, magazine cover and religious icon on the planet and the shirts were flying out the door.
Over the next week it really started to get crazy, this was around May 20th. I was interview first by the BBC, then The Washington Post, The New York Times and then ABC News called to put it on TV. By sending someone in the White House press corp a shirt for a dinner (because everyone was sold out of it and they couldn’t get one), I was able to get the AP to pick up the story… which blew it out to every newspaper in the US and many others around the world.
http://www.adrants.com/images/three-wolf-moon.jpg
Three Wolf Moon shirt made by The Mountain
2. Did you get contacted by a lot of people after the shirt became internet famous?
Lots of people in the media, the White House, TV show producers. A few actors and professional sports people. We already had a great following with our line. We’ve become a well known brand with pro and semi-pro skiers, snowboarders and skaters. We are always sending shirts out at the request of producers. We also sponsor a bunch of skaters, skiers, down hill bikers and boarders. But there was definitely a massive influx of folks in the first 6 months or so. I really didn’t get to do anything at work for 6 months except manage Three Wolf Moon.
3. What did you think about all the (incredibly funny) user comments on Amazon about the Three Wolf Moon shirt?
I think it’s fantastic. What happened to us was a free 50 million dollar worldwide publicity campaign. It really put our brand on the map and allowed us to secure our place in history. Three Wolf Moon defines a moment in internet history where the people and networking of those people made an icon out of a t-shirt. We were just lucky to have been the shirt (or was it the power of the Three Wolf Moon?).
4. Are there any plans for a “sequel” shirt?
We have a Three Wolf Moon Glow-in-the-dark exclusive on our retail website right now: http://shop.themountain.me/products/Three-Wolf-Moon-Glow.html
I think that everyone else has the rest of the sequels covered. I’d really love to see more artist interpretations of Three Wolf Moon. Different artists redrawing the image in their style. That’s why I loved the Okamiden shirt so much.
5. Have you seen many parodies? What has been your favorite so far?
I’ve seen all the parodies. My favorites are the the 8 bit version that DieselSweeties.com (http://dieselsweeties.com/) R. Stevens did for the ROFLcon shirt. http://roflcon.org/2010/03/10/official-roflcon-ii-conference-shirt-pixel-art-three-wolf-moon/ I love the Okiden shirt by Gerald de Jesus, and I like the Three Ewok Death Star. There is one more that I love that no one has ever seen that I did digitally only (you may get sued if you use it though) : I designed and we proposed this to Sesame Street, but we couldn’t get a license…
*Cookie Monster® & Sesame Street® are registered trademarks.
*The Mountain® has never printed this shirt and is has no plans to do so.
*This was a proposal to Sesame St. which was rejected by Sesame Street.
http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/vabor/blog_photos/20657eac0f79ba06bdc8aa4effaaf34c.jpeg?v=232650
6. What do you think about our Okamiden Three Wolves Sun shirt?
I love love it for all the reasons stated above and more. When an artist reinterprets the design in his/her own style, not losing too much of the original magic, those are my favorite Three Wolf Moon tribute shirts. They respect the art and the artist Antonia Neshev.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/100715-okami-1.jpg
Three Okami Sun shirt inspired by the Three Wolf Moon shirt.
7. Will you play the game, Okamiden, now that you know about the shirt?
One of my guys in the art department Michael Sanford loves Okamiden. He had the shirt on (I gave him one that you guys sent), playing the game. Now that’s a fan!!! I’ll check out the game definitely.
8. Do you consider yourself a gamer?
Yes. But sadly I don’t have much time for them right now, minus the occasional iphone and ipad quickie.
9. What games have you played recently?
Last game I played (and LOVE) is Osmos for the iPad. It’s simply brilliant and the soundtrack is mesmerizing.
10.Any Capcom games?
Street Fighter iPhone/iPad edition, makes me happy to be alive!!!! Old school meets new school…
11.Finally, can YOU give us a quick tongue-in-cheek review for the Three Okami Sun shirt like you had for your Three Wolf Moon original shirt?
I wore my Three Okami Sun shirt over my Three Wolf Moon Glow shirt during a full moon and instantly felt the shift of bones and tendon, muscle and cells transforming my core into a wolf. I don’t remember much of that night, but based on the number of texts I receive from the female wolves in the furrydom forums, I’m guessing I was a Wolf GOD!