Another senseless product churned out from the Red Tower’s basement! This fun design homages one of my favourite Thomas Ligotti short stories, “The Town Manager” from his 1997 collection Teatro Grottesco. It depicts the destroyed trolley central to the story as well as Comfort Castle, a location described in the text.
In the story, the residents of an American small town are subjected to the whims of a mysterious Town Manager, an unseen authority who rearranges the townsfolk’s way of life in a sinister fashion. To say more would be to spoil some of the story’s dark delights.
This was the system in which we had functioned for generations. This was the order of things into which we had been born and to which we had committed ourselves by compliance. The risk of opposing this order, of plunging into the unknown, was simply too much for us to contemplate for very long.
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager”
What can I say? Sometimes you just have to make a wacky graphic tee with a reference that five people on Earth will get. The image was designed after Disneyland advertisements of the 1950s. I enjoy their bold, simple illustrations and tried to channel their design and colour schemes. Honestly, I made it solely for myself to wear and I’m just sharing it on the off, off chance that it might be fun for some other Ligottesques out there.
So there you have it! Be the toast of the next NecronomiCon in a lovely pink Ligotti-themed shirt, or wear it to casual day in the Nightmare Network, where you work, and I work, and we all work, forever.
Click over to Teespring to get your own!
