The closing gag here was one of the most popular jokes in the series, if not the most, but we did over-exploit it a bit. It sold just fine when we made a sticker out of it, but the T-shirts didn’t really move. I’d had my doubts from the start about trying to sell a bunch of shirts that labeled their wearers as douches, and this is the only time I can remember both Phil and Erica admitting I was right after the fact.

But the webcomics-to-shirt market was still so big that we felt we had to try something, we knew better than to limit our market by making it something you had to know the comic to appreciate, and “Well, people like ironic shirts, right? With a little self-deprecation sometimes? Nobody buys a shirt that just says I’M A SWELL GUY.”

I still own one of those shirts and wear it around the house now and again.

It is not very clear here, but panel 1 shows Best receiving the weapon that will come to define him, his ax-guitar.