Welcome to the first annual Grave Decay horror awards! We’ve covered a lot more fashion news than we ever expected over the past year, mostly thanks to horror apparel brands like Cavitycolors, Fright-Rags, Gutter Garbs, Terror Threads, and others in the officially licensed t-shirt industry.
Every original t-shirt design released in 2018 was eligible for our Best Horror T-Shirt Design award, but not re-prints or variants of previously released designs. All of the t-shirt designs we reported on throughout the year, as well as a few that we missed, were in our pool of consideration. We then narrowed the field down to ten nominees which we ranked. So without further ado, here are the nine nominees & one winner of our first ever Best Horror T-Shirt Design 2018 award:
1Hatchet
We reported on our tenth favorite t-shirt design of the year back in May, Cavitycolors’ “Hatchet” by artist Devon Whitehead, based on Adam Green’s modern classic slasher franchise.
2Halloween 40th Anniversary
Back in September, we reported on our ninth favorite shirt, Fright-Rags’ “Halloween 40th Anniversary” design by artist Justin Osbourn, depicting various scenes from John Carpenter’s original 1978 slasher classic.
3Containment
Back in August, we reported on our eighth favorite t-shirt design of 2018, Fright-Rags’ “Containment” by artist Kyle Crawford, featuring the “Tarman” zombie from John A. Russo’s Return of the Living Dead.
4The Howling
In August we reported on our seventh favorite t-shirt design, Cavitycolors’ extra-vibrant “The Howling” by artist Devon Whitehead.
5Midsummer Scream
Back in July, we reported on our sixth favorite design of the year, Fright-Rags’ “Midsummer Scream” by artist Justin Osbourn, the first of two amazing designs that the company released this year for Slashback Video.
6Man of the Hour
In May, we reported on our fifth favorite design, Terror Threads’ “Man of the Hour” by artist Sam Coyne (AKA Samhain1992), depicting various scenes from this year’s incredible killer clown slasher Terrifier.
7An American Werewolf in London
Back in July, we reported on our fourth favorite t-shirt design of 2018, Fright-Rags’ “An American Werewolf in London” by artist Justin Osbourn.
8Summer of Fear
We reported on our third favorite t-shirt design of the year in May, Cavitycolors’ “Summer of Fear” by artist Devon Whitehead, which replaces the sunbather in the classic “Wish You Were Here” postcard with Tales from the Crypt‘s Crypt Keeper and the word “Here” with “Dead”.
9New York Maniac
In July, we reported on our second favorite t-shirt design and first runner-up, Cavitycolors’ “New York Maniac” by artist Devon Whitehead, featuring a handful of big apple scenes from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan in vibrant neon colors.
10Graveyard Ghoul
We actually didn’t report on our favorite t-shirt design of 2018, which slipped through the cracks in early December, Cavitycolors’ “Graveyard Ghoul” by artist Devon Whitehead, depicting the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira.
Well that wraps up the 2018 Best Horror T-Shirt Design category. Congratulations to Cavitycolors & artist Devon Whitehead for a clean sweep of the top three spots despite extremely tough competition, and thanks to all the nominees for creating such amazing art!
