Since the mid-2000s, Mishka NYC has been at the vanguard of popular streetwear. A cornerstone of their success has been designing clothing influenced by gonzo horror, Z-grade sci-fi, and the overall dank and stanky underbelly of pop culture. Indeed, their gear is worn with equal aplomb by metalheads and hip-hoppers (Lil Jon and Lady Sovereign have sported Mishka in music videos), and the label's past collaborators have ranged from everyone from Iron Maiden album artist Derek Riggs to erotic photographer Ellen Stagg to electro-reggae supergroup Major Lazer.

Label heads Mikhail "Mike" Bortnik and Greg Rivera were nice enough to sit down with io9 and answer some questions about Mishka's design philosophy, winter line, and how Stan Lee cold lamps it at Comic-Con:

What's the Mishka origin story?

Mikhail Bortnik (left): It started sometime in '03. My job I was working at was going to close, so I decided to take a stab at t-shirt design, which I had wanted to do since college. This was about the same time I met Greg. A few months into it, I realized I was in over my head so I asked Greg to join on-board and sell the line. Greg immediately came on as a full-time partner. The basic idea was we wanted to sell street wear, but we soon realized there were so many fans who were into both street wear and scifi that there was absolutely no reason we couldn't incorporate these two things.

In terms of scifi, what were your earliest influences?

Greg Rivera (right): A lot of our influences have come from B-horror films, straight-up scifi films, and comic books, especially for Mike. I was big into horror comics when I was kid and also things like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, anything with the ironic twist at the end. Both of us are also big toy fans. Being in our early thirties, we grew up with 1980s toys, which ended up being a huge influence in our designs.

MB: One example of this influence was in our Fall 2008 Skyway Trippers collection – we tweaked an Israeli Special Forces design to include the phrase "Spaceknights" in Russian, as a homage to the old Spaceknights comic and toy line.

ROM Spaceknight allusions? That's wild. On a similar note, Mishka has a roster of kaiju-like characters who appears on a lot of your apparel – i.e. the half-serpentine, half-ursine Death Adder and the Cyco Simon skull. What's the story behind them?

MB: Actually the notion of bringing characters into the clothing brand goes back to metal bands. Cyco Simon is a reference to [Megadeth's ] Vic Rattlehead and Eddie from Iron Maiden, and we wanted our own. As for the Death Adder, we use our designs to tell a story with him – he's often seen teaming up with our Soviet super-soldier character.

Are we going to see an Adult Swim series with these guys anytime soon?

MB: I'll be honest, Greg and I would love to be able to a comic book or cartoon series with them.

What was the first sci-fi influenced Mishka piece?

GR: "They Live" was probably one of the first ones. It's hard to remember since we've had so many designs over time.

One of my early favorites was your Judge Death-inspired "Kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode" logo.

MB: That was a mixing of the old Brian Bolland artwork with what people guessed [what the name of German industrial band] KMFDM stood for. KMFDM actually gave us a cease-and-desist for that one.

Really? Not the 2000 AD people?

MB: We figured we'd get something from them or Depeche Mode, but no, it was from the KMFDM people!

On a similar note, when was that moment when you said to yourselves, "Holy crap. We can't believe we just put that on a t-shirt."

MB: The "Tom of Eternia" t-shirt.

GR: Mike had the idea of doing a Tom of Finland-style shirt [featuring He-Man].

MB: If you've never hear of Tom of Finland, he's like the homoerotic artist. There was this impetus [to create this shirt] early on when someone made the comment that all we do is put naked girls and 80s cartoon characters on our shirts. Street wear on a whole seems more macho than we are as a brand, so Greg and I were like, let's do this.

GR: Our friend Robin Nishio – who is this amazing illustrator – met up with us and Mike pitched him the idea. Robin actually went and bought two big books on Tom of Finland and aped the style exactly. That was the coolest because we got so much shit from our customers because it was like, "Here's Skeletor as the master and He-Man down on his knees, gay porn style."

What sort of pieces are in the pipeline at the moment?

GR: We did this series of shirts for [the new heavy metal-themed video game] Brutal Legend and we're working with Dark Horse Comics on a project.

Oh wow, are you at the liberty to talk about that right now?

MB: Not really, but if anyone has followed our brand, you'll know that one particular Dark Horse character particularly sticks out.

As far as the Winter 2009 line goes, you seem to have strong robot theme going. You have the Terminator cyclops, the Decepticon hearse, and my favorite, the Ultron bear. Why robots this season?

MB: We've gone so far doing themes that this season just happened to be robots. This was probably one of our most rigid designs themes. The Ultron shirt's been particularly popular.

You guys hit up the San Diego Comic-Con this year. How was it being a street wear brand at what's been historically a comic and scifi show?

MB: We were selling some things there, but we were mostly there as fans.

GR: It's been a little calculated – and not to reveal all our secrets – but if a lot more other brands saw the potential of that market, you'd see a lot more people doing it. It's hard for us to do business, because Mike and I go and we're just geeking out. Besides going out there to meet Tim and Eric [from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!], we're both really into Japanese kaiju and we had the chance to show off our own kaiju designs.

MB: Comic-Con 2008 was my first one. We wanted to see the Lost panel, but after we saw it spilling into the street, we just said "fuck it" and went to the Battlestar Galactica panel. That crowd was pretty big too, but Dean Koontz was still speaking. So yeah, we killed two hours listening to Dean Koontz.

Any good Mishka Comic-Con party tales?

GR: We crashed an Activision party at the Hard Rock Café and saw Stan Lee. If you're at a Comic-Con party and you see Stan Lee, you know you're at the coolest party.

MB: He was just hanging out with this girl on his arm.

GR: (laughs) She looked like she was twenty years old.

MB: I don't if she was, like, hitting on him or he was hitting on her, but Stan Lee's exactly how you picture him. He really says "true believer."

I wouldn't want him any other way. Do you find yourselves getting calls from influences who've enjoyed your work?

MB: Other than the artists who we're huge fans of and end up working with – like Derek Riggs and L'Amour Supreme – no, not really. A lot of our influences are grumpy old men.

What would you say is the most quintessential Mishka design?

GR: On our first trip to Japan, we stayed in this little town outside of Tokyo and found all these old Japanese horror and sci-fi press kits. These kits would take the coolest part of the movie and turn it into poster art. We found this great Westworld kit and Mike added some comic book stuff, like Ultron and Cyborg from Teen Titans to the design. To this day, it's still one of my favorite ones.

MB: We also found this Motel Hell kit in which we used for our "Electric Funeral" shirt. We electrified the faces and it turned out great.

Alright guys - some final lightning round questions. Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China or Kirstie Alley in Wrath of Khan?

MB: Kim Cattrall. I'm a Next Generation fan, what can I say.

Zardoz or Troll 2?

GR: Troll 2.

MB: Zardoz.

Would you rather have John Carpenter compose you a personal theme song or direct a movie about your life?

MB: I'd rather have him direct the movie because then he'd have to compose the film's theme song.

Shit! I hadn't thought of that loophole. Any final words to io9 readers?

GR: By all means check Mishka out - you'll definitely find something you like.

Mishka apparel is available at their website and their Brooklyn store at 350 Broadway in Williamsburg, NYC. Store photography courtesy of Dave Digioia.

T-Shirts

Need some giant monsters in your life? Try Shanalogic's line of weird monstery goodness, including a demon-killing woman, the controversial Octophant, and the incomparable Rhinoblaster.

LikeMindedPeople has a nice series of dinosaur tees that I'm particularly fond of, such as this Bronotsaurus tee and this Stego!

Of course, the amazingness that is Threadless is packed with tees for your every nerdy whim. There's a whole collection of space-themed tees, including the crucial Disaster! model. There's also a dirty-minded robot tee, and a shark eating an airplane.

If you want tees with logos for businesses and companies from your favorite scifi movies, try Wake Up It's Time To Die. For $18, you could have a shirt that shows how much you love Encom or the Tyrell Corporation.

Mediocore has a shirt with a good-will slogan for all during this holiday season: "Be excellent to each other."

ReThink has a beautiful space shuttle tee that is a perfect memorial to our favorite soon-to-be-decommissioned NASA experiment.

Retropolis Transit Authority has a delightful line of retro-futurist shirts, and this year has given us a new one: the Space Pirate Career shirt (pictured above).

Coats & Hoodies

Need a scifi-themed coat to keep out the winter cold? You can get the Tenth Doctor's amazing trenchcoat - or his companion Martha's cute leather jacket via AbbyShot Clothiers. Yes, they are exact replicas of the costumes - approved by the BBC and everything! They may be a little pricey, but they look hot.

If you'd like something a little cheaper but still snuggly, why not try an io9 "space porn" hoodie, from Neighborhoodies? It's the perfect way to show your love for our regular feature that shows you the naked universe, from every angle. There are a few other io9 designs at Neighborhoodies too.

Scarves & Hats

Are you feeling zombified? Then how about a skull-and-bones scarf - these beauties are made by Aardvark for kids, but grownups can wear them too.

If you need to keep your head covered up, try this chainmail head accessory at ThinkGeek. Sound too crunchy? How about these soft, adorable cat demon hats from the anime Inuyasha? And then there are three different adorable Naruto hats to keep your head warm and give you additional ears.

Socks

And every nerd needs socks - that's just a fact of life. And there are two amazing places to get nerd footwear. Nothing beats a pair of Diesel Sweeties pixel socks featuring robots, space invaders, or gamer dice.

And if you need socks with anything from UFOs and the solar system, to ninjas and unicorns, you must peruse the merchandise at Sock It to Me. Crucially, Sock It To Me also sells stripey socks of every persuasion.

Artist Joanna Mulder was showing off her amazing wares at NYC's King Con this weekend, and they are just brilliant. Check out her site as well — any artist who knows how to incorporate Enemy Mine into an ad, and put our two favorite droids into love's sweet embrace is uber-talented. Here are a few of my favorites...

Purchase these shirts and a lot of other great geeky items at Etsy.

Thanks for the tip OMG_Ponies.

Reveal the truth about Artoo's secret Skaro connection, and prove that you own the owner's manual for the droid, by getting the T-shirt today only. [TeeFury]

These shirts all come from TopatoCo, which sells products from various webcomics creators. There are plenty more science and science-fiction themed shirts to be had, but here are some of the latest and greatest:

The awesome science kitty t-shirt is by Jeph Jacques, creator of Questionable Content, a webcomic about friendship, coffee, and perverted robots. $18.75 from TopatoCo.
Kate Beaton writes hilarious and irreverent comics about famous (and occasionally obscure) historical figures in Hark! A Vagrant. She's also a big believer in love in the face of radiation sickness, as evidenced by her Curies shirt. $19.75 from TopatoCo.
And this bit of Schultzy humor comes from Dresden Codak's Aaron Diaz, who drew it as a tribute to Kate Beaton's historical liberties. $18.75 from TopatoCo.
Now come on, did you really think that mammals survived the dinosaur apocalypse by burrowing underground? Zach Weiner of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal reveals the very real debt we owe our reptilian saviors. $18.50 from TopatoCo.

My biggest beef with these shirts (aside from the giant crane in lieu of one of Tokyo's already gigantic movie monsters), is that more cities need to be represented. Where is the San Juan Chupacabra? The Vancouver Sasquatch? I'd even settle for a Montauk Monster.

T-shirts are available for $17 from Stussy.

[via Hide Your Arms]

You can find these tees and more (including a rare find that references The Last Starfighter) over at UK-based Wake Up . . . Time To Die. Each shirt is £17.50, and shipping is free in the UK. You know you want one. (io9 readers can enter the code IO910 in the order form to get 10% off!)

If you're heading Back to the Future, you know you'll want to stop off at Biff's bar.

Ah, ICS. You made such great TV shows in the movie "The Running Man."
The United States Police Force always kept the peace in "Escape From New York."
Encom built the Master Control Program that Tron must fight! For the users!
Who wouldn't want to fly the corporate colors for the Voight-Kampff test? It's what prevents those replicants from passing themselves off as one of us humans.

These tees (and this awesome trooper hoodie) run the gamut from artistic renderings of Darth Vader's head to a surprising number of jokes about AT-ATs. Must be seen to be believed.

via Hide Your Arms

via Hide Your Arms

And then there's this magnificent, meta-nerdly beauty available on Chop Shop and designed by Dana Deskiewicz. Not only is the robot amazing, but its telling a web weenie joke. For those not in the know, there is a special file called robots.txt that you can put in the headers of a web page. If that file contains the words NOFOLLOW, search engines like Google are supposed to ignore the page and not make it available via search. It's basically a nice way of asking Google's robot web crawlers to leave your pages in privacy and peace. I wish I had a giant robot like this one to enforce privacy online! At least now I can wear it on my chest.

via ReThink Clothing

You can't get more realistic than this tee that proclaims, Terry Bisson style, "I am made of meat!" You can find it, and proclaim your true biological function, here.

Then there's the secret history of Alien's love for Predator, which you should proclaim loud and proud on your chest. You can get the tee here, and get some alien/predator love action here [NSFW].

And just to put all of this in perspective, we have the most truthful shirt of all, which offers us a chart explaining why the humor of memes like the ones on these tees is inversely proportional to their popularity. Let the world know the true worth of memes by buying this meme-laden shirt here.

We also received a package from Paramount Pictures with two t-shirts that are a part of the movies viral marketing strategy. Any thoughts?

I'm sure there will be many more viral marketing updates, as we near the near the release date of May 5th.

I adore this picture of a robot marching along.

And then there are these x-ray goggles. Kind of cheesy, kind of awesome.

Who wouldn't want to broadcast their cyberzoomery with this tee showing Cybernauts who are connected to the internet even in space!

See more of Aguero's stuff on his Tomo 77 gallery site, or buy one of his amazing tees via his page on Threadless.

As faithful io9 readers (and even faithless ones) know, we have always been fans of the three-breasted. But even better than just contemplating the third breast is this tee, which celebrates how science can contribute to the rapid evolution of a third breast for every consenting adult.

Both shirts sell for under $20.

Hoverboard via Fashionably Geek and Three Breastie via same.

Of course no gallery of scifi-themed shirts could ever be exhaustive, but we've got a nice selection here of whimsical, artistic, and referencey. And of course, don't forget to pick up an io9 t-shirt from our Neighborhoodies collection. All proceeds from our io9 tees go to the Carl Brandon Society.

I love this Twi'lek Pinup [via StarWarsShop] - it's like the dearly-departed Bettie Page crossed with alien sizzle.

And if you're smarting over the recent remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, you'll want to shout your loyalty to the original with this Klaatu Barada Nikto shirt [via Retropolis Transit Authority].

This shirt is called Better Recognize [via MiniCassettes] because you'd better recognize the most evil vector drawing in scifi history. (Hint: You saw it in Tron.)

Three little robots make a nice beginning for your army in a shirt called Mechanical Breakdown [via ReThink].

The shirt called The House that Romero Built [via Mediocore] is pure luxury, with those big zombies emblazoned all over your chest.

I am a huge fan of all the tees from Loyal Army, but Spaceships is the cutest space-themed tee I've ever laid eyes on.

Speaking of cute tees, Dinosaur Attack [via Divine Clothing Co] is the perfect shirt for the person who dreams of dinosaurs and giant monsters.

Wow, it's full of stars. That's right, that gorgeous, award-winning Live Long and Prosper shirt [via MadeByHumans] is basically the loveliest depiction you could imagine of the classic Vulcan greeting.

For booklovers, there's nothing better than Take Me to Your Reader [via Cameesa], an amazing shirt that shows a UFO book showering an innocent Earthling with words.

There's nothing better than a random scientific diagram of holiday-esque trees, which you'll find on the How To Shirt [via Assembly of Text].

Got Space? [via Zazzle] shows a highly-detailed view of the Hubble telescope. Basically, nothing could be more awesome than that.

Vampires Beware, by Ian Leino [via Threadless] depicts all the tools you'd find in a Victorian vampire-killing kit. Show all those Twilight fans how you really feel.

If you're feeling steampunky, tentacly, or just alternative history-ish, Two Guys & An Octopus, by Resist Today [via Shanalogic] might be just the ticket.

HBO is selling all sorts of Vampy wares, from Merlottes' mugs to Fangtasia t-shirts.

But the best news is, come May HBO is releasing the entire DVD box set of the first season of True Blood for $60. So until then we'll have to amuse ourselves by watching behind-the-scenes videos, and dressing up in the tiny Merlotte's waitress uniform while reenacting the infamous Rattree fight.

Until the the video of said reenactment is up, you'll have to hang tight and watch this behind the scenes make up video, where the artist explains how she gives Bill that just rolled out of the grave look.

And if you're fearful that the next season (which starts filming in January) may be the last, take heed, an old interview with the National Post where Sookie Stackhouse herself (Ana Paquin) says she's signed on for seven years of True Blood madness, so barring HBO's decision to cancel the series, we could be watching True Blood well into the year 2115.