Rat King
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A rat king is said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at the tails, and additionally stuck to each other with blood, dirt, and excrements. Consequently, the animals grow together, joined at the tails, which are often broken.
Most researchers presume that the creatures are legendary and are created by conscious manipulation of human beings, such as tieing the tails of dead rats together and mummifying them. Some reports of living specimens have been made, but none has been proven. The supposed cause for the phenomenon is the narrow living space in some buildings, where the young animals live too close together, becoming hopelessly entangled with one another. However, the normal behavior of rats, which generally seek their own comfort, speak against this theory. No scientific study has been performed to prove a natural cause of the phenomenon, so that most researchers class the rat king as a fictitious animal.
Historically, rat kings were seen as an extremely bad omen, particularly associated with plagues.

that's all very well but i don't think the average person looking at this would realise all that, so what edge there would be is lost

I dunno annettettenna, I recognized it as Rattenkonig right away. I'd give it a $5 if it weren't for the yellow eyes, which look way too creepy for me.

I think that your design could be more compelling considering the story behind it. I just don't think that a Rat King would have tails in a nicely tied knot with the rats looking so calm. Its a freightning thing, Rat King, and the design is just strange.

*It's

Starr! this has really come a long way from your earlier submissions! That is awesome. You are improving leaps and bounds. I think this is a really solid idea. I think the strongest one is the sage/gray version. It really makes the crowns pop out.

all the rats are different which is cool - i like the rat standing

I like the idea of it being on Heather Grey, I think it would look the best that way. Nice 5.

Heather grey is a definite option, I'm unsure why I left it off...

This is interesting....the yellow rat eyes reminds me of The Secret of Nimh. Which is a compliment.

nice job!

I love the overall shape made by the rats.

pretty cool looking, i like the little crowns 3

This reminds me of he Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

I had the same first impression, Gallus. :)

I like the idea, but I don't think this particular execution of it makes an appealing tshirt.

i dont think you need a backstory for a shirt to work..half the fun is explaining your shirt. This illustration works with or without the story. nice.

i like the reference to something relatively obscure, i recognized it immediately and would comment if i saw someone wearing this.

i like it on sage, but am not sure about the placement.

there is a famous contemporary art piece, (I can't remember the exact artist), that is a huge sculpture of a rat king. Check it out, it's cool.

I can't say i really like the placement. The rats, from far away, appear to be coming out of a person's heart. try to center it or experiment with the placement.
it does remind me of Nimh.

The first thing that popped into my head was The Nutcracker.


I think the rat king in that had seven heads, probably taken from what you said.

I like it 5.

nice!

i like the explination - not sure about the placement but it looks great on the blue

"alexbeer, at 8:43pm on Jan 26, 2006    
there is a famous contemporary art piece, (I can't remember the exact artist), that is a huge sculpture of a rat king. Check it out, it's cool. "

that's katherine fritsch, actually, I actually remember when this went up in '93, and had forgotten about it until I started this project. It's really awesome, actually. Here's a link:
http://www.diachelsea.org/exhibs/fritsch/ratking/fritsch-ratking-top.jpg

I'm not sure I would buy a shirt that i need explained... especially if I had to go to Wikipedia .... Don't get me wrong I love Wikipedia...

Anyways I read (or at least glanced at) the rest of the article... very interesting

this reminds me of "the amazing maurice and his educated rodents" terry pratchett.
i also recognized it right away, and i love the darker shirt. $5

The yellow creepy eyes are great.

As soon as I saw this was about Rat Kings, I immediately thought of the character David from the Animorphs series. Did anyone else used to read those? I loved those books when I was younger and they were still being written. David was an ex-Animorph trapped as a rat, and used his human reasoning to get all the other rats to listen to him. Sort of like a rat-king, only without being tied to other rats. Unless, of course, you count his human side tangling with his rat side... But I'm really way over-analyzing this! Lol.

Anyway, it's a really original concept. It's a good illustration too, I think the rats look great. I don't think it would be something I would wear though, but that's just me. Good job!

i dont really like the placement

Ironically, I only thought of the Gordian Knot when I saw the entangled tails...

Weird, huh.

no

I'd buy it cause I love the ratties :)

This reminds me a lot of Poe's story Hop Frog.

The rat king from The Nutcracker, seven times over! It's sort of weird, so I'm giving it a 3.

When I was rat
The rat would be king
I imagined ashes and us alone
Always us alone

$4

thats the most researched rat design EVER i give it a 4

Hell yes! on black

I like the concept ... but too many rats with crowns on. Good design though.