Bad Otis Link Part 11: Killer Line-Ups
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 10.
Did Any of Your Tees Provoke Media Attention?
Yeah, tons, especially when Punk was still shocking, not so safe like today. I saw a news show once on some psycho that slaughtered a bunch of people. They were going through the guy’s house showing all of the disturbing junk in his house. I saw a few of my shirts hanging on his walls.
People were pissed all the time, but that’s what we were trying to do back then, it was PUNK rock!!! While I was doing the shirt stuff I was always also publishing and doing art for magazines, books, etc. The one project I did, that really pissed people off, was a set of trading cards on True Serial Killers. I published those in 1989. That caused global outrage and the media went nuts, laws were changed, politicians used them for a reason to get on TV, I got sued by everyone, censored and hassled by the feds. It is a hate crime in Canada to own them. “DOA” was busted at the border for having them in their tour van. I later followed up with a set on True Cannibals, designed by me, Chuck Biscuits, and Rob Zombie. Glenn Danzig also published my ABC book of serial killers in the early ’90s (“The Alphabet of Murder”).
So yeah, I guess, I rubbed some people the wrong way now and then. After the ’92 LA riots hit, it all slowed down. Most of my bands had signed giant merch deals, the shit eaters were back, and I decided it was time to shut it down. I moved to Seattle and started a company with my old friend, Mike Vraney, called “Made by Monks” (Below) and “Something Weird Products” no more punk rock. I was merchandising old smut films and oddball stuff, freaks, vintage drug movies, etc. Chuck followed me a year later and he’s still up there. I moved back to LA in 1998.