Jesus is my homeboy - the rise to fame of a digital icon

Remember a few of years ago when ‘Jesus is my homeboy’ images started to appear all over the place? What started as an underground fashion icon took off after the likes of Brad Pitt and Pamela Anderson were spotted sporting ‘Jesus is my homeboy’ t-shirts.  It wasn't long before the image could be seen on mugs, posters, baseball caps and shop windows. Last year, the phrase re-emerged when the artist David LaChappelle used it as the inspiration for his photographic exhibition which, unsurprisingly, received a mass of press coverage when Pamela Anderson showed up wearing little more than, you guessed it, just a t-shirt and underpants!

What is less well known, however, is how the image entered the public domain in the first place. Just how did an attempted mugging, the Rodney King riots, and the internet manage to give birth to what fast became a global fashion trend?

Apparently, a young man named Van Zan Frater was the first to say it when a gang of youths attacked him in Los Angeles back in the 1980’s. According to Van Zan, with a gun to his head, he turned to his attacker and said, “Jesus is my homeboy and don’t you know that Jesus is your homeboy too?” The gangster immediately lowered his gun leaving Van San unharmed. In gratitude, Van Zan claims that he created the iconic image and had planned to print some t-shirts himself. However, in another twist of fate, the printing shop containing the only silk screen of the image was looted during the LA riots following the Rodney King trial in 1994, and the image disappeared.

Years later, the silk screen re-appeared in a odds and ends store, and a company called Teenage Millionaires began printing the designs and distributing them over the web. The rest as they say, is history.

So what does this little story tell us about the way the internet works?

• Expect the unexpected - In today’s connected world, you cannot predict what will happen when a group of people connects with an image, an icon, or a message. Would Banksy be where he is now without the internet enabling his admirers to photograph, write about, and share his work?

• Timing is everything - Ironically, if Van Zan had printed up his image in 1994 before the widespread use of the internet, more than likely, t-shirt sales would have peaked at a couple of hundred.  It was the fact that the image was discovered years later when the internet was established that allowed it to fly.

Sadly though, this story has a sting in the tale... In October 2008 Van Zan filed a suit against Teenage Millionaires for copyright infringement.

It seems he could forgive his attackers, but not those who made a mint from his image. Maybe that’s the last lesson? There’s just no hiding place on the web.