Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series exploring the different aspects and history of the Athens Halloween Block Party.
For as long as students have assembled in the streets of Uptown Athens, donning racy costumes and smuggling flasks of booze to celebrate Halloween, one local artist has documented the madness through art.
When Kevin Morgan designed the first “Halloween in Athens” T-shirt 31 years ago — long before Athens had fests and Ohio University became the No. 1 party school — the block party was still just a street riot.
Since then, the Halloween bash has been recognized — then dropped, then picked back up — by the city of Athens, and attendance has soared into the quintuple digits.
Though his Uptown party time expired when his three children were born, Morgan carries on the tradition of the T-shirt each year.
“Kevin started doing the Halloween shirts just to sell at his own shop, and they became widely popular,” said Michael McSteen, web developer for Kevin Morgan Studio. “They became the official look.”
Morgan, an Athens native, opened the Uptown Dog T-Shirt Shop, 10 W. Union St., in the ’80s after making T-shirt designs since the age of 14. His first design in the 31-year series featured a Pink Floyd-inspired skeleton, which hit shelves in 1981.
“I felt obligated to do a skeleton every year after that, or at least to incorporate one into the design,” Morgan said.
Entering the T-shirt business before the digital age, Morgan said the old-school screen-printing process was much more complicated than it is now. These days, his designs take eight to 10 hours from start to finish: first sketching the design, then transferring it to carbon paper, scanning it into the computer and digitally adding color.
“Every year, he gains new fans, and the diehards continue to come back,” said Mary Cheadle, current owner of Uptown Dog and Morgan’s sister.
But one step into Morgan’s studio, in the entrance of his Fox Lake Road farmhouse, proves that the yearly T-shirt design is a small fraction of his portfolio.
The walls are covered with reggae designs and local event posters. Morgan has designed 45 product labels, including many for local brands such as Frog Ranch Salsa, Silver Bridge Coffee Company and Snowville Creamery. His art extends all the way to California and Jamaica, where his posters have decorated reggae concerts starring Bob Marley.
While working for Image Graphics in Athens, Morgan was approached by Sinbad’s Reggae Records to design merchandise for Bob Marley’s U.S. tour. With Phil Alloy, owner of the record store, Morgan designed the original Bob Marley Museum logo and the “Tribute to the King” design, which is featured in the centerfold of Bob Marley’s Legend album.
The artist has traveled to Jamaica a number of times to meet Rita Marley, widow of the Rasta king, and the rest of the Marley family. And though he said he has had many job offers in big cities, he chooses to stay at his quiet home in the woods.
“There are a lot of fish in bigger ponds and a lot of amazing people far more talented than me, but Athens is just big enough for me, and I feel like I grew up inside of it,” he said. “I like being the only person doing what I’m doing.”
Just getting Morgan out of the house is “really something,” McSteen said.
In addition to Bob Marley and Halloween skeletons, Morgan has made designs for everything from the Ohio Pawpaw Festival to the inauguration of Barack Obama. He has also dabbled in totem poles, jewelry making and sculpture.
“I just have a lot of interests, and there’s a lot of neat stuff out there,” he said. “The whole world is so visually packed.”
oy311909@ohiou.edu
