A Stand is the part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that people either get immediately or never get at all. It is a figure that appears beside a character, punches for them, stops time for them, or turns whatever they touch into a bomb — and it is invisible to almost everyone in the room.
The series ran for two whole Parts before Stands existed, and it has run through nine generations of one family since. This is what a Stand actually is, what came before it, who the Joestars are by Part, and why Star Platinum and The World are drawn more than any others.
Where the artwork in our JoJo's Bizarre Adventure collection depicts one of these, it is linked in the section that explains it.
What a Stand is
A Stand is a manifestation of its user's fighting spirit, given a shape and a set of abilities. The name is literal: it stands beside the person. Each user has one, it appears when called, and in most cases only other Stand users can see it.
Three rules do most of the work. A Stand's damage is shared with its user — hit the Stand and the person bleeds. A Stand has a range, and the further it operates from its user the weaker it gets. And a Stand reflects who the user is, so a coward's Stand and a fighter's Stand do very different things.
Stands arrived in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, and every Part since has been built on them. Almost every one is named after a band, an album or a song, which is why the series reads like a record collection.
Hamon, before Stands
The first two Parts have no Stands at all. Their power system is Hamon, sometimes translated as the Ripple: a controlled breathing technique that generates an energy with the same properties as sunlight and sends it through the body, through water, and through anything the user touches.
That property matters because the villains of those Parts are vampires and the ancient beings who created vampirism, and sunlight is what destroys them. Jonathan Joestar learns Hamon from Will A. Zeppeli in Part 1; his grandson Joseph uses it through Part 2. The rippling water and glowing hands in early JoJo artwork are Hamon, not a Stand.
The Joestar line, Part by Part
Each Part follows a new lead, and nearly every one is a JoJo — a Joestar, or someone carrying the name in another form. The family is marked by a star-shaped birthmark on the shoulder.
Part 1, Phantom Blood: Jonathan Joestar, an English gentleman of the 1880s, and the start of the feud with Dio Brando. Part 2, Battle Tendency: Joseph, Jonathan's grandson. Part 3, Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro Kujo, Joseph's grandson, a Japanese high-schooler who barely speaks. Part 4, Diamond Is Unbreakable: Josuke Higashikata, Joseph's son, in the town of Morioh. Part 5, Golden Wind: Giorno Giovanna — Dio's son, but conceived while Dio wore Jonathan's stolen body, so a Joestar by blood — whose Stand, Gold Experience, gives life to whatever it touches. Part 6, Stone Ocean: Jolyne Cujoh, Jotaro's daughter. Part 7, Steel Ball Run, restarts the universe with a new Johnny Joestar; Part 8, JoJolion, follows a different Josuke; Part 9, The JOJOLands, is ongoing.
The Joestar Graphic tee and the Jo Tales tee are drawn from the lineage rather than one character; the Bizarre tee takes the series' own title; the Giorno Gold Experience tee is Part 5's.
Star Platinum
Jotaro Kujo's Stand is the one most people picture when they hear the word. Star Platinum is a close-range Stand of enormous precision and speed — it can catch a bullet, and it throws punches faster than the eye can follow, which is where the "ORA ORA ORA" barrage comes from.
By the end of Part 3 it can also stop time for a moment — the same ability its enemy has. It is a Stand defined by discipline rather than tricks.
It is the most-drawn subject in our collection. The Jotaro's Star Platinum tee is the fullest treatment; the Ora Barrage tee takes the punch rush; the Star Fist, Star Charge and Star Guard tees each isolate one pose, and the Neon Platinum tee pushes the palette. Jotaro himself is on two phone cases.
Star Platinum pieces
The World, and the fight over stopped time
Dio Brando is the series' original villain: the adopted brother who put on a stone mask in Part 1 and became a vampire, and who resurfaces a century later in Part 3 wearing Jonathan Joestar's stolen body. His Stand is The World, and it stops time. For a few seconds, Dio is the only thing moving.
The final fight in Cairo is a duel between two Stands with the same silhouette and, it turns out, the same ability — Star Platinum and The World are drawn as near mirror images on purpose. The fight is decided by who understands stopped time better, and it ends when the two fists meet and The World shatters. Because a Stand's damage goes to its user, that is the end of Dio.
The World Punch tee and World Pose tee take the Stand itself; the Dio Menacing Presence tee and Night Tyrant tee take Dio; the Dio Brando shorts carry him lower down. The fight itself is on the Dio vs Jotaro tee and the Stand Clash tee.
The World and Dio
Killer Queen
Part 4 swaps the road trip for a single town, and its villain is not a vampire but a man who wants to be left alone. Yoshikage Kira is an office worker in Morioh who has been quietly killing for years and whose only ambition is an unremarkable life. His Stand is Killer Queen, drawn to look composed rather than monstrous.
Its first ability is the one on most of the artwork: anything it touches becomes a bomb, detonated when the Stand presses its thumb to its fingers, so victims and evidence disappear without a trace. Its second, Sheer Heart Attack, is a small autonomous tank that hunts heat and cannot be called off. Its third, Bites the Dust, rewinds time itself, resetting the day so that anyone who discovers Kira's identity dies before they can act on it.
The Deadly Touch tee takes the first bomb; the Hidden Queen tee and Killer Quiet tee are drawn around the idea of a Stand that would rather you did not see it.
Killer Queen pieces
How this translates onto cloth
Stand artwork works on a garment for the same reason it works on a page: a Stand is a single figure in one pose, with a silhouette that does not need a face to be recognized. Star Platinum and The World are practically the same shape, which is why the pieces that draw them lean on color, pose and the direction of the punch rather than on detail.
Every piece is printed with a bonded matte finish on garment-washed, pre-shrunk cotton, so the artwork sits flat and the fit you unbox is close to the fit you keep. Where the print sits — chest, back or two-sided — is stated on each product page, and measurements for every size are published on the sizing page.
The whole set is in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure collection.
Read next: Jujutsu Kaisen's domains, shikigami and cursed energy, another power system built on manifestation, and Naruto's symbols explained, for the crests and eyes on the other big shonen wardrobe.
Torazen designs are independent fan-inspired work — not affiliated with or endorsed by the rights holders. Character and series names are used to describe what the artwork refers to.