Millie Week 9 Mon 29 - Wed 31 October 1990

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The first strip may be familiar to people who read Smith on GoComics around this time last year. Yes, it is a recycled gag, but it's been recycled more times than you would think. It's actually a gag that I wrote in 1981, then reused in Millie in 1990, and then returned to its original characters in 2010. Expect to see it again around 2021. In 3D, probably.

Strip two is another old Smith gag (one I haven't reused) with the set up changed significantly but the punchline remaining the same.

Trick or treating was pretty rare in the UK in 1990 - it really only entered British consciousness in 1982 when ET came out. Mass produced Halloween costumes and seasonal sweets have only started appearing in supermarkets over the past three years or so. That's why it was decided to spell out exactly what was going on in the last frame - even now people are a bit hazy about the rules, so imagine what it was like 21 years ago.

I've been party to a Facebook discussion today where a friend of mine at stage school was debating her Halloween costume - should she be a Dead Tinkerbell or a Dead Wonder Woman? I think she's now been persuaded that she doesn't have to be a dead anything - so if you're in London and Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast turns up at your door on Monday, say Hi to Lucy for me.

Here's the Smith version of strip 1...