Smith endorses Guy Fawkes

It's Guy Fawkes Night tonight. Hence the fireworks.

It's also the day before America going to the polls. Once again, hence the fireworks.

Somethings gone wrong this year. Who to chose? The so called messiah who turned out to be a huge disappointment, or the man who might be a right wing nutter, might be a centre right moderate, but is most likely to be a stuffed shirt filled with absolutely nothing. It's very dispiriting.

If your candidate doesn't get in, better luck next time. If he does get in, remember, it's your fault. And if you can't be bothered to vote, you have no right to spend the next four years grumbling.

On balance, this cartoon strip endorses Obama. Mainly because he's the one least likely to involve Britain in a third senseless war in the Middle East. And there actually appears to be someone inside that shirt.

(The original title before I edited this post, due to a mistype, was 'Smirg endorses Guy Fawkes'. Smirg. I like that. It has a Middle Earth ring to it. Smirg may return...)

Bonfire

I've always felt uneasy about the practice of burning the guy. OK, it's the effigy of a man who tried to blow up the Palace of Westminster 400 years ago (or was he just the fall-guy?) but even so, it strikes me as a bit medievel.

Here in Sussex, we take our bonfire celebrations seriously. There are bonfires that take place throughout October and November. Hastings times its fireworks night to take place on the Saturday after 14 October, the date of a little skirmish that happened near here in 1066. A huge pile of wooden palettes is built on the seafront, about ten yards high, and a guy is placed on top. The bonfire is set alight on the night, and a torchlight procession of bonfire societies from all over Sussex parades through the town - one so long it takes an hour to go past any single point. Then the fireworks start. I won't try to describe how big the fireworks are - I'll just say that a few years ago they were visible in Dieppe and the French coastguard scrambled their lifeboats as they thought they were distress flares from a ship in trouble.

The finale is the burning of this years' special effigy. This is where a hated national or local figure is burned in effigy on it's own special bonfire. This is the scary bit. Two years ago the Jerwood Art Gallery was burned. Last year bankers got the treatment. This year it was effigies of hoodies and the underclass who got the blame for this summers riots.

All good clean fun? Probably. But add a few burning crosses or swastikas to the scene and then see what you think.

Semaphore

I like the night time effect I've achieved in this series if strips. It's been done by colouring the strip in the normal way (you may have noticed that it's changed to its winter colour scheme) and then adding an extra night time layer over the top, setting it to multiply and then cutting out the eyes and the white space.

I just liked the idea of Jones using tail signals.

Trench warfare

I'm tying together Guy Fawkes and the upcoming Remembrance day (11th November) this year. The thought occurred to me that animals would consider the fireworks to be like missiles and guns going off, and this led to this series of first world war related strips, with the cats hiding in a trench while the explosions go on around them...

Corporal Jones is a reference to Dad's Army. I'd like to dedicate this strip to David Croft who has just died.

Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I've ignored Halloween this year in order to move straight on to Guy Fawkes night. I'm invoking a nursery rhyme here:

Remember remember
the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason why
Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

That reason is, of course, never explained. If the gunpowder plot is a new bit of British history to you here is that reason...