Like most Americans, I was first introduced to Guy Fawkes and the holiday surrounding his and his fellow conspirators’ attempted bombing of Parliament through the Alan Moore graphic novel and the film based upon it of the same name, V for Vendetta. Being an anglophile, I’ve done as much reading up on the holiday as I can, though I’ve never had the opportunity to celebrate it properly or even witness, first-hand, the various observances of the day. So, today’s comic is my way of acknowledging the holiday and celebrating it in my own special way. My apologies to any readers who know nothing about it.

For those of you unaware of the holiday, it is a celebration of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In November of that year, the 5th to be exact, Guy Fawkes and a number of other Englishmen placed explosives beneath the House of Lords (the upper branch of Parliament) in an attempt to assassinate King James I of England, a Protestant, and replace him with a Catholic ruler.

Fawkes and the others were arrested before the plot could be carried out to its end, and it was allowed that the English people celebrate the failed attempt on King James I’s life by lighting bonfires. Thus the holiday began, as it was soon after official recognised through the Thanksgiving Act (Observance of November 5th Act).

That said, the holiday has evolved throughout the centuries and has included fireworks displays. Though, from what I can gather, the holiday has begun to see something of a decline or shift in recent years. So much for me ever crossing the Pond to experience the revelry around this time of the year. Still, the history behind the holiday has lasted into popular culture, and though I am not a Protestant or English, this is my way to remember, remember the fifth of November.