Guy Fawkes mask

Derived from the masks used to represent Fawkes being burned on an effigy having long previously had roots as part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations, Lloyd designed the mask as a smiling face with red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, worn in the graphic novel's narrative by anarchist protagonist V. Following the release of the graphic novel and its 2005 film adaptation, this design came to represent broad protest, later also becoming a symbol for the online hacktivist group "Anonymous" after appearing in web forums, used in Project Chanology, the Occupy movement, Anonymous for the Voiceless, and other anti-establishment protests around the world.

[5] In the 20th century, in the UK, large numbers of cheap cardboard or paper Guy Fawkes masks were sold to children each autumn or given out free with comics;[6][7][8] by the 1980s their popularity became increasingly supplanted by Halloween.

[10] J.J. Brady said, The British comic book series V for Vendetta, which started in 1982, centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government in a dystopian future United Kingdom.

When developing the story, illustrator David Lloyd made a handwritten note on the intended anarchist protagonist, V: "Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat?

[14][15] On 17 April 2006, a pair of rival groups wearing Fawkes masks confronted each other outside the New York City offices of Warner Brothers and DC Comics.

The other group, led by libertarian Todd Seavey, counter-protested against the anarchists, wearing masks purportedly supplied by a Time Warner employee.

In October 2011, campaigner Julian Assange attended the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest wearing such a mask, which he removed after a request by the police.

[26] On 10 June 2012, in Mumbai, India, a group of 100 Anonymous members and college students gathered at Azad Maidan, dressed all in black and wearing Guy Fawkes masks, to protest against the Indian Government's censorship of the Internet.

[38] The wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly has been banned in Canada, following the enactment of Bill C-309, and now carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.