Live your life as you see fit

1977: Star Wars is released, featuring, of course, Darth Vader

(Pictured: Darth Vader)

1984: Director Todd Durham releases his Star Wars parody movie, Hyperspace, featuring Darth Vader inspired villain Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: Hyperspace poster featuring two Jawa-esque aliens flying through space in a shopping trolley.)

1987: Hyperspace is released on video in the UK, under the new title Gremloids.

(Pictured: Gremloids cover in the style of the original Star Wars poster, featuring Lord Buckethead.)

To promote the film, Mike Lee, the owner of the distributing company, ran for parliament as Lord Buckethead. He ran in Margaret Thatcher's constituency, Finchley, in order to get on TV. Lord Buckethead was representing the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with Margaret Thatcher.)

1992: Gremloids is re-released. Lord Buckethead rides again, this time against prime minister John Major in Huntingdon. (Here's a fun fact about Huntingdon: I was born there! :D) 87/92 Buckethead seems to have leaned pretty hard into the space supervillain thing, with campaign promises including 'demolish Birmingham to build a spaceport'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with John Major. Other notable candidates include Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party.)

2017: comedian Jon Harvey, having recently watched Gremloids and learned of Lord Buckethead's candidacy for parliament, decides it's a great bit. He runs against Theresa May in Maidenhead. 2017 Buckethead seems to have a wackier and also more political approach, with campaign promises ranging from nonsense like 'nationalise Adele' to gesturing at actually sensible policies with stuff like 'lower the voting age to 16 and restrict voting after age 80'.

He also made an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As with his previous incarnation, he was a member of the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead dabbing on stage with Theresa May.)

2018: Director Todd Durham asserts his legal ownership of Lord Buckethead. Jon Harvey opted not to go to court over Buckethead and handed over the reins. Todd Durham extended an invitation to anyone who wanted to be the 'authorised' Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: the new Lord Buckethead.)

2019: Lord Buckethead, now played by journalist David Hughes, stood against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He ran for the Monster Raving Loony Party, the UK's pre-existing gag candidate party. He ran with a similarly silly manifesto as the 2017 incarnation, but with a bit less of a political edge. His promises included 'All doorways to be increased by 1 foot (30 cm) in height' and 'Nigel Farage to be sold for parts'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead and Count Binface square up.)

Meanwhile, Jon Harvey in his new persona Count Binface, also ran against Boris Johnson. Buckethead and Binface face off! Binface ran as an independent with a manifesto once again blending silly and semi-serious promises such as 'nationalising model railways' and 'giving £1 trillion a week to the NHS'. This was also I believe the debut of his promise to 'move the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a more sensible position'.

(Pictured: Count Binface presenting the offending hand dryer, inconveniently close to both the sink and the urinals.)

He has a point.

2021: Count Binface runs for the position of Mayor of London for the first time, with promises such as 'London to join the European Union'. He notably finished ahead of far right party UKIP.

2023: Count Binface runs in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election following Boris Johnson's resignation. He once again gets more votes than UKIP.

May 2024: Count Binface once again runs to be Mayor of London, debuting his now iconic 'build at least one affordable house' promise. Notably, he finished ahead of far right party Britain First.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Rishi Sunak. Also pictured: Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Sir Archibald Stanton with a ventriloquist's dummy.)

July 2024: Count Binface stands in the general election, running in Richmond and Northallerton against prime minister Rishi Sunak. He debuts his promise to cap the price of 99p flakes at 99p. This is his most successful election to date with 308 votes.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Andy Burnham. Also pictured: independent candidate Robert Pownell, dressed as a fox for his own reasons.)

June 2026: Count Binface stands in the Makerfield by-election against Andy Burnham, (recently) former Mayor of Manchester running for parliament with the intention of standing in the Labour Party leadership contest.

(Pictured: Count Binface on BBC's Newsnight.)

2cool4skool

The finished in the nick of time to print in a compilation I'll be selling at Anthrocon 2026! (Say hi if you're around Saturday or Sunday!)

Dorothy L. Sayers: Are Women Human (1938)

From ancient to abstract, this one sure got around.

It’s pricy, but it held up on a high-elevation hike on a 9–10 UV index day with only two applications the whole day.

1) reapply every hour

Except in the hour of need, a binface stepped up.

Matthew Alexander Henson was born in 1866 in Maryland. He was the son of two freeborn Black sharecroppers. When Henson was 4, his father moved the family to Washington DC for better work opportunities. His parents died early on and Henson and his siblings were left with other family members.

When Henson was 11, he left home to find his own way. He walked from DC all the way to Baltimore, Maryland and found work as a cabin boy on the ship Katie Hines. The skipper, Captain Childs, took Henson under his wing and educated him. Also, while being a cabin boy, he travelled to Asia, Africa, and Europe.

After Captain Child passed, he made his way back to Washington DC. In 1887, while working in a store, Henson met Robert E. Peary, who hired him as a valet for his next expedition to Nicaragua. Peary was impressed with Henson’s skills and all around resourcefulness and employed him as an attendant on seven expeditions to the Arctic.

On April 6, 1909, Henson, Peary, and four Inuit guides, Egingwah, Ooqueah, Ootah, and Seeglo, drove their dogsleds to the North Pole. It’s said that Henson arrived alone at what he thought was the North Pole. Peary caught up to him an hour later and refused to accept Henson’s calculation. Peary then chose a different location and called it the North Pole.

When they returned home from the expedition, Peary received most of the accolades for the trip even though Henson was technically first. And despite the accolades, the team faced a lot of skepticism, and Peary had to testify before Congress about the lack of proof of reaching the North Pole.

By order of President Taft, Henson was appointed clerk in the US Customs House in New York City and he also continued to talk about his experiences as an explorer. In 1912, he wrote the book A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. In 1937, when Henson was 70, he was accepted as an honorary member of the highly regarded Explorers Club. A few years later, he and the other members of the North Pole Expedition were awarded a Congressional Medal. In 1947, he worked with Bradley Robinson to write his biography, Dark Companion.

Henson died in NYC in 1955, but was reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery in 1987 at the request of Dr. S. Allen Counter of Harvard University.