Things That Became Symbols Without Anyone Planning It

In the 1980s, illustrator David Lloyd designed this distinctive mask for the graphic novel V for Vendetta. Its grinning features were modeled on a 17th-century English rebel who attempted to blow up Parliament. The image became far more popular after a film adaptation reached theaters worldwide in 2005. Not long afterward, online activists and people protesting in the streets began wearing the plastic masks to conceal their identities and confront authority.