The Greys

Camouflage of one sort or another has a long history in the world of fiction, from Shakespeare’s many cross-dressers through to Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, with their use of… well, more cross-dressing really. Generally speaking sci-fi tends to take a more technical and less transvestical approach to the issue of disguise – often going as far as complete invisibilty with the Predator’s cloak fooling the human senses, or a Romulan cloaking device fooling the humans’ sensors.

Camouflage is very context sensitive – just ask any cuttlefish. What hides you in one environment usually won’t hide you somewhere else. This flaw is usually a crucial point in any cloak/camouflage/hiding plotline, as intergalactic nebulae seem invariably to have the power to either disrupt a cloaking device, or somehow play havoc with ships’ sensors, making the whole nebula into a giant camouflage net. This context-sensitivity is what actually inspired this comic in the first place…

Many years ago there was an Army Surplus store on the main high street of the town in which I live. Its front was painted olive green, and its windows were festooned with camouflage netting, upon which hung items of kit and clothing, variously in greens and browns, khaki or navy blue. Like so many British high streets, the rest of the shops were drab grey with a few brightly coloured signs and dozens of misplaced apostrophes. Ironically, against this mediocre background, the camouflaged items in the Army Surplus store stood out like a sore thumb.

Standing out like that was probably good for business. I guess it wasn’t that good, though, as the store’s not there anymore. Or at least I haven’t seen it in years. Which got me thinking… what if it is still there, and they just got really good at camouflage. Hence this comic.

(Plus Inkscape has a camouflage fill pattern that was just begging to be used for something)

Click here to download the SVG source for this comic