History Of The Mask

The Mask is a well-known comic character, known to wear a magical mask that imbues him with reality-bending powers and physical imperviousness. In the comic series, the character has been shown to have superhuman physical attributes and intelligence, a healing factor, the ability to look like other people and create objects out of thin air. The warping powers of The Mask have been portrayed more powerfully in the movies and animated series. The character has been represented with cartoon physics-style abilities, such as the ability to create things from nothing, superpowers mimetism and powers like elasticity, self-transmutation, biological manipulation and size shifting. It was adapted into the 1994 film The Mask, followed by an animated television series and another movie - “Son of The Mask”. Read on to know more interesting and amazing information on the history, origin and background of The Mask.

 

 

The basic concept of ‘The Mask’ was created by publisher Mike Richardson in 1982. He made the first sketch of The Mask in 1985 for APA-5, an amateur press publication created by writer Mark Verheiden. After the creation of Dark Horse Comics, the concept of The Mask was pitched to Marvel comic writer/ artist Mark Badger. The result was a masque strip that was seen in the early issues of the “Dark Horse Presents”. Since the strips became increasingly political with time, the character was brought back to Richardson’s original drawing in APA-5 by artist Chris Warner.

 

The new look of The Mask’ was launched in 1989, in the pages of Dark Horse’s “Mayhem” collection. New adventures of The Mask were created by aspiring writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke. “Tex Avery” and “The Terminator” became the first popular series of the character. Although “Mayhem” was cancelled after the first four issues, Arcudi and Mahnke continued to create the series for four issues of The Mask, in 1991. The introduction of one of The Mask’s opponent, a mute brutish hulk named ‘Walter’ made Dark Horse’s collections sell like hot cakes. Soon after, the miniseries around The Mask, including various antagonists wearing the mask, became successful.

 

The DC Comics crossover Joker/ Mask was the conclusion series in 2000, where the magical Mask was shown to find his way into the hands of Batman’s archenemy “The Joker”. The first film version of The Mask was released in the United States on July 29, 1994, starring Jim Carrey in the title role. The movie was based on the first half of the Arcudi/ Mahnke comic book miniseries. Though only a few scenes were included from the comic, the movie did contain the scenes of the muffler mechanics, the street gang and the balloon animals. The movie was also modified into a video game adaptation that was released for the Super NES in 1995.

 

The movie was subsequently transformed into an animated TV series entitle “The Mask: The Animated Series”. Rob Paulsen was roped in to play the role of The Mask. The comic book series was also created into a TV show, ‘Adventures of The Mask’. Seasons one’s “How much is that dog in the Tin Can” and season three’s “The Goofalotatots” was written by John Arcudi. The lead female character was played by reporter Peggy Brandt. The sequel to the comedy film “The Mask” was released in 2005, titled “Son of The Mask”. The movie was directed by Lawrence Guterman and won the Raspberry Award in the same year.