The Mask: Omnibus, Volume 1

AUTHOR: Arcudi, John

ARTIST: Doug Mahnke (illustrator); Rich Perotta (inker); Keith Williams (inker); Chris Chalenor (colorist); Matt Webb (colorist); Gregory Wright (colorist); Pat Brosseau (letterer); Lois Buhalis (letterer); David Jackson (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

First published: 2008

Publication History

Mike Richardson first conceived of “the mask” in 1982 and created the first sketch in 1985 for APA-5. The concept debuted as the “Masque,” which was featured in early issues of Dark Horse Presents released by Dark Horse Comics, a comics publishing house Richardson established in the late 1980’s. When the tone of the strips became political, Richardson withdrew from the strip and reintroduced the mask in a separate comic series better aligned with his original concept.

Chris Warner, who helped reconceptualize the character according to Richardson’s original APA-5 drawing, was responsible for the distinctive look of the characters who the mask possesses in Dark Horse’s Mayhem anthology in 1989. Writer John Arcudi, unknown in the comics world at the time, and artist Doug Mahnke joined the team to create new adventures; the mask’s wearer quickly developed into a character reminiscent of both Tex Avery’s work and the Terminator. The stories from Mayhem, issues 1-4, became the 1991 The Mask, issue 0.

Although Mayhem was canceled after four issues, Arcudi and Mahnke continued to work with the character and the mask concept, and in 1991, published the four-issue limited series The Mask. This publication quickly became a Dark Horse best seller, and the publisher continued to produce miniseries based on the original mask concept, presenting different characters under its influence. In 2008, Dark Horse released The Mask Omnibus, Volume 1, collecting The Mask, issues 0-4 (July, 1991-October, 1991; December, 1991); The Mask Returns, issues 1-4 (October, 1992-March, 1993); and The Mask Strikes Back, issues 1-5 (February, 1995-May, 1995).

Plot

The first segment of the story, The Mask, introduces small, neurotic Stanley Ipkiss, who finds that the mask he has purchased from a small antiques shop holds unimagined powers. Wearing the mask, Stanley becomes invincible and powerful, and he wreaks vengeance on people who have put him down. He goes on a rampage, killing, maiming, and enacting unspeakable violence. When the police and the media learn of the killings, the mask-clad Stanley is dubbed “Big Head,” a bald, green-headed killing machine with exaggerated features and superhuman strength. The mask’s powers take a toll on Stanley’s human form: Though he recognizes the mask’s negative powers, he cannot resist the allure of the mask and is killed by his girlfriend, Kathy, as she tries to protect herself.

Kathy gives the mask to Lieutenant Kellaway, the detective working on both the Big Head murders and the mob-related crime that runs rampant in his city. Though Kathy has warned him of the mask’s powers, Kellaway tries on the mask, becoming Big Head, and sets out to eliminate the city’s crime bosses. Though Kellaway’s intentions are good, the mask stimulates aggression, and the killing is soon out of control. Feeling threatened by these killings, the mob calls on the brutish Walter to stop Big Head. Though he cannot stop Big Head, Walter slows him down long enough for Kellaway to realize that, as Big Head, he is about to harm his closest friend. Finally recognizing the mask’s manipulative powers, Kellaway buries the mask under cement to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

In The Mask Returns, the crime bosses whom Big Head had threatened arrive at Kellaway’s home with the intention of killing him. Recognizing the danger and seeing only one escape, Kellaway digs up the mask, but before he can put on the mask, he is wounded. The mobsters escape with the mask; one of the mob peons uses it to transform himself into Big Head and become a leading crime boss. When Kathy learns of Big Head’s return, she sets out to get the mask back from the mobster. She succeeds in retrieving it but must wear the mask and rely on its destructive powers to save herself. While wearing the mask, she has a dream that reveals its tribal origins. She finds her way to the mobsters and threatens them, but while there, she encounters Walter, who has become obsessed with the mask and follows it for the rest of the story in an attempt to wear it and attain its powers.

In The Mask Strikes Back, four college-aged friends are fascinated by the Big Head murders and see the magical mask as an escape from their dead-end lives. When the mask falls into their hands, they each try it on and adopt its powers in an attempt to fix their lives or society at large. Though each wearer starts with good intentions, each ultimately succumbs to the evil within the mask, causing untold destruction. Eventually, Walter again finds Big Head and is able to wrest the mask from him, but when Walter cannot use the mask, he discards it, where it seemingly may never be found.

Characters

•Stanley Ipkiss, the initial protagonist of the comics series, plays a small but crucial role in the original comic: He is the first to unleash the mask’s power when he buys it from a small antiques store to give to his girlfriend. Once he tries on the mask, he becomes a human manifestation of its evil proclivities and becomes the story’s first Big Head character. In film and television adaptations, he remains the central figure.

•Kathy, Stanley Ipkiss’s girlfriend, is the first to realize the mask’s power. She leaves the mask with Kellaway in the hopes that it will not fall into the wrong hands, but the mask returns to her at several points, and she wears it as well. She remains steadfast in recognizing the evil that it propagates and in trying to destroy it.

•Lieutenant Kellaway is the first member of the police force assigned to the Big Head murder case and tries to track down the perpetrator wearing the mask. After Kathy leaves the mask in his safekeeping, he tries it on and becomes Big Head, succumbing to its power and eventually acting evilly rather than as a vigilante, as he originally intends.

•Steven Listor is an egotistical, self-serving representative of the district attorney’s office. His cooperation is easily bought, and he consistently hinders efforts to control the evil forces of Big Head and other nefarious characters.

•Walter is a huge and severely deformed “bad guy” who hangs out with a questionable crowd of mobsters and common thieves (though remaining unaffiliated with any one group). He comes closest to serving as an antagonist to the various “good guy” characters who succumb to the mask’s powers. Though Walter is never able to wear the mask, throughout the story, he demonstrates the same superhuman strength and immortality that the mask imparts on its wearers.

Artistic Style

As a collection of works in a series, The Mask shows a steady progression in artistic design. The pages first appearing in The Mask, issues 0-4, evidence designs reminiscent of 1950’s and 1960’s superhero and crime comics. The dialogue progresses through speech and thought bubbles with fairly standard lettering, except for the dialogue uttered by Big Head, for which the lettering is misshapen and awkwardly sized—rough around the edges, just like the wearer of the mask. The lettering does not change until The Mask Strikes Back, at which point letterer Lois Buhalis takes over Pat Brosseau’s work, and the lettering for Big Head’s dialogue becomes specific to the nature of the wearer of the mask and his or her alter ego as Big Head.

The Mask Strikes Back uses page space differently than the other volumes. Whereas the layout in The Mask and The Mask Returns is fairly open, with squared, well-spaced image blocks, the layout in The Mask Strikes Back makes use of the full page with minimal marginal space and frequent overlapping images. The colors are bolder, the backgrounds busier and more developed, and the characters better represented through costuming and other traits. These developments are indicative both of changes in artists but also in changes to the story line and the strength of the genre. As Dark Horse’s presence in the industry grows, the publisher uses more progressive styling and reflects the frenzy of the Big Head character in the artistic design.

Themes

The intricate story line of The Mask, as well as the large cast of characters entering the role of protagonist as Big Head, allows the book to delve into a broad array of seemingly conflicting themes. From the very beginning, the story subverts the established superhero genre—the protagonists of this story are not superheroes but very human characters who attain superhuman powers and then cannot control them.

The powers that the mask bestows on its wearers—rapid healing, a shape-shifting ability, and an ability to create objects out of nothing—are fairly standard superhero material. However, despite good intentions, the mask’s wearers are unable to use these powers for good. All attempts at heroism meet with massive destruction. Cops become criminals, hardened criminals become deep and emotional characters, and the logical becomes illogical. The lines between good and evil consistently blur as character after character attempts to enact his or her morality while under the influence of a corrupting absolute power.

Through this lens, the story explores themes of corruption, morality, crime, social status, and power. The many wearers of the mask provide insight into the departure from social norms, as the mask consumes their better judgment and releases an inner aggression at odds with their benevolent intentions. Overlaying all is violence so outrageous as to be largely farcical. Scenes of gore are muted against a backdrop of outlandish behavior and subverted norms, and what is taken for granted as acceptable or “normal” then falls under closer scrutiny.

Impact

The book was inspired by earlier comic book series, such as Superman and Batman; the characters were inspired by a number of characters in earlier works both within and outside of the comic book genre: the Joker, Steve Ditko’s the Creeper, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Mask is notable for the role it plays in the broader body of Dark Horse Comics works. Throughout the 1990’s, Dark Horse published a number of comic book series that parodied works of the more mainstream superhero genre. The Mask makes a farce of the violent and blurs the lines between protagonist and antagonist.

The story is also notable as an example of Dark Horse’s transition from print media to film, the adaptation of The Mask comic series being one of the publisher’s early efforts at film adaptation. The farcical nature of the film is noteworthy as well: The producers, challenged to make a comedic violent film, ultimately opted to make a violent comedic film and adapted the story line and characters accordingly. In both its print and film iterations, The Mask extends the scope of the comic book hero/villain and lays the foundation for similar stories and adaptations of its kind.

Films

The Mask. Directed by Chuck Russell. New Line Cinema/Dark Horse Entertainment, 1994. In this film adaptation starring Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss and Peter Riegert as Lieutenant Mitch Kellaway, the violence of the comic series is downplayed to become cartoonish and relatively harmless; the mask itself, stripped of its inherent evil, is thus only as dangerous as the psyche of its wearer. As in the comic series, each wearer gains superhuman powers and can manipulate reality. However, in the film, the mask falls into fewer hands, and the plotline focuses primarily on the story of Stanley Ipkiss, the original wearer from the series.

Son of the Mask. Directed by Lawrence Guterman. New Line Cinema/Dark Horse Entertainment, 2005. This film adaptation, stars Jamie Kennedy as Tim Avery and Alan Cumming as Loki, the image on the mask. This film has even less in common with the original series than the first film adaptation and follows instead on the heels of the first movie and the subsequent television series. The violence is again significantly understated and is inspired by the slapstick Looney Tunes cartoons of Tex Avery, for whom the main character is named.

Television Series

The Mask: The Animated Series. Produced by Gary Hartle. New Line Cinema/Dark Horse Entertainment, 1995-1997. This program stars Rob Paulsen as Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask and borrows heavily from the source movie and somewhat from the original comics series. Again, numerous changes are evident; most noticeably, the animated Ipkiss acts less the violent, superhuman maniac than a mischievous superhero, with the Mask serving as his exaggerated alter ego.

Further Reading

Luke, Eric, et al. Ghost Omnibus, Volume 1 (2008).

Mahnke, Doug, et al. X Omnibus, Volume 1 (2008).

Miller, Frank, and David Mazzucchelli. Batman: Year One (1987).

Bibliography

Aamodt, Britt. Superheroes, Strip Artists, and Talking Animals: Minnesota’s Contemporary Cartoonists. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011.

Bukatman, Scott. “Taking Shape: Morphing and the Performance of Self.” In Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change, edited by Vivian Sobchack. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

Stradley, Randy, ed. The Best of Dark Horse Presents. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse, 1989.