The base concept of The Mask was created by Mike Richardson in 1982. It first saw life as a single sketch he drew in 1985 for APA-5, an amateur press publication created by writer Mark Verheiden. After starting Dark Horse Comics, Richardson pitched his concept to Marvel Comics comic book writer/artist Mark Badger. The outcome was the Masque strip, that ran in the early issues of Dark Horse Presents. Badger’s strips became increasingly political, and Richardson ended the strip in order to bring the character back to his original concept.
Artist Chris Warner was hired to revamp the character based on Richardson’s original APA-5 drawing and created the definitive look for the character, that was given a new launch in 1989 in the pages of Dark Horse’s Mayhem anthology. Aspiring writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke were hired to create the new adventures, which became the first very popular use of the character, “a combination of Tex Avery and The Terminator“. The Mask stories from Mayhem #1-4 were later collected as the 1991 issue The Mask #0 and in a trade paperback collection as well.
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