THE MASK is a Dark Horse comic book character created by Doug Mahnke and John Arcudi in 1989 (from a concept by Mike Richardson in 1982), involving a green mask that gives the wearer reality-bending superpowers but also alters his personality by removing all social and moral inhibitions...resulting in the series' characteristic chaos and dark humor. While there are some 'Masque' strips in early issues of DARK HORSE PRESENTS (also based on Richardson's 1982 sketch), the familiar, iconic MASK got its start in MAYHEM [1989] #1-4 and went on to star in its own series of mini-series beginning with MASK [1991] #1-4 and continuing throughout the 1990s. The character franchise expanded notably with a feature film starring Jim Carrey in 1994 and an animated television series from 1995-1997, both of which downplayed the horror/violence aspect in exchange for more humor of the less dark variety. The Mask had cross-property crossovers with several characters near the end of its publishing heyday, including a popular crossover with the Joker in 2000. Dark Horse revived the character in 2019 with a new mini-series, preceded by omnibus compilations of all the previous material.