Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Comics Catch-Up 081: The Mask
2 Plays3 seconds ago
Chris and Matt both tried to read a Mask comics miniseries back when it came out, but bounced off because it was nothing like the movie. Now we're returning to the original John Arcudi/Doug Mahnke miniseries to see how they hold up 30-plus years later!
We make our show on Zencastr, and you can too! Follow this link to sign up now!
Join the WRA Patreon to help us keep doing the show and get rewards!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Zencastr and Podcasting
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster or you want to be a podcaster and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster. They also have hosting options and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes or in the episode description and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
Diving Into 'The Mask' Comics
00:00:28
Speaker
Oh my god, it's comic! I think it's a puzzle in the world! This is Comics Catch-Up. I don't taste twerp.
00:00:38
Speaker
You better not be my heart for my comic!
00:00:52
Speaker
Where we read comics suggested you, the listeners of War Rocket Apex, that we have missed. Oh, hey. Good to see you again.
00:01:04
Speaker
Let's catch up. This is Comics Catch Up, the show where I, Matt Wilson, and my longtime life partner, Chris Sims. Smokin'.
00:01:16
Speaker
We read the comics that we did not read in the past. Matt. Matt. Mm-hmm. Smokin'. Somebody stop me. Smokin'. Yes, we read The Mask for this edition of Comics Catch-Up. It's Macek.
00:01:33
Speaker
That's why we did it. Get it?
00:01:38
Speaker
It's the month of May, and we read The Mask. I'm glad explained it. I'm glad you explained it, because I feel like there are a lot of people out there who just could not put that one together. Yeah, yeah. I'm helping you out here.
00:01:49
Speaker
So what we did was we went back and read, because people told us that they were worth reading. We went back and read the first two miniseries of The Mask, and then I actually read the third one, ah because that's the one that came out after the movie. Yeah.
00:02:07
Speaker
And it's the one that I like picked up and tried to read and could not make a lick of sense of it. Okay, here's the question I
Chronology and Plot of 'The Mask'
00:02:16
Speaker
want to ask you. Did you get issues or did you get a paperback?
00:02:19
Speaker
i i've been I read the omnibus. I got the first mask omnibus, which I believe includes...
00:02:30
Speaker
I didn't buy it. i What I did was I went to the newsstand, because there used to be comics on newsstands back then. I believe it was the local um CVS pharmacy had various comics, and they had like the first issue of The Mask Strikes Back. And sometimes what I would do at the CVS is I would just...
00:02:53
Speaker
pick Because my mom would be grocery shopping, so I would have some time. So I would go into the CVS would just read the comics. Okay. While I was there.
00:03:04
Speaker
and So which which one did you read? You read number one? the Mask Strikes Back number one, yeah. Okay. Because I did the exact same thing.
00:03:15
Speaker
yeah Except for I had number two. I might have had number one, I definitely had number two, because looking at it now, it's like, oh yeah, I remember these pages a lot, and the mask dressing up as a Confederate soldier.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yep, yep, I really remember that. For reasons. Yep. For me at the age of 12 or 13, incomprehensible.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, i was... Because obviously this was post-movie. I was like probably 11... Or 12, maybe. And I was instantly confused because The Mask wasn't Stan Leeupkis.
00:03:57
Speaker
Here's the secret of The Mask comics that we're going to talk about, because I'm going to talk about the third miniseries. A few things here.
Differences Between Comics and Film
00:04:07
Speaker
One, the entire run of The Mask by John R. Cudi and Doug Monke Is one story. Yeah, I would say like when we rank it, we you could argue that The Mask ah has a stopping point, but The Mask and The Mask Returns especially are one complete story.
00:04:30
Speaker
And The Mask Strikes Back continues that story. The Mask Strikes Back continues directly from but... but the the The character who kind of unifies everything, who is Kathy, does she come back in Strikes Back?
00:04:44
Speaker
She does. Okay, so it is fully one story, then? It is fully one story. Okay, because I did not read Strikes Back. I read The Mask and The Mask Returns. so Because we promised that we would read the first two. I didn't realize that the first three were so connected to each other. yeah But they are. They're they're one long story.
00:05:08
Speaker
If you were to pick up the Mask miniseries issue one, you've already missed the Stanley part. Yeah, Stanley is the Mask in the... They're not Dark Horse Presents.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, they are they were Dark Horse Presents. they dark horses I thought it was like Mayhem or something. It was Dark Horse horse Presents. there were There were short stories in Dark Horse Presents ah where Stanley had the Mask.
00:05:36
Speaker
And then he's gone. He dies. He he fully dies. He dies at the end of the Dark Horse Presents story. So by the time The Mask Issue 1 โ and that those stories all got released as a zero issue โ The Mask Issue 1 starts with Stanley dead.
00:05:57
Speaker
And the mask already finding a new host, who's a cop. And he has a broken arm, and you don't know why his arm is broken, because that happened in the Zero issue. Yeah, ah what you won't miss is what the mask itself actually is, because it does not get an origin story in... no the first two miniseries, which... Nor nor the third. the The whole concept of it being Loki's mask is just from the movie.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah. Which, on the one hand, I'm like, yeah, does it really need an origin story? But on the other hand, it really made me appreciate the movie. The movie has three credited writers. Michael Fallon, Mark Verheiden, and Mike Werb.
00:06:45
Speaker
Mark Verheiden...
Character Analysis: Stanley Ipkiss
00:06:47
Speaker
And Mike Werb are like kind of comics guys in in some ways. Verheiden in particular currently is or did the did the Swamp Thing TV show that was around in 2019.
00:07:03
Speaker
yeah he did Ash vs. Evil Dead. He was an executive producer on the Netflix Daredevil. he's been He's had his his Fingers in a lot of comics-related pots. Yeah, he wrote a little movie called fucking Time Cop.
00:07:19
Speaker
He sure did. And then ah Mike Werb did Lara Croft Tomb Raider and wrote fucking Face Off, as well as Darkman 3 Die, Darkman, Die. That's the Darkman with with ah Arnold Vosler.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yep, yep, sure is. They did a lot of... They made a lot of good choices in the adaptation. Because the mask itself... b eight like Being Loki's mask and Stanley Ipkiss as a guy who's like kind of obsessed with Looney Tunes... Makes a lot of sense for how the mask works in that movie. Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker
In the comic, it's just a normal kind of nerdy guy puts on this mask of unknown providence and then starts doing weird cartoon shit. He's an asshole, though. He is an asshole.
00:08:14
Speaker
it Like, Stanley Ipkiss is likable. Stanley Ipkiss in the movie is like a lovable loser. Yeah. Who's always taken advantage of.
00:08:24
Speaker
I remember the scene where his car falls apart. Yeah. Very vividly. Now, he does sodomize those guys. That's when he's wearing the mask. That's when he's wearing the mask. that's That's the influence of the mask. But ah Stanley Ipkiss is a lovable loser.
00:08:44
Speaker
Stanley Ipkiss in the comic is an asshole. He's a huge asshole. From Jump Street. He's a nerd who sucks. Yes. So he's a totally different character. Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
The mask doesn't get the origin story. The whole um conceit of like the the swing revival part of it isn't really in the comic either. Well, i mean well that was just in the zeitgeist.
00:09:10
Speaker
That was in the zeitgeist. Of 1994. If anything, that the mask movie kind of... like If it didn't start it, it mainstreamed it. I don't think it started it, but it was definitely part of the wave.
00:09:23
Speaker
it it I think the mask popularized it greatly. Yeah. um Because it wasn't it didn't really get big until a couple years later, right? like Like, your your Squirrel Nuts zipper and your Cherry Poppin' Daddies didn't come until like a couple years later. oh Yeah, I guess ah Brian Setzer Orchestra's Jump, Jive, and Whale was 1998. Yeah, yeah.
00:09:49
Speaker
so And Mask was 1994.
00:09:53
Speaker
it's It's interesting to see what the movie kind of invented and what it did take from the comics. Because there are a couple of gags that are straight out of the comic. yeah I mean, the muffler shop is a thing. It just goes down very differently in the in the movie. yeah like well we'll We'll talk about those specific things when we get to them. But to let's go through like okay let's go through these issues and and then we'll we'll make we'll pass our judgments on on the mass comics, uh, in a bit. So the zero issue, the story with Stanley starts off, it just kicks off with Stanley in like a pawn shop. It's, it's like a pawn shop or like a antique store, um, that kind of thing.
00:10:39
Speaker
And he is buying the mask first thing right off the bat. He's buying the mask from a guy and it is, ostensibly a gift for his girlfriend who collects like artifacts.
00:10:56
Speaker
she is She is maybe like in an art collector, I guess? Because she's got like a shelf of like weird little knickknacks, and she says like, oh, I saw this downtown and I really liked it.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. she Her name's Kathy, and... Like, from the get-go, there's a real mismatch between her and Stanley. like Like, she's a hot, blonde lady, and he's a terrible, shitty nerd. Yeah, and other people will talk about how, like, he's a fucking dork with a really hot girlfriend. So it is canonical. Yeah.
00:11:36
Speaker
yeah his His hairline, man. it ain't It ain't good. It's like when they make a fake data head Mixing Legion. Disrespectful. Yes, it is it is such a Time Zero head.
00:11:52
Speaker
i can't believe it. ah Very true. Very true.
Violence and Consequences in 'The Mask'
00:11:57
Speaker
So on the way home from buying the mask, Stanley gets beaten up by Nazis. ah Yes, bikers who are later referred to as Nazis.
00:12:07
Speaker
ah But they don't like have any paraphernalia. They're like skinheads. like I mean, they're not, though. like One guy looks like Terry Funk.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, but at least one of them is a skinhead. But that yeah, they he gets beaten up. He gets a black eye. he like is having ah like visions of getting revenge on them. And then at one point, the mask just speaks to Stanley and says, let's go waste the Nazis.
00:12:38
Speaker
yeah he He gives the mask to Kathy, and she like thanks him. Then in the middle of the night, he wakes up and decides to put on the mask. It is established that they have previously had a fight.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yes. Probably but because Stanley's an asshole. Right. this This is a makeup... For their fight. the The first exchange of dialogue is she knocks on her door, she opens the door and she goes, oh, it's you.
00:13:06
Speaker
And he goes, yeah nice, Catherine, real nice. Which immediately I'm like, hey man, fuck this guy. and yeah. yeah So he puts on the mask and transforms into, you know, the kind of cartoonishly big teethed mask that we all know. Yeah, who is not called the mask.
00:13:29
Speaker
No. ah He's Big Head. He's always called Big Head, yeah. Which conf confused the bejesus out of me as a kid. Although I guess in The Mask, The Mask is never called The Mask either.
00:13:40
Speaker
The movie, yeah. Yeah, in in the movie, sorry. But he's he's also never called Big Head. I just think he's never called anything. yeah But in in this, he's referred to โ or but whatever persona โ Whatever person the mask takes over is referred to as Big Head.
00:13:57
Speaker
He has like a kind of like wild-looking suit with a design on it. but It's a design that's on his pajamas. It's like square spirals yeah that then becomes the design on his suit.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yes. ah it's It's not really like a zoot suit. It's just a suit that matches the pajamas that Stanley was wearing. And it does look like a little cartoonish, but it I don't think it's meant to like kind of evoke the zoot suit kind of stuff that the mask would have in the movie.
00:14:31
Speaker
No. So he goes looking for the guys. It's wild that there's no real iconic mask look in the comic, other than the you know the head is the yeah the consistent thing.
00:14:42
Speaker
ah And and it it changes depending on who's wearing it, and a lot of different people wear it. Yeah. so yeah But like you think about the movie and how the big green face and the yellow suit are extremely iconic.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, but like even in the movie, like he wears different outfits. He he does. And you know like he he transforms into costumes a lot, like the Confederate General outfit, for some reason. And the and the the the yeah the one I remember most from the movie is like when he's like...
00:15:17
Speaker
In like the stereotypical French stripy shirt and beret and stuff. Yeah. yeah Now, he also does something another a trick to disguise himself that we'll talk about when we get to it. that He does a lot that he doesn't do in the movie. But I i just like... It's... it When you think of the mask...
00:15:37
Speaker
When you think of the character, I feel like you think of that the the the yellow zoot suit. yeah And how like you know when they did the the animated spin-off, like that is in there.
00:15:48
Speaker
It sure is, it's like It's fully not a thing in the comics. Although when Big Head is Stanley, or when Stanley is Big Head, he's pretty consistently wearing like a suit and tie.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah. So he goes to try to beat up the guys who beat him up. He punches one of the guys and like hurts his hand, and he goes bouncing out into the street. He gets he misses and hits ah a light pole. Oh, that's what happens, yeah yeah. He gets run over by a van, and there's like...
00:16:21
Speaker
like tire tracks over him, but also he's bleeding a lot. and So it's like cartoonish, but also like so slightly more realistic than Looney Tunes. think the gag is that all of this Looney Tunes violence happens with extremely realistic consequences.
00:16:41
Speaker
Correct. so But he gets run over by the van and then like pops back up and he's like, I knew I had abilities. Then he goes into like a ah like ah like a bike repair shop.
00:16:56
Speaker
Wearing the face of one of the gang members, and there's a bit where he rips the face off and reveals that he's the mask. This happens many times yeah and this is in the course of the series.
00:17:08
Speaker
This is his move. yeah He can disguise himself by apparently tearing someone's face off and then applying it to his own face. And then when he tears it off of his own face, there's also blood.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yes. He beats up the people in the like bike repair shop. He sets people on fire. He attacks them with a wrench. The but the biker gang. It's a motorcycle repair shop. Yeah, yeah yeah it's a right yeah motorcycle. but but Bike. When I say bike, I mean motorcycle.
00:17:35
Speaker
um Then he just like conjures like an Uzi and says, hmm, I wonder what this is for. It's a MAC-10. Is it a MAC-10? It's an Ingram MAC-10. Come on.
00:17:48
Speaker
Sorry. um Then he gets shot with a shotgun. um There's a big hole in his chest, but he's okay. Then he takes the Mac-10 and shoots a bunch of the bikers.
00:17:59
Speaker
Yeah, so he fully murders these guys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Which was kind of a shocking thing for me. Coming at this, like like, when I was a kid, in in The Mass Strikes Back, there's reference to him, like, oh, yeah, he's he's like, he killed like a couple dozen people.
00:18:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's it's wild that that they made the movie they did based on this comic when literally the first thing huge asshole Stanley Ipkiss does is fully murder some guys with a gun.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yep. that That he just conjured out of thin air. Like, it just appeared. And there is a running gag that goes throughout the entire series where the mask is like, huh, wonder where that came from.
Lieutenant Kellaway as Big Head
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:48
Speaker
So the next morning, ah Kathy wakes up. She sees Stanley in the bathroom wearing the mask. like theres She just gets a quick glimpse of him with the mask on. She slams the bathroom door. he takes the mask off.
00:19:05
Speaker
And she's like, where have you been? i thought I saw some kind of monster in the bathroom. And he goes, don't you think I'd have seen a monster in the bathroom? As that's going on, there's a news report on TV.
00:19:18
Speaker
about the murders from the night before. Then Stanley starts wearing camouflage yeah out of nowhere. We cut to like the next chapter of the story, and it's Stanley making his hit list and dressing in a full camouflage outfit complete with a beret, camo beret. and like right like He's ah like like a fucking militia guy or like a prepper or something. so But when he puts on the mask, the outfit turns from like shades of green into like pink and purple.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah. And becomes a suit and tie. Yeah. And so ah he goes to the muffler shop, and there are these two guys in the muffler shop who we're talking about. like he Now he's on a rampage of... like fucking over anybody or or getting revenge on anybody who wronged him in his whole life. yeah so So he goes to a muffler shop. There these two guys who work at the muffler shop. They're cheating everybody, and they're talking about how they've cheated everybody, including Stanley.
00:20:23
Speaker
And there's just a shot of him saying, I'm not going to pay a lot for this muffler with the mask on. That joke will never be dated. Everyone's always going to love that joke.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah. um And it's heavily implied that he murders them with the muffler. Then he like goes to one of his teachers that he hated and kills her in front of ah in front of a bunch of children.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah. He like stomps her to death. Yeah. ah did you Did you catch what the name of the the school is? What is the name of the school? It's Fred Willard Elementary School. That's very good. Which did, actually. I was like, you got me with that one, John.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, we do see the results of what he does to the muffler guys. he He hangs one guy up on the chains and shoves a bunch of tools into his head. Yeah, he stabs a guy in the head multiple times.
00:21:15
Speaker
And then he did shove the muffler down the other guy's throat. Yeah, and so the other guy's head is now muffler-shaped. Muffler-shaped, yeah. Which I think is Probably equally as violent as what happens in the movie.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would say more, but... but I mean, ah he leaves them alive in the movie, but Matt... It's not good. It's not good. What he does is not good. is's not good it's not good It's not as bad as as what Dr. Kirk Connors did, but it's pretty bad.
00:21:50
Speaker
Then we're introduced to Detective Calloway, who is going to be a very important character going forward through the rest of the Mask comics. ah he He investigates the muffler shop.
00:22:04
Speaker
um Then Stanley, as the Mask, beats up a kid
00:22:11
Speaker
ah but who annoys him, who like ah is is bullying other kids.
00:22:21
Speaker
Or no, he's not even beating up the bully. He's beating... Or no, he is beating up one of the bullies. He's toady, because he's like holding the little nerdy kid while the Pugsley Adams kid is doing like the the actual ah bullying.
00:22:34
Speaker
Stanley goes home, he takes off the mask, he falls asleep, and then ah Kathy finds the mask and puts it in the trash.
00:22:44
Speaker
She tells Stanley... After Stanley wakes up, she tells Stanley that she threw it away. He gets... furious. Then he gets sad. ah we we skipped over the part where like he almost slaps her.
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yes, yes. and like that's That's the real... like It's hard to have any sympathy for Sam Lipkis in the first chapter, but in the second one, when he like gets out of his chair and he's like going to beat his girlfriend, that's like that's when you're like, fuck this guy.
00:23:17
Speaker
And that's not when he's Big Head. That's when he's Stanley. That's when he's Stanley. Then there's a bit where on the news they show some stuff about the guys at the muffler shop getting killed. And Stanley's response to that is to laugh.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, and be like, that guy's head shaved like a muffler. How do you think he got it in there? Yeah. And this is when Kathy is like, okay, I'm disgusted. you're get out of here.
00:23:45
Speaker
i'm I'm kicking you out. We're done. And then he asks for the mask back, and so she like literally kicks him out of the apartment. ah Stanley gets kicked out. He's looking through the trash for the mask and saying, like I'll show her.
00:24:04
Speaker
He can't find the mask, so he just climbs up like ah a ah pipe on the side of the building and goes inside the apartment, breaks into his his his girlfriend's own apartment. Kathy hears this, calls the police.
00:24:20
Speaker
She hits Stanley over the head with a lamp, thinking that it's just some intruder, but it's it's really Stanley. The cops arrive. Kathy's trying to like cover for everything that happened. Then Stanley sees the mask in the closet because it's just like back there.
00:24:40
Speaker
It didn't like, like it it's like it took itself out of the trash. ah So he puts on the mask, and he's now going to hit Kathy with a lamp.
00:24:52
Speaker
He's like standing behind the door asking her to come in. Instead, one of the cops opens the door. He hits the cop with the lamp. Now Kathy's like, who are you? What are you doing here and where's Stanley?
00:25:03
Speaker
Big Head is like... Why didn't I kill you? where Where did I put that thing? He's got ah another lamp in his jacket. He uses that on the other cop. Then he suddenly has two handguns inside his jacket again.
00:25:18
Speaker
He shoots both cops. Then a bunch of cops arrive, and they're coming after him on the stairwell. now he has Now Stanley has like ah like a bazooka, and he's shooting cops with a bazooka.
00:25:32
Speaker
ah Things get pretty wild at this point. yeah Cops are shooting each other. Head is slapping cops in the stairwell. There's a big fight on the roof.
00:25:45
Speaker
Finally, they corner him on the roof with Detective ah galloway Calloway. Calloway? Calloway. um Like me and Mark. Like Mean Mark. Yeah. they They corner him on the rooftop and just shoot him many, many times. He falls off the roof, but he does that Wile Coyote thing where he like hits the brakes on his fall.
00:26:09
Speaker
And it goes screech.
00:26:13
Speaker
And he just gets in a car and drives away. In a cop car. So then he's driving in a cop car. He's ah got like a ah prisoner, an arrested guy in the back.
00:26:27
Speaker
um And Detective Calloway is like trying to figure out what's going on.
Enter Walter: The Nemesis
00:26:31
Speaker
He's asking Kathy what's going on. Finally, as Calloway is questioning Kathy, she puts together that big head is Stanley with the mask on.
00:26:41
Speaker
yeah like She finally figures this out. Stanley, meanwhile, is like driving driving through convenience stores. Yeah, to get beer. stand To get beer. Stanley Big Head?
00:26:53
Speaker
Like, Big Head Stanley loves to drink beer specifically. Like, he's fucking Steve Austin. yeah Yes. Like, he's always talking about, like, having a beer.
00:27:04
Speaker
Then he's, like, chasing down other people on his enemies list, including, like, a guy who owes him some money. ah Finally, Calloway and his partner, like, catch up to him in the car. They make him crash.
00:27:18
Speaker
And so Stanley comes out of the car and now he's just got like a giant ax and he's chopping through the roof of Calloway and his ah partner's car. This is how Calloway's arms gets injured. And andd so like They think Stanley is finally dead now because they knock him off at the top of the car. He's not. Now he's got flamethrowers. He shoots a dude in the face with a... i don't I think it's after he has the flamethrower, he pulls out like a shotgun, and there is a wild, violent panel of him literally blowing a man's face off with a shotgun.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. After that, ah he escapes by going into the sewer, and then he pops out and ah puts an Ingram Mac-10 down another cop's pants and just shoots him a bunch in the dick, which kills him.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yep. ah So he goes home, he takes off the masks off the mask, and ah then ah we see Kathy put on the mask and shoot Stanley and kill him.
00:28:34
Speaker
Yeah. So Stanley dies, and that's fine. Yeah, it's it's not sad that Stanley is dead, because he was a huge piece of shit. He's a huge piece of shit.
00:28:44
Speaker
He killed a bunch of people. And he killed them in, like, wildly violent ways. Yeah, like, this part where Stanley's, like, on top of the cars with the flamethrowers killing, like, cops and people, um it's like the end of Joker.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:29:04
Speaker
Like, look. Look. We're not huge fans of the cops. no I don't think Stanley Ivkis should shoot them all in the dick until they die.
00:29:18
Speaker
Which he he sure does. And maybe maybe that makes me maybe that makes me a less than perfect leftist.
00:29:28
Speaker
But still. ah So that is the Zero issue, which is pretty long. It's it's like four parts of like Dark Horse Presents stories.
00:29:41
Speaker
Then we start the mask miniseries proper, where Kathy, who has removed the mask, is going to the police station to find Lieutenant Calloway to like give him the mask, because she just like wants to get rid of it.
00:29:58
Speaker
So Kellaway has his messed up arm from the previous story. And Kathy like you know is kind of left where she was last time. So if you had just picked up the mask number one, you might have already been like a little bit lost. like There's a lot of talk about her boyfriend, but he is never named. yeah um Her boyfriend who died under mysterious circumstances.
00:30:23
Speaker
Also, i have to note... Mysterious circumstance of being shot in the head in her house. by apartmentmouth Which yeah would you think the police would maybe, you know... Investigate, but no. I don't know. Maybe maybe they should all get shot in the dick.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah. ah Also, ah let me note here, like, Doug Monkey's art, like, really levels up between the the Dark Horse Presents stories and this mini.
00:30:52
Speaker
Yeah, the mini, like, there's pages that look like Mobius. and And there's stuff in, like, it it gets even better, I think, in the the following two minis. But, like, this Doug Monkey art is really good.
00:31:03
Speaker
I'm not a huge fan of Doug Monkey, except when I am. Yeah. Like, I mean, Ultra Convicts, one of the best bangers of all time.
00:31:15
Speaker
ah Final Crisis. Final Crisis, yeah. But I don't usually love, like, him on Ongoings. I certainly didn't. I mean, I just didn't care about the Green Lantern stuff.
00:31:25
Speaker
But like you read this and you're like, oh, oh this guy was doing like like Mobius stuff on the mask. Yeah, this is why he's a famous artist, yeah I feel like, um his work on this mask stuff.
00:31:41
Speaker
So, Kathy brings the mask to Calloway. Calloway takes it home. Even though it's evidence, he takes it home. And he puts the mask on. His arm immediately heals. Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
And his version of the mask is just wearing his like cop clothes. Like, white shirt, black tie... Black slacks and a belt. Yeah, he gets some more costumes, but mostly he's just wearing like normal clothes. There's a bit where he tries to knock the mask off of his head with a hammer. That doesn't work. There's a part there's a part where he tries to shoot.
00:32:20
Speaker
hit Well, he's going to shoot himself in the head, and then he's like, ah, maybe just through the hand. He's testing his invulnerability. Yeah. And like he's he's realizing how invulnerable he is.
00:32:32
Speaker
ah like He shoots himself through the hand and it bleeds and it's got a big hole in it, but it heals. We also learn about like all this corruption in the police department, especially, and in the DA's office. There's this one like assistant DA a who's like totally in the pocket of organized crime.
00:32:54
Speaker
And he's making Kellaway's life really hard. And like taking cases away from him. and like He'll arrest somebody and then decide not to prosecute and that kind of stuff.
00:33:08
Speaker
Because Kellaway's trying to take down organized crime in town. ah But right now, Kellaway's just like fighting some street thugs. And he like pops up in the engine of some criminal's car.
00:33:22
Speaker
And ah they shoot him. He does a die. and then he shows up. and And this is one of the gags from the movie. This is one of the gags that is taken directly into the movie. Yeah. Yes. He shows up wearing like like a circus suit.
00:33:41
Speaker
ah like it Like, you you know, like he he's a guy who's doing balloon animals like you know at the midway. um And he makes a balloon animal. And he goes, voila, a French poodle.
00:33:52
Speaker
Several more twists, and we have my favorite, a Tommy gun. A Tommy gun. that's That is directly in the movie. Yeah, um what doesn't happen in the movie is the next panel, where he violently shoots a Tommy gun at two guys from point-blank range, and they fully die.
00:34:12
Speaker
Right, and and bleed ah a lot. Well, one of them doesn't die somehow. Yeah. Or at least one of the other guys maybe he beat up earlier doesn't die.
00:34:23
Speaker
um And he gets taken away by paramedics. But then Kellaway reveals that he's one of the paramedics by doing that thing where he rips off a face. Yeah, which is bloody and horrifying.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yes, yes. So Kathy calls Kellaway, who's at work, and she says... You didn't try on that mask, did you? And he goes, of course not. what ah Try what on? The mask? No, you made it clear that I shouldn't do that.
00:34:53
Speaker
So I didn't. Besides, I don't think it's my size. You told me not to. um And Kathy's like, oh, something weird is going on here.
00:35:04
Speaker
There's also a confrontation between Kelleway and that assistant DA whose name is Lister. um Lister is telling Kellaway to stay away from this like crime boss whose name is Rapaz.
00:35:17
Speaker
and And now Kellaway is really mad. The next time we see the mask, he is wearing a tuxedo. Like ah a totally white tuxedo with a red bow tie and cummerbund.
00:35:31
Speaker
And this is like approaching the movie look, I guess. Yeah, and it's not... It's not really clear like what the bit is this time. Because this version of of Big Head like he doing like Frank Sinatra bits.
00:35:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He's singing, like, doobie doobie doo, and yeah that kind of thing. And he's pretending to be this like barber. Yeah. And so there's a whole thing where he's going to cut this guy with really long hair's hair, but he like picks the guy up by the hair and swings him around and throws him into a building.
00:36:10
Speaker
Because he's a crook that's hassling an honest trucker who needs the truck to feed his family. So yeah, that's the thing about Kelleway's version of the mask. is that he He's a murderer, but he he only murders like criminals. He's cleaning up the city.
00:36:28
Speaker
That's right. ah there's more of this stuff about how Calloway's mad about like the corruption. ah he talks to Kathy again.
00:36:40
Speaker
ah and ah she's like, hey, I'm a little worried about stuff because the big head is back. you know That's just got me worried. And ah and he like shrugs it off again.
00:36:55
Speaker
ah he goes and fights more criminals. We get introduced to Who will end up being a recurring character ah throughout this? Who's like ah like a Frankenstein-looking dude?
00:37:08
Speaker
Yes. Who's like kind of the second most important character after Kathy. Yeah, like he's he's the one who keeps coming back. He's he's like the Mask's arch-nemesis. He gets a...
00:37:22
Speaker
It's a name in the next miniseries, but I forget what it is. It's Walter. Walter, yeah. Having read these, I don't know why there wasn't a The Mask 2 starring Cameron Diaz and ah fucking Lurch as... Cameron Diaz and Kurgan as Walter. Where, like, Walter comes back to to kill The Mask.
00:37:48
Speaker
Big head. yeah The mask ultimately does kill Rapaz, the crime boss. um He like leaves like a ticking time bomb ah in his jacket.
00:38:04
Speaker
And so he explodes. And there's like a lot of press attention about how Calloway might have been connected to this.
00:38:15
Speaker
ah But they don't ah they don't quite put it together yet. yeah ah oh Big Head also fights Walter, and Walter's deal is that he is just invulnerable. like Invincible, yeah. He is a super strong tank of a guy who, from what I read, cannot be killed.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So after like another night of just like going out and killing criminals, Kello gets confronted by his boss, who basically like puts him on leave.
00:38:51
Speaker
ah because he tells him to like head up a task force to take down Big Head, and Kellaway doesn't want to do that. And so he he he gets you know suspended for a while.
00:39:06
Speaker
he He fights more criminals in a restaurant. There's a bit where he's like dressed like a bullfighter. That is another thing that's in the movie. ah And then Kellaway is ultimately heralded as a hero,
00:39:19
Speaker
Because they know he's in this restaurant where all these criminals like end up shooting each other. Where he he either tricks them into shooting each other or or he murders them.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, there's one bit where he he's wearing like a chef uniform and he puts a bunch of sleeping pills in ah in a cake. And he makes like one of the guys eat the cake. No, that guy has an Uzi.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's a newsie. But like ultimately, Kellaway walks out of this restaurant and is hailed as a ah hero, but his boss is still mad at him. Finally, like we see Walter again. He's he's like still invulnerable, still killing like his own enemies.
00:40:04
Speaker
ah Lister, I think, finally gets taken down.
00:40:11
Speaker
Let's see. There's a bit where like Kathy and Kellaway bond, and it looks like they might get together. um'm I'm trying to go through this quick.
00:40:21
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, a lot does happen yeah this. ah Kellaway goes and roughs up the... oh the Well, first, Kellaway and Kathy make a deal where...
00:40:39
Speaker
she's like, look, I know you were big head and that you killed all these guys. Uh, the mask was too, well is too powerful for any one person to have. And he's like, I know, but I really just wanted to, to clean up the city. I wanted to do good. So how about this?
00:40:56
Speaker
I'm going to lock the mask in my, in my desk drawer and give you the only key. So if I ever want to use it again, I've, I've got to call you and you've got to let me.
00:41:09
Speaker
And she's like, yeah, okay. We can do that. I'm never going to let you. but right But he breaks into his desk and takes the mask out anyway.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. Because he wants to go after the corrupt assistant DA who has been, like, like stole evidence from a case and is is on the take with the the drug dealers.
00:41:33
Speaker
Right. ah and Well, and he he finds out from his partner that this guy is still out there doing shit. And, like, in a hearing where he's supposed to get taken down, like, he doesn't.
00:41:45
Speaker
Like, he gets out of it. So he breaks into his desk, he he takes the mask, and he like just pulls that assistant DA like out of his car, takes him to an office, and starts like beating the shit out of him.
00:41:58
Speaker
um And he starts breaking into his safe to try to get to the evidence that he stole. um He wraps the guy up in an American flag and and like tapes his mouth shut.
00:42:09
Speaker
um And as he's leaving the office, he's confronted by all these cops um led by his boss. And so there's this there's this big sequence where he like takes out a big axe and chops a police car in half.
00:42:24
Speaker
But then he like goes too far and starts beating up his partner. And prior to this, there's actually a scene that I really like, where they're like, like because the corrupt EA comes out, and he's like, I did it. Please lock me up. i was All of the information in my ah bribery ledger is fully accurate.
00:42:44
Speaker
I just don't want to deal with Big Head again. And then Big Head goes, like, walks up to the captain and his partner and is like, that's right, I did it.
00:42:55
Speaker
So ah there's this guy, Lieutenant Kellaway, that you've been really mean to, and maybe you should be nicer to him. And you should give him his job back. should give him his job back, because he's a good guy. at one part, he does get fired, yeah. So...
00:43:09
Speaker
so But it it goes too far, and he like beats up his partner and sticks a stick of dynamite in his mouth. And then he realizes what he's doing, so he pulls the dynamite out and runs out into the street and explodes.
00:43:23
Speaker
And the last thing we see of that first miniseries is Kellaway in his basement burying the mask in cement.
00:43:34
Speaker
So then the mask returns. Once again, Doug Monke and ah ah John Arcudi. Now, was The Mask Returns post-movie, or is this stuff all pre-movie?
00:43:47
Speaker
The Mask and The Mask Returns are both pre-movie. Okay. Because Mask Strikes Back is definitely after. Yes. Let me see if I can see when The Mask Returns came October 92 to March 93. So probably while they were making the movie...
00:44:05
Speaker
ah eat either during the making of the movie or immediately before. yeah that Yeah, that's about right. The Mask Returns starts with a bunch of criminals who we saw in the previous miniseries breaking into Kellaway's house to kill him.
00:44:28
Speaker
So Kellaway has to go down into his basement and start like smashing the floor to try to get the mask out. Like so much John Wick. Yes.
Exploring the Third Miniseries
00:44:39
Speaker
But before he can get the mask out of the floor, he gets shot in the back like three times.
00:44:47
Speaker
And so the crooks find the mask instead, but they don't know what it is, and so they just leave with it. yeah As they're leaving, they put the mask on the driver's And now he's Big Head, and he's doing you know crazy driving, like so like hitting the brakes really hard and making everybody go through the windshield, um and killing all of his friends.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah. and But then he realizes he's invulnerable. um We also catch up with Walter, who's in prison, who's just like beating the shit out of everybody in prison, um and they are all afraid of him.
00:45:26
Speaker
um Oh, I guess ah not all the guys who went through the windshield died. um But the guy with the long hair like walks into a a like his boss's office, and but he's doing the bit where he's got the fake face on and he's actually the mask.
00:45:46
Speaker
And so that guy ends up taking over the entire like crime syndicate. um Yeah. as the mask as and the biggest the first thing he does is there's a big wedding for giuseppe piscatos ah the youngest daughter yeah ah so the whole piscato crime family is in there piscato like that means fish right It does mean fish, yeah. Yeah. It does. ah So then everybody gathers up for the big family portrait, and the photographer, oh the photographer who I guess they thought was using daguerreotype, because he's like under under a sheet.
00:46:23
Speaker
A camera from the 1860s. Yeah. yeah ah He pulls it off, and in what is genuinely my favorite gag in the entire thing, he has a big cartoon, like,
00:46:35
Speaker
A-bomb that says, warning, do not strike with a hammer. And he's holding a hammer, getting ready to hit it. That's pretty funny. yeah And then there's just a big mushroom cloud.
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah. And the next thing He says, I just love weddings. Yeah. And it cuts to a guy reading about this in ah the newspaper, about Piscato Crime Clan wiped out in bomb attack.
00:47:00
Speaker
And the paper is the Star Tribune. Mm-hmm. Which is the paper in Minneapolis.
00:47:10
Speaker
Neither John or Cootie, nor, as far as I can tell, Doug Monke are from Minneapolis. But it did make me feel like, is this taking place in Minneapolis?
00:47:21
Speaker
Could be, could be. Who could say? He takes out another crime family. This is the ah the young crime family. They're a Chinese, like I guess a triad. And he rocks up in a ah in a full knight outfit on an armored horse with a machine gun crossbow.
00:47:42
Speaker
Yep. And so he just, he shoots them all. He shoots them all with the crossbow. ah We catch up with Lieutenant Kellaway, who's in the hospital. He's not dead. He got shot three times, but he's not dead.
00:47:55
Speaker
And ah Lionel, his his partner, and ah Kathy are here like by his bedside. So Kathy...
00:48:06
Speaker
has heard about everything that's been going on with Big Head, too. So she comes up with a plan to go like get the mask back. So she shows up at the current Big Head's crime HQ in a little black dress and makes him go, awooga. Yeah, which of course also also happens in the film.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah. um there's There's a ah great little bit of the art where his eyes bug out, and then his irises are just a little further out than that, and then his pupils are just a little further out than that.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it's good. it's good it's ah It's a good piece of art. It's a good piece of art. ah So she like gets into the mask's good graces, or Big Head's good graces.
00:48:56
Speaker
She's now his, like, Goomaw, or whatever whatever you might call it. um I do like that their headquarters is an Italian restaurant. ah that has a neon sign that says police not welcome, ah and ah a the Don is in or out.
00:49:14
Speaker
ah like that's That's a pretty good gag. I guess that's just how we roll in the Minneapolis criminal underworld. That's right. But a bunch of ah competing criminals show up outside with guns ah to kill ah the Don, because Eugene Pascato of Philly is here.
00:49:35
Speaker
to to To take him down. So Big Head goes outside with a baseball bat and a baseball, and he hits the baseball, and like it goes through a number of these guys.
00:49:46
Speaker
Then he's in a football uniform, and he's like tackling all of them. And it's like old-timey football with one of those leather helmets. Mm-hmm.
00:49:57
Speaker
Then he goes back upstairs and he goes, you see the game, Kathy? Did you? I scored that last TD for you, you know. and And the gag here is that he's like dressed like Archie, basically. like but like a letter With a letterman sweater.
00:50:10
Speaker
By this point, he's like totally enamored with Kathy. And she's like, why don't we go somewhere more private? And he goes, I know just the place. Meanwhile, ah Walter is completely taken over the prison, including the guards.
00:50:26
Speaker
and he gets ah But he's getting paroled to take care of this problem. Yes. ah So Don Matzo, who is Big Head, takes Kathy to like a mansion, a private home, ah in ah in a more secluded part of town. There's a bit where he's wearing like an all-green three-piece suit, and then he just rips that off in one move.
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah, like it's like it's a like it's a one... like It's all one piece, but it's tearaway, like Andrade, Sien, Olmos. yeah Or ah anyone in a Yakuza game.
00:51:04
Speaker
That's right. But then Kathy's like, okay, great, let's get down to business, but aren't you going to take that mask off? Aren't you going to take that off? I want to see what you look like under there. And at first he refuses, and then she's like, no, i like but i want to see what I want to see your face.
00:51:23
Speaker
And finally he's like, okay. And he takes the mask off and he throws it on the bed. And immediately Kathy pulls a gun on him ah that she has on a like a garter holster.
00:51:35
Speaker
He like dives try to get the mask, but she shoots him before he can get it. So now she's escaping with the mask in her clutches. And all of Don Matzo's ah goons are coming after him. So ultimately, of course, she has to put the mask on.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah. And she's got two like giant Rob Liefeld guns, and she shoots all of the guys coming after her. Yeah, and then we get the closest thing that we get to an origin story for the mask in flashback, where i don't know where this is meant to be, because it at first looks like it's kind of like an like an ancient thing where ah someone's dancing around the bonfire with the mask on, and then someone comes up with a machete and cuts their head off, but that guy's in jeans.
00:52:29
Speaker
And yeah so maybe Haiti? but It seems like it's some kind of... Yeah, i mean, it's it's clearly some kind of like tribal ritual yeah where like somebody's wearing the mask, they get their head cut off, then they pick the head up and put it back on their neck. Yeah, then they take the mask off, put it down, it gets swapped out for a fake by ah like a A real Renรฉ Belloc type.
00:52:55
Speaker
Yeah, ah ah a real artifact thief. Yeah, real a real... Does Lara Croft have like a bad Lara Croft?
00:53:09
Speaker
But he like is running away from this ritual, but then gets stopped by like mobster guys who are it like in suits and have like modern guns and everything.
00:53:20
Speaker
ah But then hands over a fake and puts it on and then kills those guys with another machete. Right. And that's all we get because Kathy then wakes up and we realize that this is her dream telling her about where the mask came from.
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah. um We find out that Kathy has tried to destroy the mask and Because, ah again, a pretty good gag. um We just see like on her table, ah there's like an axe with the blade split and like a hammer that's been broken and a chainsaw with the but chain off and a blowtorch. So she's been trying to destroy it.
00:53:58
Speaker
And none of it has worked. Yeah. And there's one point where she's like reading the paper She's like, I just wish there was some way for me to undo all this damage. And then she just throws the mask down and she's like, nah.
00:54:09
Speaker
Yeah, like because she really doesn't want to use it. And and she like yeah she and like she didn't do this. like you know She just wants to get rid of the mask more than anything.
00:54:21
Speaker
like ah Walter gets hired to take down Big Head. There's a whole sequence. This team's Walter is kind of mind-boggling. Yeah, he he he's like cutting his face with a knife. Yeah, Walter doesn't talk.
00:54:35
Speaker
And this guy's trying to talk to him, like get him to do a job for him. And all he's doing is just sitting there cutting himself and intimidating this guy. like Cutting his face along a scar he already has, or like perpendicular to a scar that he already has, and that is his only response.
00:54:55
Speaker
Until the the mafia guy freaks out, and then he gathers up a bunch of his own blood in his hand and throws it in that guy's face, and I guess that's him agreeing to do the job.
00:55:07
Speaker
Apparently, ah because he goes driving by... or some of the people he's with go driving by um and shoot like an RPG into the the Italian restaurant that was Don Mazzo's headquarters. yeah iy Kathy's walking by.
00:55:30
Speaker
Yeah, so Kathy sees this happen, and she's like, okay, I guess I'll put you on again. and so she puts on the mask and just starts like shooting these guys and killing them. Then she like infiltrates like the headquarters or like this warehouse that these guys are in and shoots even more of them. She also gets shot in the chest ah by Walter, um but of course she's not dead.
00:55:54
Speaker
As that's going Kellaway wakes up in the hospital. ah There's a big fight between Kathy and Walter. um She like tries to shoot him. it That doesn't work ah against him either. He hits her in the head with a two-by-four.
00:56:14
Speaker
at one point, she takes off the mask thinking that he won't recognize her. And for a second, he doesn't. For a second, it works. Yeah. Because she goes she goes, hey, if you're looking for a lady with a green face, you ran that way.
00:56:27
Speaker
Yeah. But then he like turns around to remember and like is like, oh, that's that's her. So they fight on the dock. She puts the mask back on. um There's like...
00:56:39
Speaker
you know Just like a big drag-out fight where they're trying to shoot each other and do all kinds of shit. Kellaway, who is now awake, starts driving toward the dock try to find Kathy, because she he's gotten word that she's there. I think he sees something on TV, maybe, about it.
00:56:56
Speaker
The fight eventually gets to the point where like she's shooting at Walter with a flamethrower. The whole place is on fire. His clothes have burned off. So we see his big mother tattoo.
00:57:11
Speaker
There's one part where he's like stretching Kathy's neck like it's made out of rubber. even And finally, she just like takes the mask off and says, like look I don't care anymore. Just put the mask on. Take the take it Put on the mask. I don't care. i don't care anymore.
00:57:27
Speaker
Yeah, she assumes that's what he wants, and she's like, I cannot imagine you getting any worse. You are already invulnerable. So here, I'm the only one who doesn't seem to want it. And she just throws it down, but Walter doesn't really do anything.
00:57:43
Speaker
No, he doesn't care about it. He doesn't care about the mask. um And before he can really do anything... Kellaway arrives, driving in his car, jumps out of the driver's side, which hits Walter, um explodes hits a bunch of exploding barrels, and sends him into like the bay.
00:58:08
Speaker
ah Which is how that mini that second miniseries ends. yeah Now, is that the end of Walter? No. Alright, I'm going to try to get through the mask strikes back pretty quick. Because it does continue the story, but also does go to some like different places.
00:58:25
Speaker
So there are these four friends, Rick, Ben, Hugo, and Archie. It is astonishing that these four guys are friends.
00:58:36
Speaker
like this is This is the kind of group of friends that you only see in stories like this. or They're a total mismatch for each other. like they They have nothing in common. One of them is a huge nerd.
00:58:49
Speaker
And the rest of them are like... They're they're all like totally different personalities for a reason. Because they all end up wearing the mask. And so each version of Big Head that they end up being is like totally distinct. Yeah.
00:59:03
Speaker
that's That's the idea. So one of them is obsessed with the mask. One of them is obsessed with Big Head and is even wearing like a jacket with Big Head on the back.
00:59:15
Speaker
I would have loved this fucking jacket. Yeah. Also, worth noting that the it it's Watchmen style, baby, because the cover... is the image on the jacket that we then zoom out from on page one. That's that's pretty good. It's pretty good. But that the one who's obsessed with the mask is, I think that's Rick.
00:59:35
Speaker
He keeps going to the place where the mask went into the bay in the last miniseries, um where Kellaway drove his car into the bay with Walter.
00:59:51
Speaker
He's like been digging around in here for a while, but this time he goes and he finds the mask. like it's It's just there, and he's found it. And so he arrives back at his apartment um wearing the mask. He's big head now.
01:00:09
Speaker
And ah he's...
Comedic Elements and Failures
01:00:12
Speaker
you know wearing like a big leather jacket and and big goofy pants. and He's like asking his friends to hit him over the head with a mace, which they do. He's you know realizing that he's invulnerable.
01:00:24
Speaker
um At one point, his friend Archie's head ends up inside his mouth. And his other buddies have to pull him out. ah And he's like, ha ha ha, did you see that?
01:00:36
Speaker
his His goal he's is he's going to stick it to the man. There's a big ah panel where he's like, He's like in a tiny little hot rod, driving it through the hallway of their apartment building.
01:00:49
Speaker
yeah It's like it's like ah like ah like a rat fink. Like a rat fink, yeah. yeah yeah And as that is happening, Walter returns. like Walter comes back.
01:01:00
Speaker
ah and and So he's he's alive again. The main thing Rick does as Big Head is annoy cops.
01:01:15
Speaker
Which um is pretty great. There's a bit where he like goes to the police station and he just pulls like a cartoon bomb out and it explodes. um Then he encounters Walter who ah beats the shit out of him.
01:01:28
Speaker
um There's also a bit where um Kathy and Kellaway meet up and reunite and ah see Big Head and Walter on TV fighting. This is also where the mask shows up in a confederate army uniform for reasons I do not understand.
01:01:48
Speaker
But he sends like a huge charge of like all these like stampeding things after Walter. There's like a buffalo, a cat, a giant octopus, a chimpanzee, a dinosaur skeleton, a dodo, a clown, a jack-in-the-box, a robot.
01:02:08
Speaker
It's just like all kinds of random shit. But it's like a great piece of art by a dog monkey. This was the issue that I had when I was a kid, so you can imagine how... it was and it was number one, yeah. How confusing i kind of confusing this was for me.
01:02:21
Speaker
Finally, um Rick comes back to the apartment through the toilet. And he takes the mask off and he goes, the mask is too much. I can't think while I'm wearing it. And i I need to do some serious thinking.
01:02:34
Speaker
um So then we see ah Walter walking away and another one of the friends, Ben, puts on the mask instead.
01:02:45
Speaker
What Ben wants to do with the mask is become a superstar musician. So he goes to like a club and he's wearing kind of like Marilyn Manson clothes.
01:02:56
Speaker
um He calls himself the speed metal messiah. He starts playing the guitar and impresses ah the the guys at this ah music club. And so he goes on stage. He's about to like play his big show. And then suddenly he just transforms into like a crooner.
01:03:14
Speaker
And starts singing, you're just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off of you. Which is not what he wants to sing. He starts singing like Frankie Valli songs. Yeah, we don't know what the origin of the mask is, but it likes a specific kind of music.
01:03:30
Speaker
it likes yeah um and It's not big band music. It's like crooner music. um The crowd starts throwing tomatoes at him. Walter arrives and starts trying to kick Big Head's ass again. and He finally gets like thrown out into an alley.
01:03:46
Speaker
um and This is when ah Ben takes the mask off and he's like, this thing only makes nightmares come true. It made me play the kind of music I didn't want to play. The third friend... end who is named Hugo, who's a recovering drug addict, puts on the mask.
01:04:03
Speaker
And it just makes him like see trippy shit. There's a whole sequence where he's just like it he's basically on like an acid trip while wearing the mask, while being big head.
01:04:15
Speaker
That part's pretty weird. And he quickly like is begging his friends to take the mask off of him. And it's a thing where the mask looks like his own face. Okay. like there's a very weird panel where he's taking the mask off but it looks like his own face then he tosses the mask to the last friend archie who puts on the mask who just wants to be a superhero so he's wearing like a superhero costume it's kind of like the rocketeer like he's got a rocketeer- looking helmet He's out here trying to do superhero stuff as the mask. like He turns ah zoo animals into โ one of them looks like Cyclops.
01:04:52
Speaker
The lion looks like Cyclops. It's pretty good. Yeah. ah And there's like a gorilla that's got kind of like โ I don't know. He's got Wonder Woman gloves on.
01:05:07
Speaker
But he's he's like making a team of animal ah superheroes. Walter shows up and starts trying to fight him, too. He pulls out a big gun and tries to shoot it at Walter, but Walter just breaks the gun. he also Walter also like beats up all the animals. Finally, the cops arrive and try to arrest Walter, which they cannot do because the handcuffs won't fit on him.
01:05:30
Speaker
ah But they do manage to get Walter in a cop car and get him taken away, but that's all paul part of Walter's plan. As soon as he gets to the police station, he ah blows up the police van then he finds They chain a bunch of sets of handcuffs together.
01:05:46
Speaker
Yeah. To handcuff him, which is a pretty good visual. Finally, like Walter beats up Archie so bad that he takes off the mask, and he just hands it over to Walter.
01:05:58
Speaker
And Kellaway is here while this is happening. And so finally, Walter โ finally, Walter tries to put on the mask. And it doesn't do anything. Because his head's too big.
01:06:10
Speaker
His head's too big. it doesn't fit. That is... That a punchline 367 pages in the making. Yes. So, like, he tries to put it on twice. He puts it over his face, it falls off. He puts it over his face, and it falls off again.
01:06:27
Speaker
So he just picks it up and heaves it. Like, heaves it, like... Miles and miles away until like the end of it is like, it's a heavily implied that the mask has attached itself to a crow that eats a butterfly.
01:06:46
Speaker
And that's the end of the John R. Cootie, Doug Monkey mask saga.
01:06:53
Speaker
Now, there are Mask miniseries after this, but they are by other creators. One is by Evan Dorkin. ah There's another one that was written by Bob Fingerman.
01:07:04
Speaker
The most recent one is by Christopher Cantwell. But Arcootie never comes back. That's wild. Yeah. I guess he he he made his money. There is a miniseries about Walter.
01:07:18
Speaker
That Arcootie wrote. And Monkey did the did the art for. And then there was also like a one shot. Where Stanley Ipkiss is a zombie.
01:07:28
Speaker
um but That's weird. But that's it. That's the only stuff they ever came back for. oh wait. There's a Lobo Mask crossover. That John Arcootie co-wrote with Alan Grant.
01:07:40
Speaker
But that's it. that's That's the end of the Arcootie stuff on Mask. Alright. Let's rank it. I think this is pretty good. Really? Like, it's fun.
Final Thoughts: Comics vs. Movie
01:07:52
Speaker
Like, it's it's so wildly different from the Mask movie, and it was so confusing to me when I was a kid. But like now having read it completely in context, like it is a pretty good story.
01:08:07
Speaker
like It's kind of all over the place and extremely violent, but if that's what you're in for, it's it's good. i fully disagree. And that is, this is is nice because this doesn't often happen.
01:08:23
Speaker
I like, it's cut like, i understand it more now, but it's also like, I don't but like nothing really makes sense. There's no stakes because there can't be any stakes because you're, you're, main character is invulnerable and can do anything.
01:08:47
Speaker
Big Head can't die. yeah Big Head can't die and Big Head can do whatever. He he can only die when the mask when he's not wearing the mask. Yeah, and there's not really much to latch onto with Kellaway or Kathy. like Kathy, I think, is the best character in the whole thing because she's yeah the only one who doesn't want it. And so when she uses it, it actually feels like there's stakes.
01:09:11
Speaker
Right, because she doesn't want to be using it. Right. oh it it Ultimately, except for Stanley, it kind of turns out that everybody who wears the mask ends up not wanting it. Kellaway ends up not wanting it. The four guys from The Mask Strikes Back, all of them decide they don't actually want to use it. Yeah, but I mean, Kellaway kind of does want it. like well There's one there's one like weird thing about like when Stanley has the mask,
01:09:43
Speaker
He does the stuff he wants to do. Right? Yeah. When Kelleway has the mask, he does the stuff he wants to do until he like goes too far.
01:09:56
Speaker
And he decides he doesn't want it anymore. When Kathy wants the mask, she can kind of control herself, but also can't. And then by the mask strike by the by the point of the mask strikes back, it's like totally the mask just does whatever it wants.
01:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, and it's never really clear like what the mask wants to do, other than like kill dozens and dozens of people. Cause chaos, yeah. yeah that's That's pretty much it. but we don't really like there's no the The mask and Big Head have no real character motivation. ah Big Head is like of it creating chaos, which which makes him green carnage.
01:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, it yes, he is kind of green carnage. He is kind of green Carnage. Yeah, so i'm i'm surprised that you love Carnage so much, Matt. ah That you're like, what he was green?
01:10:50
Speaker
i like the i i I like the kind of overarching story of this is what I like about it. i like And I kind of... Yeah, I mean, it is... The Mask is essentially symbiote.
01:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's very Venomy. Yeah. um but it's But it's kind of very Venomy... Like around the same time that Venom is happening.
01:11:15
Speaker
the The thing that I like about it more than I like the symbiotes is like, once people get the symbiotes in Spider-Man comics, other than Peter, they tend to want to keep them, right?
01:11:29
Speaker
What I like about the mask is like, you wear it long enough and you don't want it anymore. it's It's sort of like the One Ring. It's got a real corrupting influence. And I do like that about it.
01:11:42
Speaker
It would be interesting to know... i think you're right in the in that it would be more interesting to know what what the motivation of whatever the possessing force inside the mask wants.
01:11:55
Speaker
in Instead of just, it causes chaos. The person puts it on and it causes chaos. like Looking back on it, it seems very... like wow, that's random.
01:12:08
Speaker
Yes, yes. Yeah, i didn't like I didn't really enjoy reading it. I think Doug Monkey's art... think the art's actually really good, and like I'm coming away from this with like a real new appreciation for Doug Monkey. Yeah, I think Doug Monkey's art is what does the job of selling it.
01:12:25
Speaker
Yeah. Like, seeing the mask rampaging and doing those things that are kind of like... quote-unquote random, where like, oh, now he's like making balloon animals. Now he's a Confederate general for some reason. now he's The Confederate general part is the worst part. um it's It's certainly weird.
01:12:48
Speaker
and And makes no sense for the character who's doing it. yeah like Like, why... but Stanley Ifkus was from Minneapolis, obviously. But like, yeah, like when he suddenly like turns into like a Frank Sinatra crooner.
01:13:02
Speaker
like All of that stuff is kind of random. Although I do like the idea that the mask itself just likes crooner music.
01:13:15
Speaker
That makes no more or less sense than being into swing music and like rumba. I do like โ I wonder if John Arcuti has more of a sense of like what the mask is and where it comes from. Because there's like that tiny little bit in here of origin. I wonder.
01:13:38
Speaker
like Again, I feel like the movie does โ it's impossible to read this without comparing it to the movie. Yeah, it is. And I feel like the movie does just enough โ Like, oh, this is a you know this is ah the god of mischief, the god of chaos, and you're a guy who specifically is into Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons, so that's the form it's going to take.
01:14:00
Speaker
Right. Well, okay. Where's the part of the list where I liked it and you didn't? I mean, where would where would you put it?
01:14:12
Speaker
I mean, thinking about, like... Finding that kind of middle spot.
01:14:20
Speaker
That sort of compromised spot. don't don't Don't try to find the compromised spot. Just tell me where you would put it. I mean, i think i would put I don't think I would put it like mega high. But I did enjoy it.
01:14:33
Speaker
So like... Like maybe in the upper nine hundred somewhere... like I like it as much as so Seven Soldiers Frankenstein, another comic drawn by Doug Monkey. Maybe I do really like Doug Monkey.
01:14:47
Speaker
like i i don't know. Maybe I don't like it as much as Sea Guy, which we have at number 989. Flexmentalo and Hectorplasm are at 994 and 995. I think I'd put this below that. We've got to specify which Hectorplasm that is, too, because there's more of it now. That's true.
01:15:05
Speaker
ah That's everything that's collected in Hectorplasm Volume 1. Yeah, it' isn't that Hectorplasm Totentaz? Totentaz, and the short stories. Yeah. Man, I wonder yeah if we could ask somebody who would know exactly what is in there.
01:15:22
Speaker
I mean, that's that's actually not too far from where I was looking, ah given the breadth of the the list. But I was looking lower. Like, i was looking...
01:15:35
Speaker
Maybe in like the 1300s. So I think we can find a place... Like maybe in the eleven hundreds or twelve hundred s Yeah. like I don't think this is as good as Wild Dog, which is at 1152. Okay, I can live with that. 1199 is the Batman Adventure story about Joe Chill.
01:15:54
Speaker
That was pretty good. Is this better or worse than Punisher number 14, Social Studies? Now that's the one where the Punisher does a class of 1984. That's exactly what he does, yeah. He does it he does ah the substitute.
01:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, he he does a... ah That's what Mike Barron saw at the video store that week. Yeah. I prefer that, but I can't really argue for it.
01:16:18
Speaker
I would say this is better than that. I also think this is better than the Silvermane Youth Serum Amazing Spider-Man story. m Yeah. Yeah. Above that is adventures our Batman Adventures Just Another Night.
01:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think i i i would... Well... i think that we're looking at a good compromise spot. There's certainly stuff below that that I like more.
01:16:43
Speaker
yeah but ah But again, ah i do think... the The art in this, ah and I don't know how ah well it was originally printed, because we read the omnibus edition.
01:16:58
Speaker
Right. ah ah And we read it digitally, and so everything is very crisp. But man, Doug Monke's art, I am honestly coming away with a it's like it's It's kind of really cool to see the evolution of the art from the Stanley story through the Strikes Back.
01:17:18
Speaker
Yeah. I think maybe I just don't like the Joe Kelly run on Justice League. And I actually do like Doug Monke a lot. Major bummer. Eh.
01:17:31
Speaker
i mean I'll tell you this. I don't really care for a lot of John R. Cootie comics. Major bummer that Doom Patrol run. They're not my fave. Arcootie loves, this I don't know, this may seem unfair. I i was going to say Arcootie loves a high concept that he then doesn't really explore.
01:17:52
Speaker
Yeah, like I feel like he's a very similar writer to Joe Casey. Yeah, I can see that. In that it's like, if you told me the concept, I'd be like, alright, but oftentimes in the execution, I'm a little underwhelmed.
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. um I'm going to say this should be the new number. 1200 even.
01:18:20
Speaker
can Can I? yeah Yeah. Do you want to bump it down to 1201? i think we could I think we could bump it down to 1201. Yeah.
01:18:30
Speaker
Okay. Then let's make it 1201. So the mask ah first three minis. Yeah.
01:18:40
Speaker
Arkudian Monkey goes at number 1201. Alright,
01:18:46
Speaker
right so that's that's the mask. The mask returns, and the mask strike actually strikes back. yeah Which are all one story. yeah like Like, continuing story.
01:19:00
Speaker
Yeah. Which surprised me. I really thought it would be three distinct minis, and it is really kind of not. And it's very weird because like the the through-line character is Kathy.
01:19:11
Speaker
Well, and Walter. Well, but Kathy's in like the first first story. like Kathy's on the tree. And Kellaway's in all of it, too. um But, yeah.
01:19:24
Speaker
Kellaway is not an it especially important character in the Zero issue. I think he's kind of yeah he's kind of back filled into like a more important character role. but i'll yeah I'll tell you who ain't a throughline character. That fucking asshole Stanley Ipkiss. Stanley Ipkiss, yeah. Who goes and kills his elementary school teacher.
01:19:47
Speaker
That part is fucking nuts. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Alright, that's going to do it for this comics catch-up. I believe we said we would do Ronin next month.
01:20:00
Speaker
Makes sense. ah We're going to read rodan Ronan. I'm going to start reading it soon so I get all the way through it. Because it is quite a bit of comic. It's ah it's a chunk. It's chunk comics. Yeah. So come back for that in June. In the meantime, if you want to support these Comics Catch-Up specials, go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kick in as little as a dollar a month. If we reach 500 paid patrons on Patreon, um then we will start a new podcast exclusively, or sub-podcast exclusively for Patreon, for paid patrons,
01:20:39
Speaker
where Chris reads all of the Jim Ballant Catwoman and tells me about it, and it's going to be called Talent Show. It's going to be good. e Email us at warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. Follow us on blueskywarrocketajax.com. Tumblr, warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com.
01:20:58
Speaker
We have a Discord. If you ask us for an invitation to the Discord, we'll get you one and you can join. WarRocketAjax.com has every episode of the show we've ever done. WarRocketWiki.com has tons of information about this show. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net to find links. Chris, where can people find you?
01:21:15
Speaker
Everybody can find me by going to The-ISB.com. That is my website, and it has links to to things you can read. There's things you can read right on that website. And you can even hire me to write things for you.
01:21:34
Speaker
Thanks for listening, everybody. ah Like I said, we'll be back in June with Ronan. So come back for that. going to be a good time. And hey, good catching up.
01:21:45
Speaker
Good catching up.