Mayhem #1

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance and origin of Stanley Ipkiss as Big-Head (The Mask), published May 1989 by Dark Horse Comics.
• First appearance of Kathy (Katherine), Stanley Ipkiss's girlfriend, who becomes a significant recurring character throughout the Mask franchise.
• First appearance of The Butchers, a motorcycle gang that attacks Stanley after he purchases the mask; the entire gang is killed in this issue.
• The Mask story in this issue is titled 'Who's Laughing Now?' — written by John Arcudi and drawn by Doug Mahnke — the first chapter of a four-part story serialized across all four issues of Mayhem.
• Mayhem is a black-and-white anthology series; in addition to the Mask story, issue #1 features installments of two other Dark Horse serials: The Mark (by Jerry Prosser and Wayne Tanaka) and Mecha (by Tim Eldred, Harrison Fong, and Robert Caracol).
• The cover of Mayhem #1 was drawn by Chris Warner, who was also the artist responsible for redesigning the Mask character's definitive visual look for this relaunch.
• The Mask chapters from Mayhem #1–4 were later collected and recolored by Chris Chalenor as The Mask #0 (December 1991), and subsequently reprinted in The Mask: The Collection trade paperback (August 1993), as well as in international editions including Italian (Hyperion #1, 1992) and Danish (eXtrem action #1, 1994).
• Mayhem was canceled after four issues, but the character's popularity led directly to The Mask four-issue limited series in 1991 by the same Arcudi/Mahnke team, which became one of Dark Horse's best-selling runs and was the primary source material for the 1994 Jim Carrey film adaptation.

Cast · 3 characters

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