A green mask turns up, somebody puts it on, and everyone standing nearby stops being safe. Mike Richardson built the series for Dark Horse Comics around one nasty bargain: the mask hands its wearer close to unlimited power and bills them in sanity. John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke developed that idea into a book filed under comedy horror, and both halves of that label earn their place.

Anyone arriving from the 1994 Jim Carrey film should know the comic plays far rougher. The cartoon physics carry over, the rubbery grin carries over, the sweetness stays behind. The mask lands on ordinary people with grudges, and the book follows what they do with the power instead of cutting away from it. Jokes and damage share the same panel, and Dark Horse leans into the damage. The horror half does the steering here.

The art carries that shift. Mahnke, Mark Badger, Chris Warner and Keith Williams stretch anatomy into slapstick shapes, so a gag and an act of violence speak the same visual language and you register which one you are looking at a beat too late. Readers who want their horror loud, mean and funny will find the tone holds across the run, and readers who loved the film for its warmth should go in warned.