Monday 2 May 2016

Confirmed Brandon Easton and Tony Vargas - at helm of new M.A.S.K. Comic

There has been a lot of speculation on the new incarnation of the M.A.S.K. Comic from IDW Publishing.  A recent #MASKcrusade by Mike Quakenbush to reinvent M.A.S.K. was a great insight into how popular M.A.S.K. still is - some 31 years later.

Back on the 7th of April I noticed someone liking my M.A.S.K. Facebook Page who caught my eye - Brandon Easton.  It was due to his job as Freelance Writer for IDW, Marvel and various others.

This piqued my interest.  A writer for IDW Publishing liking a M.A.S.K  Comics Page not long after IDW is earmarked to remake M.A.S.K.?

I had tried, without much success, to contact Brandon to find out more.  My hope was that I'd get the inside scoop once he was able to speak about the project.  Brandon is on Twitter but doesn't have an option to Private Message him and I didn't want to discuss in an open forum on Twitter itself.  I had given him a few nudges in the hope that he would contact me.


Today, is a Bank Holiday and had the day off work.  I was in a shop and thought I check for updates on pages when I see this gem on my Page -



Brandon shared this direct to my page.  After almost a month of not knowing for 100% whether I was right about Brandon writing the next incarnation of M.A.S.K. - and there was the proof - straight from the "Horse's Mouth" as they say!

This is great news.  For too long M.A.S.K. fans have been looking for a return of their favourite characters and vehicles and now have something solid - something to not only look forward to - but to share and enjoy with our children.

To read the full article - please click here.

In short, Brandon is writing the new comic with Tony Vargas working as artist.  UPDATE - from what I've just discovered, Tommy Lee Edwards is working on the covers.  There seems to be some familiarity coming through but on the main, the story and vehicles will be new versions from what we have come to know and love.



From the image above, Thunderhawk and Condor look very much the same.  Hurricane appears to be black with her trademarked fire paint job instead of the original Blue.

If that is Gator to the left middle, she seems to have a roof - is she still a Jeep?

Looking at Matt's Spectrum Mask, the red section round his neck looks like cloth - almost like a scarf.  This would give fluidity and movement.

All-in-all this image is amazing and I can't wait to see more.

I am worried, though.  Will it live up to what M.A.S.K. used to be?  We know it's going to be different, but will this ruin or make it better?

I also worry that it may not be available in the UK except in specialist shops.  May make it hard to find.

Speaking of Specialist, one thing of note in the article is the section that reads "This is a M.A.S.K. for the 21st century with a diverse team of specialists who are chosen for a top-secret program with a painful learning curve".  Notice the word "Specialists"
.



We know that there was an incarnation of Matt Trakker as "Specialist Trakker" for the G.I. Joe toy line.  We also know that the original Trademarks for the M.A.S.K. Characters are all lost.  Are Hasbro getting round this by using the word "Specialist" in each of the characters names?  Just a thought.

And Brandon, if you are reading this, can you please that the Powers that Be know that I know how they can reacquire Trademarks for M.A.S.K.?  Thank you!  Feel free to E-mail me to discuss!

Anyway, I hope that Brandon will get back to me and that my next post will hopefully be a Q&A session so that we can find out more!

Please remember to like, follow, share and discuss as much as you can.  Let's show these folks at IDW that we are keen for this new M.A.S.K. comic to come out and wish it all the success and best of future!


#assembleMASK #MASKComics #IDW
#DIC #MASKcrusade