Artist Raymond Thayer only dabbled in comics but was known as one of the great pulp artists of his day. This version of The Mask was his creation and in a way foreshadowed Marvel's Daredevil with a blind man being secretly a superhero. The difference was that in this case his blindness had healed but he didn't tell anyone!
"The Mask" is a comic book adaptation of the pulp hero "The Black Bat" from the pulp division of the same publisher; Nedor aka Thrilling aka Better aka Standard Publishing.
ReplyDeletehttp://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/30/comic-book-legends-revealed-179/
In comics he was blinded DA Tony Colby with girlfriend Carol Smith, in pulps he was blinded DA Tony Quinn with girlfriend Carol Baldwin.
(In both cases, Carol was the daughter of the doctor who repaired Tony's eyes.)
Originally, the comic version was going to be called "The Owl" (and had an owl-like cowl with a beak) to keep the "creature of the night" motif.
But Dell's Crackajack Comics featuring their own Owl character hit the stands as Thrilling Comics was being finished and sent to the printer, so the understandably litigation-shy Nedor changed their character's name, though they didn't modify the art!
By the time of the story you presented, the cowl was a simple generic hood.