A lot of video game series spawned comics. Sonic gets noted for having the longest running comic series based off a video game and I do recommend them if you want to explore an expanded Sonic universe despite some of it's weirdness as it continued later on. Other series like Megaman, Ratchet and Clank, World of Warcraft,etc. have also spawned comics.
But way back in the late 80s and early 90s, Valiant published a short live comic series based on Mario.
Also Captain N and Zelda had comics as well as part of the Nintendo Comics System Though I never came across either of their series in my youth. There was this period when the NES was huge and a lot of things were promoted as "Nintendo ____ System" many remember the crappy tasting cereal that existed for a while. But Mario comics were sold in the grocery store that was in walking distance from my duplex. I still have buried in a box somewhere four compilation issues:
- Battle Against Bowser
- Mario's Secret Powers
- Meet the Koopa Kids
- Tatanga Invades Earth
As well as a "Best Of" hardbound book that has a collection of adventures.
So how are the Mario comics? Eeeh...not that great. Slightly better than the TV series because it did take place in the Mushroom Kingdom but most of these were short, corny, one issue stories with no arcing storyline. Sonic's Archie comics fans may recall Sonic's series started out the same way but about 30 or so issues in, decided to start letting the stories get a little deeper and ongonig especially because they sort of pick up where SatAM left off, but I'm getting off topic.
Some of more notable things in the comics was the addition of two characters. First King Toadstool.
If you've watched the Nostalgia Critic, he makes the point of how Peach should techinally be Queen because she appears to have no parents at least in the games so the comics remedy this problem by giving her a father and some have speculated that the King in the first castle in SMB3 was in fact Peach's father. The King in the comics sadly proved more inept than Peach. Not an evil dictator, just kind of an overgrown bumbling manchild (think the Sultan from Aladdin) though it does make Peach look smarter by comparison. Peach's mother is mentioned but we never learn what happened to her. It's generally assumed she died when Peach was young.
Wooster. Where Toad is Peach's advisor, Wooster was sort of the precursor to Toadsworth. He is the king's somewhat snarky assistant and more stuck up and insults the king's stupidity. Also a weird thing in the comics is that aside from Toad, all the toadstool people look like Wooster which is really odd. I liked the more humanoid design of them in the SMB3 cartoon.
Some other interesting aspects of the comics included Stanley the annoying talking fish who would show up anywhere there was water and annoy Mario and friends babbling on about his girlfriend issues. While Bowser took on his green crocodile like design from the cartoon shows, Wart actually appears in 2 stories I saw. The koopalings as their game versions (not the stupid DIC redesigns) also appeared in a couple of stories. They did an issue called Tanooki Suits Me that explained the origins of the SMB3 Tanooki suit that a great magical tailor named Tanooki made suits with magical powers. (though go watch the Studio Ghilbli movie Pom Poko to learn where the idea of racoon Mario REALLY came from and be a bit disturbed by it).
A few other notable things. Bowser was a successful business man in the comics as CEO of the APOOK Corporation (I c wat u did there) that made a variety of goods including Koopa Kola that is mentioned a lot (It's a lot like Slurm). Mario was a fan of Dirk Drainhead, a super hero plumber whose comics were a favorite of Marios.
Finally the four part series Tatanga Invades Earth was sort of separate from the Mario comics based on the NES games. It's really bizzare and shows that while Super Mario Land was one of the highest selling Mario games of all time, no one remembers the villian of that game hence why no one's begging for Tatanaga to return to the series. In the SML series, it takes place in our world, where a creepy looking guy with a porn star mustache has a Gameboy and Tatanga uses his mind powers to control this guy and play SML to open a portal to let all of Tatanga's army out into our world. Mind you they are all minature sized when they escape the Game Boy. So some kids who get their hands on the guy's Game Boy play it to summon Mario. It is a weird four part series. I like in the 3rd and 4th part where a young girl finds the Game Boy and has to call her sister because she needs to get past world 1 to summon Mario out to which she says "why can't I be saved from someone from Tetris? I can play that game." I would complain about how her being a girl and having inferior game skills is a bit insulting to me but she did call her sister not her for help.
Also spawning from the comics universe were a series of "choose your own adventure books." God does anyone here even remember those or am I that old? Anyway I had one titled Pipe Down where Peach gets a magical pair of basketbal shoes on her birthday but they carry her away by mysterious music and Mario and Luigi follow only to find that Ludwig Von Koopa is controlling her.
Are any of these books worth owning? Not really? The art is pretty bad, none of the stories are terribly compelling which is a shame because maybe if they had taken a cue from Sonic and tried to knock up the writing a notch and have arcing stories, it might have been interesting especially when characters like Wario were brought into the series later on. I mean there are some interesting things they introduce and I like the Princess having a father which makes her a more legitmate Princess. But I only recommend them if you're a die hard fan.
Finally, these are not to be confused with the excellent Nintendo Power comics. I'd love a compilation of those.
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