“These comics were originally published in Nintendo Power in the 90’s, so I had pretty fond memories. Reading back over them some…Jesus-Goosestepping-Christ, 20 years later, the story didn’t exactly live up to my wildest expectations.
However, the art by Charlie Nozawa is awesome. It was definitely an early intro for a lot of kids to the Manga aesthetic on a really light level. But the expressions, actions, and everything else is spot on, and everything about the art holds up perfectly.
In fact, you can see all of it here, which is how I read it: http://www.yoshiart.com/comics.php
I do want to say, though I’m not exactly in favor of reading material without the author being compensated in some way, this is a great case for stuff popping up online for free, the reason being that in order to buy it, your only option is to buy a used copy on Amazon for $99! (http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Adventures-Official-Nintendo/dp/B0006QBMK0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367625538&sr=8-1&keywords=super+mario+adventures+comic+book)
I call bullshit on that. It’s not that this is a highly-valuable book, in my estimation. The problem is that it was printed in 1993, a time when graphic novels and trade paperbacks were still years away from stocking up shelves at bookstores. So I would guess that the print run was extremely short because nobody was counting on nostalgia whores like me being 28 and having vague memories of these comics.
It’s a lot like how I feel about playing ROMs of old Nintendo games. If a game is something I could pay for and play fairly easily, then that’s probably the way to go. But what the hell, the awesome Nintendo game Mother was never even released in the U.S. So how unfair is it for me to check into a way to pay for it legitimately, and when that isn’t offered to take matters into my own hands?
Anyway, good comics overall, and I’m going to try and read the Zelda comics that were also coming out around the same time. Just a matter of figuring out who had a copy and a flatbed scanner…
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