Nintendo Comics System

November 27, 2008 9:48 PM

Nintendo Comics System. Full colour scans of most of the Super Mario Brothers comics that many Nintendo fans, such as myself, read back during the 90s. Oh, as well as Legend of Zelda, Punch Out!!, Metroid and Captain N: The Game Master. Further reading, if you dare.
posted by Effigy2000 (19 comments total)

I've got a hardcover collection of a bunch of these that I got when I was a kid. These were some manifestly terrible comics.

Smirch, you sad son of a bitch.
posted by cortex at 9:57 PM on November 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Excuse me, Princess!
posted by Corduroy at 10:31 PM on November 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

Now 100% free of "well excuuuuuse me, princess." If you don't know, it's a rare trans-fat made of America.
posted by kid ichorous at 10:34 PM on November 27, 2008

Damn you Cord!
posted by kid ichorous at 10:34 PM on November 27, 2008

I remember some of these. Specifically, I remember an issue featuring Mario in his Dr. Mario persona, and a Captain N issue where he and his dog descended down some incredibly deep well (I think Mother Brain was at the bottom).

Thanks for posting these, Effigy2000. I'm going to enjoy relieving my ridiculous childhood.
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 10:34 PM on November 27, 2008

YES.
posted by Nattie at 10:48 PM on November 27, 2008

CAPTAIN N! Man, I loved that shit when I was a kid. Still have the big hardcover collection, probably the same one cortex has.

Fuck they are awful comics.
posted by Caduceus at 11:13 PM on November 27, 2008

cortex: "I've got a hardcover collection of a bunch of these that I got when I was a kid. "

Ha! Me too! For some reason I had a brain flash where I remembered having used to own them and went looking for them on the intertubes. This was the genesis of this FPP.

cortex: "These were some manifestly terrible comics."

To quote Hubert Farnsworth, "Oh my, yes." Even as a kid, where your thresh-hold before noticing stuff is crappy is set pretty high, I realised these comics were bad. But I read them all. Many times infact. And despite the fact they're still really crappy, their nostalgia factor breeds a certain fondness for them within me. God dammit.
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:21 PM on November 27, 2008

I learned that Samus Aran was a woman from this comic. It was 1991. We were living in Lloydminster AB/SK that summer, my dad was there for work. It was a basement apartment whose windows faced south. It was goddamn hot. My mom embarrassed us greatly by exuberantly hopping over the line that represented the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. I saw my first episode of Dr. Who - I don't know which period it was from or what Doctor it was - but it was black and white and everything looked like it was made out of chickenwire and baling twine, and my mom said, "They're still making that stupid show?" and so they watched something else, and I read Nintendo comics.

Proust had his Madeleines.

I have shitty, shitty comics.

I'm amazed my parents gave me the money, $2 a piece was double what Marvels cost at that time.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:50 PM on November 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

Sweet Jesus were they really this bad?
posted by flippant at 12:35 AM on November 28, 2008

I still have a bunch of these comics (and the hardcover collection). They are terrible, but in a fun nostalgic kind of way.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:26 AM on November 28, 2008

My nine and seven year old boys had discovered PDF scans of these on some fan site about a year or so ago, and _love_ them. One part of me really wants to explain exactly what's so terrible about them, and help them distinguish between good comics and bad comics, but another part of me just feels like "You know what? _I_ loved crappy comics and TV shows when I was their age. In the end, I figured it out, but I got to enjoy a lot more stuff along the way than a snob."

So, I just make sure to read what they're looking at, to make sure it's not, you know...all of a sudden hard-core pr0n on page 8. (_That_ aspect is definitely new.)
posted by LairBob at 8:07 AM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was more of a Howard & Nester guy, myself, but I always thought "Nintendo Comics System" was a great name.
posted by Spatch at 9:18 AM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nintendo Power made its own contributions to the comic arena, though I can't say who started first and who jumped on the bandwagon later.

And as long as we're linking to youtube cartooons, we can't forget about Super Mario World (it's a blast!). Ah, I spent many a morning hoping the school bus would get lost watching that one...
posted by Law Talkin' Guy at 10:10 AM on November 28, 2008

Now 100% free of "well excuuuuuse me, princess."

Hiding the back of my brain is the sight of Diana Ross with Mario and Lugi, in drag, singin' "Baby Love".

I think Elvira was also there.
posted by The Whelk at 1:28 PM on November 28, 2008

relieving my ridiculous childhood
ha ha ha
posted by BaxterG4 at 2:52 PM on November 28, 2008

Thank you jesus.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:07 PM on November 28, 2008

I was looking for these ones as well - scroll down a bit, the Charlie Nozawa "Super Mario Adventures" are there in their entirety. Surprisingly funny, mainly because of the ridiculous art.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:16 PM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

the Charlie Nozawa "Super Mario Adventures" are there in their entirety.

I *have* that book. I had to save up to order it from the back of Nintendo Power. It's the only I ever bought something from the back of magazine. I love it death. to DEATH
posted by The Whelk at 9:51 AM on November 29, 2008 [1 favorite]