Mario has had several graphical novel, or in layman's terms, comics, but they don't last long. A few examples on Mario comics are: Mario's wild and weird German comics, Valiant's Mario comics and the fan-favourite Super Mario Adventures. The only one that is still going on today is a little-known comic known as Super Mario-kun, which has been running since 1989, and is practically older than Archie Sonic, usually known as the longest comic based on a video game. Even then, the idea of a Mario comic is intriguing since there is an abundance of things to reference from Mario's rich history. The fact that there was a pitch from Archie Comics to license a Mario comic shows that there is an interest to create new comic material for the main man himself, but it was not meant to be when Nintendo rejected that pitch. Certainly, we have webcomics based on Mario, but they are fan works and are not licensed, so while there are some well-liked and great ones such as The 3 Little Princesses and It Sucks to be Weegie, they are ultimately not considered essential to the Mario fans.
Which is what brings us to this topic today.
I will start with what I would like in a Mario comic.
For one, I would like to have an anthology-styled comic. What I mean is that in one story, it's focused on Mario doing a simple princess-saving, while in the other, we have Yoshi attempting to find his favourite fruit but it is surprisingly hard to find. Because Mario is a series where a sprawling epic is non-existent, having short and simple stories fit the brand better, compared to what I think is the direction the Archie comics pitch is going to go if it were to be approved. It would also mean that different Mario characters could be highlighted better, since the series has several Mario characters that don't necessarily get a chance to shine in the games. So maybe for example, we can have Daisy having her little problem to solve, completely divorced from Mario and the rest of the main characters. This would be an ideal direction because that means someone can pick up a comic and not need to go back to previous issues to understand the whole story. Now that is not to say they should stick to this direction all the way, because I am all right if they want to make a longer story that could span multiple chapters. After all, Mario has times where a bigger story is warranted, such as perhaps a hypothetical Super Mario Galaxy adaptation. Ideally it's best that whatever happens in the occasional multi-parter isn't essential to future plots.
One of Mario's strengths is that he is identifiable in different styles, so while a consistent style is usually better for a comic series, I wouldn't mind it if certain artists drew Mario in their own styles, which is to say something that is still identifiable to Mario himself. Mario's has had many great styles over the years, including the cartoony style of Mario & Luigi, the sketchy Mario Strikers style and the somewhat pudgy Mario from the DiC cartoons. These different Mario are also all treated as the same Mario, and I would like to see some different styles implemented in a Mario comic, to showcase some neat artistic directions.
That's enough from me. What kind of Mario comic would interest you?
Thank you for reading.
Which is what brings us to this topic today.
I will start with what I would like in a Mario comic.
For one, I would like to have an anthology-styled comic. What I mean is that in one story, it's focused on Mario doing a simple princess-saving, while in the other, we have Yoshi attempting to find his favourite fruit but it is surprisingly hard to find. Because Mario is a series where a sprawling epic is non-existent, having short and simple stories fit the brand better, compared to what I think is the direction the Archie comics pitch is going to go if it were to be approved. It would also mean that different Mario characters could be highlighted better, since the series has several Mario characters that don't necessarily get a chance to shine in the games. So maybe for example, we can have Daisy having her little problem to solve, completely divorced from Mario and the rest of the main characters. This would be an ideal direction because that means someone can pick up a comic and not need to go back to previous issues to understand the whole story. Now that is not to say they should stick to this direction all the way, because I am all right if they want to make a longer story that could span multiple chapters. After all, Mario has times where a bigger story is warranted, such as perhaps a hypothetical Super Mario Galaxy adaptation. Ideally it's best that whatever happens in the occasional multi-parter isn't essential to future plots.
One of Mario's strengths is that he is identifiable in different styles, so while a consistent style is usually better for a comic series, I wouldn't mind it if certain artists drew Mario in their own styles, which is to say something that is still identifiable to Mario himself. Mario's has had many great styles over the years, including the cartoony style of Mario & Luigi, the sketchy Mario Strikers style and the somewhat pudgy Mario from the DiC cartoons. These different Mario are also all treated as the same Mario, and I would like to see some different styles implemented in a Mario comic, to showcase some neat artistic directions.
That's enough from me. What kind of Mario comic would interest you?
Thank you for reading.
