Super Mario Adventures

Super Mario Adventures is both a series of comics appearing in Nintendo Power in 1992 and a graphic novel of all of those comics in book form. The story was created by Kentaru Takekuma and copy written by Leslie Swan. The comics were illustrated by Charlie Nozawa.

The Super Mario Adventure comics
Super Mario Adventures premiered in Nintendo Power on January 1992, ran for one full year, and ended on December 1992. Each installment or “episode” (as the graphic novel put it) was eight pages long. Each one began with an introductory paragraph that often explained what happened last month. The episode would then end with a cliffhanger that would be resolved in the next issue.

The basic plot of the story feature the Mario Bros. facing off against Bowser yet again after Bowser captures Princess Peach and threatens the peace within. While the graphic novel states that the comic does not “follow the story line of any particular game”, it would appear that Super Mario World is a heavy influence on what was included in the story. Outside of its influences, though, the storyline was an original product and trades straight forward action for slapstick humor and zany situations more suitable for a comic.

Most of the characters in the Mario universe appear in the comic: Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Yoshi, Bowser, and all seven Koopalings showed up. Noticeably missing from the cast was Toad, in his place were a varied assortment of Toad people who acted as Princess Toadstool’s advisers.

Character portrayals in the comic are similar to how they are portrayed in the games, with some minor differences. Where, in video games, Mario is often be shown to be brave while Luigi is shown to be goofy, the comic would instead show both Mario and Luigi with a mix of both personalities. Princess Toadstool’s characterizations was the most unique. In the Mario series, Princess Toadstool is almost always shown as kind, peaceful and sweet. In the comic series, however, she was much more aggressive and even a versatile combatant. Also, oddly enough, she was never called Princess Toadstool but simply “Princess”.

One additional comic was printed in the January 1993 issue of Nintendo Power called “Mario vs. Wario”. It was completely separate from the previous twelve episodes and feature Wario and his attempts at thwarting Mario once and for all after suffering so many bad memories because of him. In 1993, Super Mario Adventures was published as a graphic novel containing all twelve episodes and the final episode featuring Wario and Mario. The graphic novel is no longer sold on Nintendo’s online store and is likely out of print, though various websites have scans of the entire graphic novel.