ShareThis
I’ve been subscribing to Nintendo Power for 13 years. When you follow something for that long, it stops being “just a video game magazine.” It becomes a constant. For 156 months, it was there in my mailbox when I got home from high school, college and, eventually, work. It encouraged me to try games I never would have found on my own, like Elite Beat Agents or Beyond Good & Evil. It introduced me to comics, movies, art… It was something I learned to trust.
When I first heard that Nintendo Power was ending, it felt like I was losing a friend. It meant that a chapter in my life was coming to a close. When I look at old issues of NP, I can remember where I was at that point in my life. I can see a cover story and say “that issue came in when I got home from my first high school midterm (Pokémon Stadium)” or “that was the first issue of my subscription (Jet Force Gemini).”
My friend Selena and I put this comic together as a tribute to Nintendo Power, and to the hard work of every single person that has ever worked on the magazine. She and I met at a comic convention when I came across a drawing she did of a group of Nintendo characters. Since then, we’ve collaborated on a couple of stories together. And that’s the strength of Nintendo: bringing people together, whether it’s a group of high school kids playing Goldeneye, or two collaborators telling a story– and I know Nintendo will continue to do that. But I’ll miss the days of finding an issue of Nintendo Power in my mailbox and finding out all those different ways. I’ll miss you, old friend.
I know Nintendojo isn’t known for comics, so I want to thank both Adam and Katharine for posting this story. I also want to thank Selena Goulding for her incredible art, and I encourage anyone who enjoyed it to check out more of her work. She’s on her way to a very promising career, and I’m very lucky to have her bringing my words to life, here and there.
Awesome comic! Marc, you really had a letter published in NP? I remember that being a personal dream of mine, to write in to the magazine and have one of my letters proudly displayed or mocked by the Nintendo Power editors.
I also remember the issue where NP mentioned the I am 8-bit works. I still have the poster that came with it!
Thanks for the kind words, Kyle!
Yep, I had a letter printed in vol.153, which had a cover story of NBA Courtside 2002. I wrote in to praise Super Monkey Ball’s multiplayer, and encourage people to look past the goofy name and give it a shot. :)
Couple other cool anecdotes have happened since this story was written: I had J. Scott Campbell sign the Nintendo Power anniversary poster he drew, and add a Pikachu since he was left off the original. I also had Ash Ketchum voice actress Veronica Taylor sign my copy of the Pokemon Yellow cover story from vol.125.
Please…sniff…stop…it’s hurts too much. Good-bye NP. We’ll always have Pikmin!