Nintendo Comics System by Valiant

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Hi everyone,

I have been slowly learning about and collecting every released item from the early 90's Nintendo comics created by Valiant Comics. I think I have a pretty good understanding of what does and doesn't actually exists, variants, volumes etc. However, one thing that I find suspect is the Trade paperbacks. They released two compilation trade paperbacks, commonly referred to as Nintendo Comics System 1 and Nintendo Comics System 2. Each one has a variant, #1 has a no price variant, and #2 suppodesly has a completely different cover. I have seen images with this cover, but have not seen one photo of the actual book anywhere on the internet. Here is the cover:

My question is, does anyone here own this? Can anyone here confirm this exists? There are comic stores online with a picture of Captain N $6 listed in their possible inventories, but it was proven that this cover was shown as a preview image, but never actually released. I am thinking this variant cover is the same thing, but would love to be proven wrong. 

So if anyone here owns this or can confirm it's existence, please let me know. Also interested in any other random or rare information about this line of comics. 

[RH | 4,915]

Paging Dr. @acidjaguar, paging Dr. @acidjaguar.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

That one is news to me.  I don't remember them doing a TPB style setup with multiple issues laid down into one paperback style book.

What I do know of, and I own the pair, are the hardback books.  There's these:

- The Best of the Nintendo Comics System
- The Best of the Super Mario Bros.

Neither are complete clearly given they're best of, but are done on some nice quality hardback paper, ink, and thick book binding and backing so they hold up a lot better than the rest.  The Mario one tends to be the most expensive of the two, or at least it was 5-10 years ago as I've had them for awhile.  Mario was roughly about twice the price, guess it was lesser printed and both came out in 1990.

 

I would love to own the old comics again as I had a full sup to the Super Mario Adventures one and the Zelda comics system, never did game boy or generic comic system ones.  Last I looked the issues of that get pretty nasty, some on their own, but on the whole for a set it's prime scalper Nintendo greed territory.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Tanooki

[twiztor | 851]

i have the full run of NCS, Captain N, Zelda, and Game Boy individual issues (skipped the Mario issues). i ran into the same issue as you a couple years ago, where i kept running into that "cover" but couldn't find an actual issue with that cover.  I will admit that it looks like you've already done more digging than me, as i didn't even catch the "no price variant" of the first issue. 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

So here is the information I have so far about what exists in this series:

Comic Series:
- Adventures of Super Mario Bros 1-9 (all confirmed to exist)
- Captain N: The Game Master 1-5 (All confirmed to exist; a rumored #6 exists on some comic websites "inventory" lists, but was never actually released. The cover was previewed in an issue, which is why it exists, but it was never published)
- Game Boy 1-4 (all confirmed to exist)
- The Legend of Zelda Vol 1 1-5 (plus #1 no price variant) (all confirmed to exist, barcodes on the right front side
- The Legend of Zelda Vol 2 1-5 (all confirmed to exist, barcodese on the left front side, covers of issue #2 and #4 swapped)
- Nintendo Comics System 1-9 (plus non numbered preview issue) (all confirmed to exist)
- Super Mario Bros Vol 1 1-6 (plus #1 special edition) (all confirmed to exist, barcodes on right front side)
- Super Mario Bros Vol 2 1-5 (all confirmed to exist, barcodes on left front side, some different and swapped covers)

Valiant Illustrated Action Books (all 4 confirmed to exist)
Battle Against Bowser, Mario's Special Powers, Meet the Koopa Kids, Tatanga Invades Earth

Stand alone Random House release with cassette tape (confirmed to exist)

Collected books (all confirmed to exist EXCEPT Vol 2 TPB variant cover)
Best of Nintendo Comics System Hardcover
Best of Super Mario Bros Hardcover
Nintendo Comics System Vol 1 TPB
Nintendo Comics System Vol 1 TPB (no price variant)
Nintendo Comics System Vol 2 TPB
Nintendo Comics System Vol 2 TPB (alternate yellow cover with Mario jumping off page)

After my research and buying, I have all but 7 of the above listed items. Of the 7 I need, I know 6 items exist, but still unsure about the Vol 2 TPB alternate cover. I feel like it may have been advertised like Capt N #6 but never actually released. I would love to see an actual photo or get confirmation from anyone here that this exists.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I just tried something I haven't done before: I googled the ISBN number on the front of that image. There were almost no results. There were places the same image appeared, but almost nothing. No amazon listings, etc. 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

I feel like that cover is made up and never actually printed and it somehow ended up on the mycomicshop website. Are there any comic experts in here? Comic books to my knowledge don’t have ISBNs? That can be completely false since I’m not an expert on comics

@CodysGameRoom do any of the other “Nintendo Comic Systems” that you actually own have ISBNs?

edit: I was wrong on this - see my reply a couple responses down!!

Edited August 31, 2022 by a3quit4s

[twiztor | 851]

47 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I feel like that cover is made up and never actually printed and it somehow ended up on the mycomicshop website. Are there any comic experts in here? Comic books to my knowledge don’t have ISBNs? That can be completely false since I’m not an expert on comics

@CodysGameRoom do any of the other “Nintendo Comic Systems” that you actually own have ISBNs?

individual comic book issues do not have ISBNs, but graphic novels/TPBs generally do. 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

1 hour ago, a3quit4s said:

I feel like that cover is made up and never actually printed and it somehow ended up on the mycomicshop website. Are there any comic experts in here? Comic books to my knowledge don’t have ISBNs? That can be completely false since I’m not an expert on comics

@CodysGameRoom do any of the other “Nintendo Comic Systems” that you actually own have ISBNs?

Yea, so the TPB (Trade Paperbacks), aka the collected books, do have ISBNs, since they are released as actual books not comics, as @twiztor mentioned. So I'm still skeptical, but checking around some other resources.

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

10 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Yea, so the TPB (Trade Paperbacks), aka the collected books, do have ISBNs, since they are released as actual books not comics, as @twiztor mentioned. So I'm still skeptical, but checking around some other resources.

I don’t blame you, like most things in Nintendos past the exact answer is tricky to come by lol.

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

@CodysGameRoom

After some digging someone here actually has the variant cover whith photos:

http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53487&p=1113244&hilit=Nintendo+comic+system+Nintendo+comic+system+2#p1113244

Second reply down. Can’t make out the ISBN from his picture though. I would say this variant is now confirmed to exist. 

edit: in this thread the seller claims to have 14 copies of that variant which is probably true because the person who posted a picture of it on the link above got theirs from the thread 11 years earlier. 
 

http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31167&p=666282&hilit=Nintendo+comics+system+2+variant#p666282

Edited August 31, 2022 by a3quit4s

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Wow, I cannot believe you found that! That is the proof I've needed. That is the first photo I've ever seen of one of those. It totally exists. I've had active ebay searches for quite some time so... that means it is going to be extremely difficult to complete this collection now... .lol

Either way, Mystery solved!!! Thanks @a3quit4s !!

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

22 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Wow, I cannot believe you found that! That is the proof I've needed. That is the first photo I've ever seen of one of those. It totally exists. I've had active ebay searches for quite some time so... that means it is going to be extremely difficult to complete this collection now... .lol

Either way, Mystery solved!!! Thanks @a3quit4s !!

That person who posted the pictures seems to be pretty active so you might be able to create an account and message them for more information

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

21 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

That person who posted the pictures seems to be pretty active so you might be able to create an account and message them for more information

I never thought to search for Valiant Comic forums or anything like that, frankly I'm surprised to learn anything like that even exists, but then again, this is the internet, lol

[Tanooki | 4,936]

From a Nintendo comic standpoint almost seems worth having this topic stickied and editing posts as needed to just get a collection of what does, assumed does, and does not exist if someone rolls by again looking to repeat the madness.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

It certainly is an interesting sub-level if Nintendo ephemera collecting. 
I first became interested in these as a child, when I got a few at the local dollar store (mom and pop one at the time). I still have two of those in my collection. I got more over the years but didn’t decide to research and complete the collection until this year. I have 7 pieces left and they are going to be difficult to get, lol .

[Tanooki | 4,936]

I went with the hardbacks 5+ years ago or so now because the comics have had some fairly toxic prices on them at least going back a decade just because they didn't run long, and largely to get them were mail order as Valiant wasn't exactly rack ready outside of some specialty shops unless a few random ones ended up at some grocery store that also likely carried Nintendo Power.  I got all mine mailed to me until they bailed and canceled them all.  I wish they still were with my stuff as i can't see dropping $15-100+ on a comic or some insane amount on those collected bits.

Maybe it might be worth making it's own special website, scan the covers, cover the details, all the research, a nice guide for anyone who cares, maybe even scan the entire books and throw them on the archive and link back since they seem takedown proof largely.  It would be a hell of a site.  Obscure stuff gets treats like that, such as the the Watara Supervision has a full site online made by the owner of Super Fighter Team for example.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Tanooki

[Link | 2,714]

9 hours ago, Tanooki said:

From a Nintendo comic standpoint almost seems worth having this topic stickied and editing posts as needed to just get a collection of what does, assumed does, and does not exist if someone rolls by again looking to repeat the madness.

I think it would be most appropriate to put the list in the OP and add a link to this thread in to the List of Lists thread, and that should definitely be stickied somewhere. And the pictures from the Valiant forum co-opted and posted ITT so they will still be somewhere when Photobucket inevitably disappears them over there. 

But I am just typing random stuff to look busy.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

35 minutes ago, Link said:

I think it would be most appropriate to put the list in the OP and add a link to this thread in to the List of Lists thread, and that should definitely be stickied somewhere. And the pictures from the Valiant forum co-opted and posted ITT so they will still be somewhere when Photobucket inevitably disappears them over there. 

So I definitely have a list and images of every cover already. I'm not sure how to format it as a post here though. Also I think there are bandwidth issues with posting images in posts. But this is something I could easily do with little extra work that I haven't already done.

 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I went with the hardbacks 5+ years ago or so now because the comics have had some fairly toxic prices on them at least going back a decade just because they didn't run long, and largely to get them were mail order as Valiant wasn't exactly rack ready outside of some specialty shops unless a few random ones ended up at some grocery store that also likely carried Nintendo Power.  I got all mine mailed to me until they bailed and canceled them all.  I wish they still were with my stuff as i can't see dropping $15-100+ on a comic or some insane amount on those collected bits.

Maybe it might be worth making it's own special website, scan the covers, cover the details, all the research, a nice guide for anyone who cares, maybe even scan the entire books and throw them on the archive and link back since they seem takedown proof largely.  It would be a hell of a site.  Obscure stuff gets treats like that, such as the the Watara Supervision has a full site online made by the owner of Super Fighter Team for example.

I feel like all the people talking about creating websites and stuff for super obscure stuff forget that it’s stupid easy to create a blog. As long as your SEO is good a search robot would pick it up same as a website I’d expect. Wix/Wordpress I think are the top. Most have plugins where you can connect s3 storage for basically unlimited cheap storage (see VGS) as an example. 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I could do the list as part of my VGS blog easy. I'll check it out and see what I decide I want to do. 

 

Edit: I want to do a little more research and talk to some experts first, to make sure I have the most comprehensive information.

Edited September 1, 2022 by CodysGameRoom

[Link | 2,714]

13 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

I'm not sure how to format it as a post here though. Also I think there are bandwidth issues with posting images in posts. 

You just mean how to design it? 

The site uses "lazy loading". It doesn't load images until their spot is shown on the screen. If you put the majority or different series in spoiler tags, it shouldn't cause an issue for users.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Quick note: I found an instagram user who also sent me photos of his Nintendo Comics System Vol 2 Variant cover trade paperback, so that's two copies I've seen now. I was already convinced but it was interesting to see photos and he gave me some other information that I didn't have as well. 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

1 hour ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Quick note: I found an instagram user who also sent me photos of his Nintendo Comics System Vol 2 Variant cover trade paperback, so that's two copies I've seen now. I was already convinced but it was interesting to see photos and he gave me some other information that I didn't have as well. 

Can’t wait to see what you have to pay for one of those!

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

3 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

Can’t wait to see what you have to pay for one of those!

lol, I'm not too worried about that, it's more like waiting for one to show up. I've had active searches up for over a year and have not seen a single one. I think it is pretty scarce at this point. 

That said, I picked up a few more pieces, and only 4 pieces remain on my list.