WI: Archie's Super Mario Bros.

Hey, I've been browsing this forum for several months. However, this is my first time making a thread on the forum, and also the first time I have even written anything on it. I hope you are interested.
Quite recently, I have gotten back into the Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie Comics, that I have only briefly looked occasionally in recent times. It is considered the longest running comic book series based on a video game, running for over 20 years, and is even recorded in the Guinness World records for that particular title. It contains a very complex world, with many interesting characters, and a long history of the world in which it takes place, far beyond its original intention as a way of marketing new SEGA games and animated series from which it originated. However, as I was looking at it, a thought occurred to me. What if Archie had instead ran a Mario bros. comic series instead of a Sonic one? Or, on the other hand, what if Mario had a long running comic series in general, as opposed to the short lived Super Mario adventures or those Nintendo Power comics?
How will these comics affect Nintendo? How is the Sonic series and fandom affected by a lack of a long running comic series? Will the Archie Mario series reach the same amount of complexity and depth that the Sonic one has reached, or will it remain a vehicle for marketing games and animated shows? And finally, how long will such a series last?
 
Mario seemed to be more famous at the time, at least among the kids I hung out with, so I imagine a Mario series would be more successful than the Sonic one, and therefore should become fairly complex, unless Nintendo pushes for it to be limited and restricted to marketing purposes. I think that such a thing would be good for Mario, and lead to a much better Super Mario Bros. movie.

I don't imagine Sonic would fall into obscurity without a comic book series, seeing as how more people play video games than read comics. But I do think this might interfere with Sonic's long-running iconic status, particularly among the strange furry fetishists whose drawings are scattered across the internet.

In conclusion, better Super Mario movie + less furry Sonic the Hedgehog porn = better world.
 
Since Valiant used to publish Mario comics, I thought of this rough take on the timeline (with January 1991 as its POD date)...

April 1990 - Valiant Comics begins releasing Nintendo Comics System trade paperback that features Super Mario Bros, Captain N, Zelda and others. At that time, they also begin publication of Super Mario Bros series.

May 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of both Captain N: The Game Master and The Legend of Zelda series.

June 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of Game Boy.

July 1990 - Valiant releases the second volume of Nintendo Comics System trade paperback.

January 1991 - Archie Comics brought comic rights to Nintendo which leads to cancellation of the upcoming Nintendo Comics System ongoing series as well as The Legend of Zelda series.

November 1991 - Archie Comics begins publication of Super Mario Bros magazine mini-series which reprints the original Valiant stories.

May 1992 - After the success of Super Mario Bros magazine, Archie begins publication of ongoing Super Mario Adventures series.

April 1993 - Cinergi Pictures has delayed its May 1993 release of Super Mario Bros movie for over a year due to reshoots and script changes.

November 1993 - Atari Jaguar hits stores and was a commercial failure.

April 1993 - Super Mario Bros is released in cinemas and became a critical success, leading to two back-to-back sequels to begin its production a couple of months later.

November 1994 - Sega Saturn is released in Japan and became a mild success but led to the system not released worldwide for a couple of years.

April 1995 - Archie begins its publication on four-issue SMB/TMNT: Adventures In Time mini-series which pits Mario and Luigi teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles against Shredder and Bowser.

July 1995 - Nintendo began releasing Virtual Boy system to PAL markets and became a commercial success.

Summer 1995 - Despite its previous failure, Atari Jaguar II system is released in stores and became a surprise success.

Fall 1995 - Super Mario Bros II: Brothers In Arms is released in cinemas.

Summer 1996 - Super Mario Bros III: The Final Levels is released in cinemas.

It's not much but hey, it's all I can think of.
 
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Nintendo did have a mario comics or should say manga Super Mario Bros series, but that one is japan exclusive, Super Mario Kun(Dear Super Mario), http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario-Kun

But an Archie One will be Interesting, but eternalkhaos, the Jaguar was doomed since how much bad the console was created
 
Perhaps a more successful comic series could lead to more plot in the Mario games?

For some Spinoff, Maybe, for the Mainline games, that is in miyamoto hands, he want to do some history with Super Mario Sunshine but the reception was divisive, them with Galaxy he make it secondary.
 
Intriguing. I didn't think about the movie as I was writing this. I was just thinking about what the comic might look like, and their effect. But yes, the movie could incorporate elements of the more complex comics (as opposed to the lackluster animated series), and subsequently, become more critically and financially successful as a result, leading to sequels, and maybe a franchise.

Since Valiant used to publish Mario comics, I thought of this rough take on the timeline (with January 1991 as its POD date)...

April 1990 - Valiant Comics begins releasing Nintendo Comics System trade paperback that features Super Mario Bros, Captain N, Zelda and others. At that time, they also begin publication of Super Mario Bros series.

May 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of both Captain N: The Game Master and The Legend of Zelda series.

June 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of Game Boy.

July 1990 - Valiant releases the second volume of Nintendo Comics System trade paperback.

January 1991 - Archie Comics brought comic rights to Nintendo which leads to cancellation of the upcoming Nintendo Comics System ongoing series as well as The Legend of Zelda series.

November 1991 - Archie Comics begins publication of Super Mario Bros magazine mini-series which reprints the original Valiant stories.

May 1992 - After the success of Super Mario Bros magazine, Archie begins publication of ongoing Super Mario Adventures series.

April 1993 - Cinergi Pictures has delayed its May 1993 release of Super Mario Bros movie for over a year due to reshoots and script changes.

November 1993 - Atari Jaguar hits stores and was a commercial failure.

April 1993 - Super Mario Bros is released in cinemas and became a critical success, leading to two back-to-back sequels to begin its production a couple of months later.

November 1994 - Sega Saturn is released in Japan and became a mild success but led to the system not released worldwide for a couple of years.

April 1995 - Archie begins its publication on four-issue SMB/TMNT: Adventures In Time mini-series which pits Mario and Luigi teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles against Shredder and Bowser.

July 1995 - Nintendo began releasing Virtual Boy system to PAL markets and became a commercial success.

Summer 1995 - Despite its previous failure, Atari Jaguar II system is released in stores and became a surprise success.

Fall 1995 - Super Mario Bros II: Brothers In Arms is released in cinemas.

Summer 1996 - Super Mario Bros III: The Final Levels is released in cinemas.

It's not much but hey, it's all I can think of.

Thank you, eternalkhaos. That is a very interesting timeline. I would like to tweak it a little, if you don't mind
April 1990 - Valiant Comics begins releasing Nintendo Comics System trade paperback that features Super Mario Bros, Captain N, Zelda and others. At that time, they also begin publication of Super Mario Bros series.

May 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of both Captain N: The Game Master and The Legend of Zelda series.

June 1990 - Valiant Comics begins publication of Game Boy.

July 1990 - Valiant releases the second volume of Nintendo Comics System trade paperback.

January 1991 - Archie Comics brought comic rights to Nintendo which leads to cancellation of the upcoming Nintendo Comics System ongoing series as well as The Legend of Zelda series.

November 1991 - Archie Comics begins publication of Super Mario Bros magazine mini-series which reprints the original Valiant stories.

May 1992 - After the success of Super Mario Bros magazine, Archie begins publication of ongoing Super Mario Adventures series.

April 1993 - Cinergi Pictures has delayed its May 1993 release of Super Mario Bros movie for over a year due to reshoots and script changes.

November 1993 - Atari Jaguar hits stores and was a commercial failure.

April 1993 - Super Mario Bros is released in cinemas and became a critical success, leading to two back-to-back sequels to begin its production a couple of months later.

Fall 1994- To promote the upcoming game Donkey Kong Country, Archie produces a Donkey Kong Country miniseries, which adapts part of the game. It is very successful, leading to talks of turning the series into a spinoff series.

November 1994 - Sega Saturn is released in Japan and became a mild success but led to the system not released worldwide for a couple of years. Also, Archie begins publication of the Donkey Kong Country spinoff series, which will gather a cult following in later years.

April 1995 - Archie begins its publication on four-issue SMB/TMNT: Adventures In Time mini-series which pits Mario and Luigi teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles against Shredder and Bowser.

July 1995 - Nintendo began releasing Virtual Boy system to PAL markets and became a commercial success.

Summer 1995 - Despite its previous failure, Atari Jaguar II system is released in stores, but fails to become a smash success due to the faulty system, but does respectfully. Also, Archie begin publication of the Yoshi's Island miniseries to promote the upcoming game Super Mario World II: Yoshi's Island. The success of that leads to rumors amongst fans, that Archie might create a Yoshi spinoff comic, much like the ongoing Donkey Kong Country series.

Fall 1995 - Super Mario Bros II: Brothers In Arms is released in
cinemas.

September 1995- The Season 3 premiere of the popular animated series Sonic the Hedgehog airs on ABC, much to the excitement of fans.

Summer 1996 - Super Mario Bros III: The Final Levels is released in cinemas.

June 1997- The 50th issue of Super Mario Adventures is released, containing 48 pages, and a plot where Bowser tries an ultimate assault on the Mushroom Kingdom in a last-ditch effort to capture Princess Toadstool. When he does capture her, Mario follows atop his fleet of airships, and confronts him. This culminates in a battle between the two, and finally, with Bowser getting ejected off the fleet and presumed dead. The heroes celebrate, but near the end, it is revealed that Bowser survived the fall. This begins a tradition in the comics where very important events in the comics occur in issues with multiples of 50, making them "Milestone issues".

That's all I needed to edit. I was thinking that the "Donkey Kong Country" and "Yoshi's Island" comics mentioned are ATL counterparts to OTL Archie "Knuckles the Echidna" comic series that ran alongside the Sonic Comic. The milestone issue-important event correlation is also from the Sonic comic (except every 25th issue, rather than every 50th). So, what do think of the slightly edited timeline.
 
I like it except the Atari Jaguar II part since my intention for putting this there is to make the system released in this timeline instead of being cancelled while having it as a surprising improvement to the first Atari Jaguar. But hey, that's just my take on it so I won't mind if you changed it.;)
 
For some Spinoff, Maybe, for the Mainline games, that is in miyamoto hands, he want to do some history with Super Mario Sunshine but the reception was divisive, them with Galaxy he make it secondary.

Well, part of that was because he didn't pay attention to older canon. Where are the Koopalings?
 
Well, part of that was because he didn't pay attention to older canon. Where are the Koopalings?

Ascended Extras for the New Super Mario Bros games... who are outside of Continuity... but again those have their shining moment there, but they are in the mainline continuity(3 and World)

Nice short timeline Mr.E keep to the future
 
Ascended Extras for the New Super Mario Bros games... who are outside of Continuity... but again those have their shining moment there, but they are in the mainline continuity(3 and World)

Nice short timeline Mr.E keep to the future

Thank you!
 
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