One of my favorite comics is getting a rerelease.

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo Power only ran one Mario comic in it's entire history, so yes, that's the one I'm talking about.

Oh really? I'm sure they had at least some single-page things beyond that one -- I definitely remember a Mario & Wario one... but there was only one big multi-page Mario comic? Okay. As I said I don't remember much about it then. There's one chapter though where they drop into a big pile of Yoshi eggs, yes?

I liked the Zelda comic too, but it did feel a bit rushed. So many things were just glossed over, and while the ending was bitter sweet, I didn't really feel like that touching moment had been earned.

That's a fair criticism, but how much can you do with trying to tell such a big story with only 12 chapters with that strict a page limit? I think it does the best it can at being an epic adventure within some pretty short chapters. There are times where I wish there was more to it, such as how dungeons seem to mostly get skipped to go straight to the boss fights, but how much more could be done with those space restrictions? And despite that, it's still a really great series, and I liked the ending. And on top of everything else good about the series, was it also the first appearance of Zelda helping out in the final boss fight, something she later did in OoT, WW, and TP, too? It's the first time I remember seeing that for sure, at least.

That said, the run of Nintendo Power comics is still very good. The "big four" (Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, and Metroid") they released back to back in the early 90's still stands out as quality stuff, and stuff Nintendo still calls back to.

Star Fox and Metroid... I guess those existed, but remember even less about them than the Mario one. After the early '90s they cut back on the amount of comic pages in the magazine beyond Nester and such, but there were still a few later ones, such as the multi-part Shadows of the Empire bit taken out of the comic books, I believe.

Nester's recurring comic was also pretty enjoyable, though by it's nature (a weekly one-off series lampooning the big game of the moment) it was often hit or miss in how funny any one comic was. Still, I remember it fondly enough. Having Nester grow up and have a kid to pass the torch to in the final issue's comic was a good way to conclude it. It's too bad Nester's one actual video game appearence was a Virtual Boy game, and a bowling one at that. There were a few others, like the early Battletoads comic. Those weren't as good as the big 4 though. Battletoads in particular is that special kind of "so bad it's good" though, so I still recommend giving it a read. Probably the WORST bit of fiction they ever attempted in Nintendo Power went to that prototype for Captain-N short story they wrote in the earliest issues. As a kid, I didn't think it was so bad, but wow these days it is one of the most painful reads I've ever seen.

I should be glad I don't think I ever read this Captain N story, then? :p I have barely ever seen the Captain N show, much less read a story about it in the magazine...

I've checked through those high quality comics I just mentioned (in particular the big 4), and I noticed something. Those 4 comics were all written and drawn by a variety of Japanese people. That's right, it's written in Manganese, but it doesn't suck! There's not a single overbearing idiot protagonist and crew of "I beat you, now we're friends" allies to be found. No creepy "oops I fell on your boobs" moments or "I'm pulling out a deus ex technique to beat the baddy" situation to be found in any of them. Further, the artistic styles of all 4 are very distinct from each other, and none really resemble the "stereotypical anime style" so many of those shows do these days. It's very surprising, but then I remember that the entertainment industry in Japan has entered a real rut as of late, seemingly getting all their ideas off a bullet point style list, and it wasn't always like that.

Japanese artists drawing Western comics, you mean? Huh. I guess some of the Nintendo Power comics kind of are that though, like Zelda for example...