Editor's Sidebar: Where we hear directly from VIZ editors about series they're working on.

Last year, we were very lucky to reprint The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a collection of comics that were serialized in Nintendo Power magazine in the early '90s.

As soon as we announced the Zelda graphic novel, fans started asking us if we were going to publish Super Mario Adventures, which was also serialized in Nintendo Power magazine in the early '90s and then collected into a graphic novel. We were already working on it at the time but it was a super-secret-don't-dare-say-a-word situation. But now it's a reality!

Once we cleared the rights, we had to figure out how to actually create the book. No one had the original art and our VIZ time machine was still not functional. So, we bought a copy of the original 1993 Super Mario Adventures book from an online site (not cheap) and shipped it off to a printer overseas. The printer painstakingly took the book apart page by page and scanned each page at a high resolution. Then we assembled the pages as they were presented in the original.

Enter our fabulous designer Sam Elzway, who created a new cover using some art from the interior pages. Mario and Luigi are ready for action! We thought Bowser, the main antagonist, deserved a special place on the back cover. I mean, just look at his menacing eyes and fangs. The inside covers have fun images of Yoshi and Wario (Oh yeah, there's a bonus Mario vs. Wario story in the book, the same one the original book had).

Nintendo Power version vs VIZ version:

The story is really fun and funny, and capture the spirit of the games we all loved. The diabolical Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach because he's intent on marrying her, even if she doesn't want to walk down the aisle with him. Enter Mario and Luigi, who team up with Yoshi, to try and rescue her. Of course, the princess is pretty resourceful herself.