This is my 500th post since converting PsychoAndy.com to a blog, back in June of 2020. And since I’m in the middle of a not-Inktober challenge, drawing all the Super Mario Bros. stuff, I figured this was as good a time as any to share the inspiration behind it all.
Super Mario Bros. 3 was the much-hyped threequel to 1985’s Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom & Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1990. Nintendo even produced a movie starring The Wonder Years lead, Fred Savage, to hype this movie, entitled The Wizard. Yeah, an entire movie that you had to pay to see just to advertise an upcoming Mario game.
So, obviously, the game was a big deal when it got released. Today, 31 years later, Mario 3 isn’t my favorite game. I’m not sure that it ever was. I DO really enjoy it. I pop it in at least once a year to play through a little bit of it, although it’s been years since I’ve played through the whole thing.
But in 1990, it was IMPORTANT. And as such, I created a book featuring all the items and characters and enemies in the game. Prepare for embarassing childhood artwork:
There’s so much I could say about this, but, hey. I was in 2nd grade. And, in fact, along of that Masklaw piece, these are probably the oldest drawings I’ve done that I still have.
BUT WAIT!
I liked what I did with this book so much that the following year, I did it again!
A huge improvement, but still very definitely a kid’s artwork.
Anyways, while going through all my files and scanning basically everything I’ve ever drawn last year, I came across these, and thought that re-doing the books for an October Ink Drawing Challenege would be real fun, which is why everything I’ve drawn has been so SMB3-focused.
500 posts. And at the very least, I have the rest of October already planned out, as well as drafts of posts queued up for like half of Novmber.
Whether you’ve been following me since the revamp last summer, or you’re just coming along more recently, thank you for supporting my art and ramblings about toys and other art!
I’ll be back later today with another Ink Drawing Challenge Super Mario Bros 3 post.