Who drew Howard & Nester?

January 3, 2008 9:33 AM

Who is the (presumably Japanese) artist responsible for drawing the old Howard & Nester comics from Nintendo Power magazine in the early 1990s?
posted by ktoad to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Well, I can't find anything about the original artist, but the one that took over after he left was Dan Spiegle. This was during the "Nester's Adventures" period at the bottom of the page you linked to.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:45 AM on January 3, 2008

'Twas the mighty Joe Haley, of course. I worked on the Nintendo Power magazine from 1989 thru 1992, on layout for the Letters to the Editor, and tallying the videotaped Hi Scores. Layout was still done by hand in those days, using twigs and berries.

You kids get offa my 8-bit lawn!
posted by Aquaman at 9:46 AM on January 3, 2008 [7 favorites]

BTW, Joe is definitely not Japanese. The comic was an original creation of Nintendo of America, based in Redmond, WA (right near a small software startup called Micro something or other). Howard was based directly upon a fellow named Howard Philips, a young employee of the company who started in shipping, and "worked" his way up to product spokesman, before leaving Nintendo for a non-comic career at JVC.
posted by Aquaman at 9:50 AM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Gosh, I don't doubt that you worked there, Aquaman, but are you sure that's the same artist? The art I'm talking about has so much more detail and subtle coloring than Joe's new Nester tale. Are you certain it's not just a tribute strip Haley did?
posted by ktoad at 10:00 AM on January 3, 2008

Response by poster: Also, I see that the artist in question did artowkr for at least one of the old NES Final Fantasy game booklets. Besides the art style, that's another reason I think it might be a Japanese artist from that era.
posted by ktoad at 10:02 AM on January 3, 2008

I saw that same link about Joe Haley (Mr DNA). The reason I didn't think Mr DNA was the original artist is beacause of comments like this he made on his deviantart page:

Mr DNA said:

After the real-life Howard left NP, Nester flew solo. By this point, a different artist took over and the comics just weren't as good, but that's another story.

...

Yeah, but you gotta admit it wasn't the same when Art Nichols took over. Ironic that the artwork of a man named Art would be so inferior to his predecessor's.

It also seems like he would have mentioned at some point that he wrote the original comics.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:31 AM on January 3, 2008

You tried contacting Nintendo or Nintendo Power? It's certainly no guarantee, but it's possible you may get the answer.

(BTW, I'm practically overcome with nostalgia. If you do find out the answer ktoad, I'd love a follow-up post)
posted by Nelsormensch at 11:45 AM on January 3, 2008

Well, OK, you got me there. I always thought that was a homebrew (i.e. in house) production of Nintendo of America. One manga fan seems to think that the original artist may have been a person named Benimaru Itoh, but it's only a guess. However, the comments in the link back up the assertion.

Now where did I store those 1991 issues of Nintendo Power?
posted by Aquaman at 12:07 PM on January 3, 2008

Aquaman, so you did the layout for the golden era of the Bart vs. the Space Mutants raps, giant Game Boy model, and Mario costumes and such, eh? (I ask with all reverence, because I was a devoted subscriber for years. Years!)
posted by stleric at 9:21 PM on January 3, 2008