It began with a Zelda T-shirt.
I was wearing my “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” shirt while running a quick errand at the bank. The teller spotted it. He was at least 20 years younger than me, but his “Nice shirt!” comment kicked off a lengthy conversation about our shared Nintendo fandom.
Before long, he pulled out a tablet and showed me his digital fan art. It was awesome: detailed, dynamic sketches of Mario, Pokémon, and (my favourite) Metroid characters. His passion was apparent.
I told him I was thrilled by his drawings, because I know how much that work means. You see, years ago, I had a job at Nintendo that involved seeing hundreds of pieces of original Nintendo fan art. And I took some home.
This is the story of that collection, and how a handful of drawings, once marked for the landfill, became some of the most meaningful pieces of my gaming collection.
Player’s Pulse and a Pile of Precious Paper
This will definitely date me, but I interned at Nintendo during the second half of 1996. Before long, I was given complete control of Player’s Pulse, the letters to the editor section. I chose fan letters, wrote responses, and, most importantly, picked the envelope art that was displayed on those pages.
Mind you, this was nearly three decades ago, so the letters and the artwork were on real, physical paper, sent via snail mail. This was before the days of email and file shares.
I absolutely loved sifting through the envelope art because it was pure fandom: earnest, expressive, and often beautiful.
I was shocked to learn that it was Nintendo’s practice to destroy all artwork after it had been screened and scanned for the magazine! That meant dozens, maybe hundreds, of amateur art pieces in the trash bin each month.
It felt criminal to toss that effort, so I kept all the artwork that came across my desk during my short internship.
Here are five pieces of art that define the long journey of that collection:
Naomi Chiba’s Envelopes
Years after I left Nintendo Power, I read a Kotaku article about Naomi Chiba, easily the most prolific Player’s Pulse artist ever. While reading, I remembered that I had three of her original envelopes in my collection!
With help from the author, I connected with Naomi and arranged to return her artwork.
Doing so was surprisingly emotional. I hesitated when it came time to seal the envelope, but then it occurred to me that she might be the first person to ever get back the artwork that they had sent to Nintendo Power.
That’s when it hit me: this coloured paper meant something.
Quid pro Quo with Seth
The success with Naomi led me to find more artists.
Seth Hatland came next. He was so grateful to get his Mega Man X and Mario drawings back that he insisted on trading them for a brand-new piece of art as a thank you. “I’ve gotten slightly better,” he said.
What an understatement!
He sent me an incredible piece of Link that has hung proudly in my office ever since.
The Big Trade
After returning art to several more creators, I was connected with Stephan Reese (aka ArtofNP) and his non-profit Interactive Art Collection. They specialise in original Nintendo Power artwork, although he hadn’t seen much in the way of envelope art – probably because Nintendo had destroyed it all.
I ultimately agreed to add most of my remaining collection to his museum.
In return, Stephan sent me an original, professional piece made for the promotional brochure of the Nintendo Super System arcade, circa 1992. I love it almost as much as the amateur stuff, plus I’m happy to know that the rest of the fan art is in a better place than a binder on my shelf.
(I’m the “ex-Nintendo employee” mentioned in the Nintendo Life post about Stephan’s exhibit a couple of years ago.)
