Mystery Mario Drawing

One outcome of collecting old magazines - especially those predominantly aimed at children - is acquiring copies that have been written in or otherwise tampered with by their original owners. On the one hand, this can be a nuisance for collectors, especially if you're trying to get copies in as good a condition as possible (wear and tear notwithstanding, of course).

On the other hand, though, it can be interesting to see what has been written in and where. Club Nintendo's checklists are a good example of this; if any titles were ticked, they can give a brief snapshot of what games their original owners had.

Once in a blue moon, however, you can find something even more intriguing than scribblings. And so it was that the copy of Volume 4 Issue 5 that I bought contained, to my surprise, a scrap piece of paper with a drawing of Mario on it! And yes, I've kept hold of that picture ever since.

For a while, I wondered why the drawing was there. Most kids like to draw pictures of their favourite characters from video games, cartoons, films and other things, but for one such drawing to end up stashed away in a magazine in this manner is unexpected. Eventually, as I was browsing through the magazine itself, I found what I believe to be the answer: it could very well have been drawn for a competition.

In the issue that I found the drawing in, there is a competition to win a Super Mario Bros. wall clock printed in the 'Club Nintendo News' pullout segment. To enter, readers had to design their own Mario-themed clock. Mario's expression in the drawing appears to be based on the Mario face printed on the competition page, while the 'CLUB NINTENDO' letters arranged around him match up with the number positions on a clock face (indeed, 'Club Nintendo' is spelt with 12 letters). So, it's easy to suspect that this doodle is an early draft for a potential entry.

Did the kid ever refine their design and enter the competition? We'll never know. But the drawing does make for an amusing find. Whoever you are, mystery artist, just know that you put a smile on my face, at least.