Staff Caricatures

Much like any magazine, Club Nintendo went through a few design changes throughout its run, and in 1993 it received a fairly major change in an attempt to veer it away from the 'fancy newsletter' look of previous issues. As a result, the pages were given bolder and more dynamic layouts, filled with the colours and fun of the early '90s.

One particular design element that was added was caricatures of staff members on certain pages. This was an amusing feature seen in various other UK video game magazines at the time, allowing readers to put a (comically drawn!) face to the names. These also served to add a bit of character to the magazines, with different publications adopting different styles, from simple cartoon designs to traditional-style caricatures and even anime-style designs!

Comparing the labelled names with the staff list, the caricatures used in Club Nintendo appear to be of editor Mark Smith, writers Hayden Jones and Marc Powell and 'Hotliner' Olly (a 'Hotliner' was one of several expert game-players who manned the Nintendo Hotline, ready to help players out when they got stuck on their favourite games).

The Caricatures

For their first appearance, Mark and Hayden's caricatures only depicted their faces and, at first glance, appeared rather similar to each other, blessed as they both were with pear-shaped heads and toothy grins. It isn't until you look closer that you spot Mark's flat head top and Hayden's earring and sparkly teeth. Thank goodness for name labels!

The faces were redrawn for issue 2 onwards. The basic face shapes remained, albeit even more exaggerated than before (Hayden's choppers are a sight to behold!), but they were now drawn and coloured in a different style from the cartoon faces in the previous issue. Crucially, shoulders were added, allowing the two to be quickly identified by their different shirt colours.

Issue 2 also saw the arrival of Marc and his caricature, who was differentiated even further by having an oval-shaped head, a slightly pouty mouth and a snazzy blue hat.

Meanwhile Olly's caricature, which remained the same across all issues, appears to have been drawn by a different artist from the others, depicting a more 'classic' caricature style with softer shading in places. His flowing locks and enormous spectacles really make him stand out from the others.

The Artists

It is currently unknown who actually drew the caricatures. The 'Art and Design' credits show some regular turnover, with only Mark Ayshford as the one constant name across these four issues; James Hewwings is credited in the first two issues and Ann Carnell joined the art team for issues two and three. At the moment, any or all of these three names are currently the most likely candidates behind the Club Nintendo caricatures. (The remaining Art and Design staff of this era joined in issues three and four and thus cannot be the artist(s) we are looking for.)

The other possibility is that the caricatures were drawn by an artist outside the magazine's staff who currently remains unknown and uncredited.