This thread is to document and discuss any of Wario's appearances in comic form. I consider myself something of an expert in the field of video game comics, so I'll start by directing you all to every major example I can think of. Let me know if you know of any I've missed or just want to chat about the content in these.
English:
Probably the best-known is Nintendo Power's two-issue miniseries, Mario vs. Wario. It followed the excellent Super Mario Adventures story arc, and gave us some interesting backstory for Wario and his rivalry with Mario, while expanding on the present day in the second issue.
http://www.yoshiart.com/comics.php
European:
Club Nintendo was Germany's official Nintendo magazine. The comics they ran are quite well-documented on Mario Wiki, primarily thanks to Time Q (I think?). Anyway, they're pretty wacky most of the time and can often be written off as non-canon, with some exceptions. Even the more off-the-wall ones, though, can still inform your interpretations of characters even if the actual events didn’t strictly happen per se. So they’re quite valuable.
The main one you’re looking at is Wario’s Christmas Tale. Mirroring the classic tale with Wario in the Scrooge role (obviously), we have various Nintendo characters interacting with him while he acts all greedy. It also delves into his history with Mario and Peach, like the Nintendo Power one, and ends up being quite touching. It’s even been translated into English, by some good folks at the Bomberman wiki (Legato32x and Neobon12).
http://bomberman.wikia.com/wiki/Wario's_Christmas_Tale
That was Wario’s protagonist moment. He also appears as antagonist in several other comics, prominently: The Transformation, which has an alternate origin story for him; The Night of Horrors, where he makes a deal with the devil; and Ruckus in the Cosmos, which is an odd story about him teaming up with Bowser to steal a N64-shaped spaceship.
The Transformation, among several other comics from that year, in English: http://opentrain.theyear199x.org/?p=144
The Night of Horrors has not been translated yet, I’m working on it now! The raw is really only obtainable through this archive of (almost) all the Club Nintendo comics, at 1996_05 and 1997_05: www.mediafire.com/download/4t30r93jaa2jd7m
Ruckus in the Cosmos was translated by Supper Mario Broth, bless ‘em: http://www.suppermariobroth.com/post/50761455982/the-german-club-nintendo-comic-the-hunt-for-the
Our man has a few more minor appearances in Club Nintendo, in such comics as Mario in Wonderland (in English in the same archive with The Transformation, and some of the later N-Gang comics, where he appears through a magical Game Boy into the real world. See the raw archive from 1999 for the original German N-Gang, minus a few (I’m working on that too!). Also, see this Christmas card for a bonus (couldn’t resist this piece): http://www.suppermariobroth.com/post/75617054461/german-club-nintendo-christmas-card
Beyond Germany to my knowledge official comics get pretty scarce. Other countries’ magazines published unofficial ones from time to time, and I’ve translated a Spanish one before that has a Wario cameo: http://miloscat.tumblr.com/post/62453268066. Not much to see, let’s move on.
Japanese:
The wonderful fan abusuzuki has been a scanning machine, making a huge load of interesting video game manga available to fans everywhere. He’ll even respond to comments on his blog and fix things if you find a broken link. He has many volumes of Mario 4koma (4-panel gag comics) for download, and undoubtedly Wario makes some appearances in there. I can’t confirm that, there’s just so much and I haven’t got around to reading it! This one for sure involves Wario though, I think it was made after Wario Land or maybe WL2:
http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2012/01/4koma-land-mario-and-wario.html
Other manga, especially Bombom’s works, are more like story adaptations, longer-form and with less short random humour. They’re no less bizarre though, as you will know if you’ve seen any of the samples Supper Mario Broth has posted. They do tend to force Mario into the protagonist role, but that’s the way of it with his prominence.
Wario Land (3 volumes): http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/10/super-mario-land-3-wario-land-manga.html
Mario and Wario: http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/10/mario-and-wario-manga-comic-raw-zip.html
Wario’s Woods: http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/11/warios-woods-manga-comic-rawzip.html
A more long-running manga series (even to this day!) is Super Mario-kun, by Yukio Sawada (there’s another one by the same name). Wario is a common character, as the series wends its way through many Mario games and spinoffs. Wario even got his own short-lived spinoff from the comic, called “Ore dayo! Wario dayo!” (roughly translated: It’s-a me, Wario!) Scans are scarce of the Wario manga, unfortunately, but if you cross reference Mario Wiki with the volumes available at the link below, you might get lucky and see some classic childish humour, with Wario involved.
http://www.filefactory.com/folder/24f86eae7eef23d4
So that’s my knowledge of Wario comics. I’m sorry for being so long-winded, I do get carried away. Almost everything on this list is over 15 years old, as Nintendo has cut back a lot on comics content over the years. It’s unfortunate because there’s so much you can do with the characters to help flesh them out, and just have some fun. I should really post some pictures… maybe later. More importantly, has anyone read these comics and what did you think?
English:
Probably the best-known is Nintendo Power's two-issue miniseries, Mario vs. Wario. It followed the excellent Super Mario Adventures story arc, and gave us some interesting backstory for Wario and his rivalry with Mario, while expanding on the present day in the second issue.
http://www.yoshiart.com/comics.php
European:
Club Nintendo was Germany's official Nintendo magazine. The comics they ran are quite well-documented on Mario Wiki, primarily thanks to Time Q (I think?). Anyway, they're pretty wacky most of the time and can often be written off as non-canon, with some exceptions. Even the more off-the-wall ones, though, can still inform your interpretations of characters even if the actual events didn’t strictly happen per se. So they’re quite valuable.
The main one you’re looking at is Wario’s Christmas Tale. Mirroring the classic tale with Wario in the Scrooge role (obviously), we have various Nintendo characters interacting with him while he acts all greedy. It also delves into his history with Mario and Peach, like the Nintendo Power one, and ends up being quite touching. It’s even been translated into English, by some good folks at the Bomberman wiki (Legato32x and Neobon12).
http://bomberman.wikia.com/wiki/Wario's_Christmas_Tale
That was Wario’s protagonist moment. He also appears as antagonist in several other comics, prominently: The Transformation, which has an alternate origin story for him; The Night of Horrors, where he makes a deal with the devil; and Ruckus in the Cosmos, which is an odd story about him teaming up with Bowser to steal a N64-shaped spaceship.
The Transformation, among several other comics from that year, in English: http://opentrain.theyear199x.org/?p=144
The Night of Horrors has not been translated yet, I’m working on it now! The raw is really only obtainable through this archive of (almost) all the Club Nintendo comics, at 1996_05 and 1997_05: www.mediafire.com/download/4t30r93jaa2jd7m
Ruckus in the Cosmos was translated by Supper Mario Broth, bless ‘em: http://www.suppermariobroth.com/post/50761455982/the-german-club-nintendo-comic-the-hunt-for-the
Our man has a few more minor appearances in Club Nintendo, in such comics as Mario in Wonderland (in English in the same archive with The Transformation, and some of the later N-Gang comics, where he appears through a magical Game Boy into the real world. See the raw archive from 1999 for the original German N-Gang, minus a few (I’m working on that too!). Also, see this Christmas card for a bonus (couldn’t resist this piece): http://www.suppermariobroth.com/post/75617054461/german-club-nintendo-christmas-card
Beyond Germany to my knowledge official comics get pretty scarce. Other countries’ magazines published unofficial ones from time to time, and I’ve translated a Spanish one before that has a Wario cameo: http://miloscat.tumblr.com/post/62453268066. Not much to see, let’s move on.
Japanese:
The wonderful fan abusuzuki has been a scanning machine, making a huge load of interesting video game manga available to fans everywhere. He’ll even respond to comments on his blog and fix things if you find a broken link. He has many volumes of Mario 4koma (4-panel gag comics) for download, and undoubtedly Wario makes some appearances in there. I can’t confirm that, there’s just so much and I haven’t got around to reading it! This one for sure involves Wario though, I think it was made after Wario Land or maybe WL2:
http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2012/01/4koma-land-mario-and-wario.html
Other manga, especially Bombom’s works, are more like story adaptations, longer-form and with less short random humour. They’re no less bizarre though, as you will know if you’ve seen any of the samples Supper Mario Broth has posted. They do tend to force Mario into the protagonist role, but that’s the way of it with his prominence.
Wario Land (3 volumes): http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/10/super-mario-land-3-wario-land-manga.html
Mario and Wario: http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/10/mario-and-wario-manga-comic-raw-zip.html
Wario’s Woods: http://abusuzuki.blogspot.cz/2011/11/warios-woods-manga-comic-rawzip.html
A more long-running manga series (even to this day!) is Super Mario-kun, by Yukio Sawada (there’s another one by the same name). Wario is a common character, as the series wends its way through many Mario games and spinoffs. Wario even got his own short-lived spinoff from the comic, called “Ore dayo! Wario dayo!” (roughly translated: It’s-a me, Wario!) Scans are scarce of the Wario manga, unfortunately, but if you cross reference Mario Wiki with the volumes available at the link below, you might get lucky and see some classic childish humour, with Wario involved.
http://www.filefactory.com/folder/24f86eae7eef23d4
So that’s my knowledge of Wario comics. I’m sorry for being so long-winded, I do get carried away. Almost everything on this list is over 15 years old, as Nintendo has cut back a lot on comics content over the years. It’s unfortunate because there’s so much you can do with the characters to help flesh them out, and just have some fun. I should really post some pictures… maybe later. More importantly, has anyone read these comics and what did you think?
