I can’t decide which is more of a ridiculous thought: the idea that there’s actually a Nintendo Wii game I care about, or that Nintendo would put Penny Arcade in charge of the official Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword webcomic. Regardless, both are very much a reality
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Publisher: Nintendo
Writer: Jerry Holkins
Artist: Mike Krahulik
Only in a nerd’s wildest wet dream could such a thing be possible, and to several nerds out there, dreams do come true! Even the wet ones!
The story begins on the first page (pictured left) with a beautifully illustrated first look at our hero, and Zelda purists fear not; those dialog captions are not Link’s. We’re taken into the mind of Gaepora, Zelda’s father, shortly after the princes has been kidnapped. We’re accompanied with some action scenes the veteran Zelda players will find familiar, as Link appears to have already begun his quest to rescue Gaepora’s daughter.
So far, we’ve seen a great first four pages to this story…sadly, those four pages are the only pages we have.
Nintendo is taking an extremely odd approach to this webcomic. Instead of releasing a complete first chapter to this story, they’re publishing only one page a week. Granted, each page has been awesome so far, but it’s really annoying not being able to get a full story. It’s like having a really good novel, but only being able to read one sentence a day. I really wish Nintendo would have waited to have a whole first chapter to give to the fans.
But even something like asking for a full first part of Skyward Sword seems like a nitpick given the treat of having Penny-freakin’-Arcade make the comic. But don’t expect any Tycho and Gabe style silliness; the tone of the four pages is very serious (or at least as serious as the Zelda franchise permits), and Mike Krahulik has taken his time crafting each panel, and it shows.
Non-diehard fans may read these four pages and forget about it by the time the next page is released, which is a shame, because this is a really pretty comic. It’s so nice of Nintendo to offer this comic for free, because I would have gladly paid for every issue of this series. Even if you’re not a Zelda fan, the few pages available are absolutely worth checking out.
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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net
@andrewEhurst
Nintendo’s approach isn’t at all odd. This is the way they’re always published. Penny Arcade has even done comics like this for Dragon Age and Assassin’s Creed (and other games), and they were all done the same way. To ask for it all at once…the company would have to approach Jerry and Mike well in advance, perhaps before much of the game’s premise is revealed. Though given their status, a company revealing such things wouldn’t be at all odd. At any rate, a comic like this with such detail (and that water color effect) takes time. It’s probably easier for him to do it on a week by week basis with a schedule.
Anyway, if you want to read it all at once, either A) wait until it’s complete, or B) wait until the very likely event that it is released with the game itself in print.
I know it’s been done before, but that doesn’t make it any better. Why release it one page a week? I get the quality of art takes time, but it wont spoil. It can wait for a full 10 or 12 other pages to be done.
And most people wont bother checking back every week for merely a single page to be posted, and for that, they’ve lost a great deal of viewers. Like I said, it’s like having a really good novel, but only reading one sentence a day. It’s annoying, and I think this style publishing is really poor.