Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Graphic Novel Review + Giveaway!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is, depending on who you speak to not only the best Legend of Zelda game but quite possibly one of the best games ever as well.  So how does the greatness that is A Link to the Past work in comic form?

Over the course of 1992 in the pages of American magazine Nintendo Power  a manga adaption of the games story was printed in the magazine. The manga was penned and drawn by famous manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. If you’re not familiar with his work you may have heard of some of his creations including Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider. He was the ‘king of manga’ and Nintendo score quite the coup gaining his services.

While the manga might be nearly 25 years old its still a terrific read and one that is still the source of some amazing Legend of Zelda artwork. The manga follows closely that of the games story as you would expect, Link however here has a personality and isn’t the player avatar he’s meant to be in the game. It’s quite a dark tale and even a little darker than the game itself. There are surprises here in this story that you don’t get in the game.

There’s 196 pages of story here to enjoy, and the art style is beautiful drawn. There’s no clean digital lines here, each page is an amazing testimonial to the skills of Shotaro Ishinomori. I’ve never really read game adaption in either novel or graphic novel form before. It’s funny how the game manages to translate into a readable story and given a personality Link is quite a character.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is available in stores now or from Madman.

However, we have a few to give way…

It’s time for a giveaway! Thanks to the fine people at Madman Entertinament we have 3 copies of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. You see, three like the triforce!

So to get your hands on one of the copies – you’re going to need to show us your power, wisdom and courage and create a comic! There’s no need to create a 196 page epic, we just want to see a funny Legend of Zelda situation happen in a 4 panel comic. You can draw it digital or on paper, it can look like stick figures or if you’re skilled paint us a masterpiece. We want to see Link, Zelda or dare we say Tingle do something funny – you have 4 panels to do it in! Here’s a template to get you started, but if you want to draw your own you can!

Once that’s done send it to the address below with your name and state. Just so if two L. Simpsons win they’re not confused.

zeldamanga@vooks.net

Make sure you read the rules below; we wouldn’t want you to draw something awesome and then lose out because you didn’t put Tingle in read the rules.

1. This competition runs from July 7th until the 17th. Entries will be accepted up until the end of the day on the 17th.
2. Entry is via the email address specified above. You will also need to like our Facebook page with a matching name.
3. Your entry must be a comic in whatever format or panel length you wish, the most humorous and unique entries will win the prizes
4. The competition is open to only residents of Australia and New Zealand.
5. Vooks staff members are ineligible to win. Vooks is not responsible for lost or damaged mail and the prizes are not redeemable for cash.
6. Prizes will be sent out once all details have been received. If a response is not received in 30 days after notification of a winning entry the next entrant on the list will be given the prize.
7. Vooks reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of this competition at any time.
8. Vooks will only collect personal information in order to conduct the promotion and will be destroyed once promotion has concluded.
9. Bonus Points for Tingle.
10. Not really but it would be cool if we saw Tingle.