A ‘Howard & Nester’ Comic ‘Nintendo Power’ Couldn’t Print Now Up For Auction

With Nintendo Power concluding this month after nearly a quarter of a century, several generations of readers are feeling their share of sentimentality - especially for the magazine's longtime comic book supplement, Howard & Nester. Though the character of Howard was retried from the strip when the real-life Howard Phillips left his editorial gig at NP for a job at LucasArts in the early 1990s, Nester remained a mainstay in the mag for years (including its 100th and final issues), incidentally promoting the latest Nintendo games by interacting with everyone from the DuckTales cast to the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles in colorful comics that typically ran about two pages. One comic, which just so happens to feature Howard humorously cursing, never made the magazine as it was made for Phillips as a gift. Hardcore collectors needn't content themselves with a mere digital version of the strip unveiled in September, however, as Phillips is auctioning off a rare print of the strip as part of his auction for "The Ultimate Nintendo Power".The package, which includes dozens of Nintendo Power issues and other goodies in addition to two special comic prints, is currently fetching an upwards of $2,000, with a little less than a week left to bid. Here's the official rundown of the Howard & Nester material included in the auction:

- The original "Press Check" for the very first Howard & Nester comic. After this press check sheet was reviewed to ensure the content and color was correct, it was framed by the Nintendo Power staff and given to me as a gift. This is the first print of the Howard & Nester comic.
-The one and only print of the original "Farewell Howard" comic. This comic was never published. It was inked by the original artist, framed by the Nintendo Power team, and given to me as a parting gift when I left Nintendo. Beware: it contains over-the-top-tongue-in-cheek humor not typical of the published comics. NOTE: THIS IS A HIGH-QUALITY PRINT (1 of 1), NOT THE ORIGINAL which I am keeping as a personal memento.

Phillips notes that he's parting with the items to help fund Know-It-All, a memory and trivia mobile game app that didn't quite meet its funding goal on Kickstarter a few months back.

You can take a closer look at the comics content below.