The (Real) Final Howard and Nester Comic unveiled!

When Howard Phillips left Nintendo in 1991, ten years after joining the company and becoming part of the team that steered it through the arcade crash and the ensuing launch and wild success of the NES, one of the things that went with him was Howard and Nester. The comic ran from the first issue of Nintendo Power through volume 25, skipping a couple along the way, and featured a cartoon version of Howard cleverly dispensing tips for popular games to readers in the form of humorous dialogue with the rambunctious and clueless Nester as they traipsed through various game worlds in the style of Captain N. Nester continued his adventures for a while alone after Howard literally rode off into the sunset in volume 25, as depicted above.

As it turns out, though, that wasn’t the REAL end of the story…

Howard Phillips has recently created a Facebook page, in fact mere weeks before the announcement that Nintendo Power would cease publication at the end of this year, and on it he’s been digging into his personal archive of photos and materials from his time at Nintendo and posting various items of interest. When he left Nintendo, he was given a personal final send-off Howard and Nester strip as a gift. It was never published in the magazine (for reasons that will become readily apparent once you read it), and for the first time yesterday he shared it publicly. It is reproduced below (click thumbnail for readable version):

Howard actually posted a few teaser images on the Facebook page leading up to the full reveal, which gave him the opportunity to give a little backstory as to what the go-karting is all about and other context. Head on over there for the full story. One thing I will note here since it’s buried in comments: the Gail referred to within is Gail Tilden, longtime editor of Nintendo Power who left in the early 2000s to work for the Pokémon side of the business.

Come on, weenie! I challenge you!