Super Mario Manga Artwork Heads to Auction

In the retro gaming world, original artwork can tell a story that cartridges and boxes cannot. An original hand-drawn Super Mario-kun manga piece, featuring Nintendo's Virtual Boy, is set to go under the hammer through InsertBid.

The artwork was created in the 2000s by Hiroshi Takase, who is also known for illustrations in Pokémon books across the 1990s and 2000s. It was made for the Super Mario-kun manga, a series first released in 2004 that eventually ran to five volumes.

According to RetroDodo, InsertBid describes the item as a physically rendered production artefact made by the artist's own hand using ink, markers, and traditional manga media. That makes it a one-off piece of publishing history, rather than a reproduction.

The illustration shows Super Mario, Princess Peach, and the Virtual Boy, a console that has become a cult favourite among enthusiasts despite its commercial missteps. The piece was featured within one of the manga volumes during its run in Shogakukan's magazines, and it is protected in a collector's frame with Takase's signature stamped for authentication.

InsertBid says bidding opens on 7 July 2026, with a starting price of $50. The auction house also uses an anti-sniping system, which extends the closing time by a few minutes if bids arrive near the end.

For readers following retro gaming news, this is another reminder that physical production material still carries real weight with collectors. If you want more stories like this, see our News tag for the latest updates.