American comic1990–19915 issues + 1Nintendo Comics System

The Legend of Zelda Valiant Comics · 1990–1991 · 5 issues and a sixth

Valiant’s NES-era comic book, in which a red-haired Link and a bow-wielding Zelda guard the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon, and Link finds out he has a family, a homeland and a dark side of his own.

WriterGeorge Caragonne

Issues5 (1990), reprinted and reshuffled as a new #1–5 in 1991

Sixth storyNintendo Comics System #7 (August 1991)

PublisherValiant, in its Nintendo Comics System line

FormatTwo 10-page stories an issue, plus maps and gag pages

Cover price$1.95 (1990); $1.50 (1991 reprints)

Title	The Legend of Zelda (the indicia reads Link: The Legend of Zelda)
Publisher	Valiant (Voyager Communications), under licence from Nintendo of America
Line	Nintendo Comics System
Writer	George Caragonne (every story)
Artists credited	Rudy Nebres, Ken Lopez, Art Nichols, Rodney Ramos, Don Hudson, Richard Rockwell, Mark Pacella, Andy Mushynsky, Martin King and others; the credits also name Jade and The Gradations
Issues	#1–5 (1990); reprint series #1–5 (1991); the would-be #6 as Nintendo Comics System #7 (August 1991)
Length	24 pages an issue in 1990
Cover price	$1.95 US / $2.50 Canada (1990); $1.50 US / $1.95 Canada (1991)
ISSN	1049-1481
Based on	The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II, and loosely on the 1989 cartoon
Language	English (North America); never translated, as far as we know

Overview

While NES owners waited for a third Zelda game, American readers could already find out what Link and Zelda got up to between adventures. The Legend of Zelda was one of the comics in the Nintendo Comics System, the licensed line that Valiant (the company Jim Shooter, Marvel’s former editor-in-chief, had set up in 1989) published for younger readers in 1990 and 1991. Five issues appeared in 1990, each built around two ten-page stories, and George Caragonne wrote every one of them.

This is not a retelling of either NES game. The stories are set after Zelda II: Link lives at the North Palace as Zelda’s protector, the princess keeps the Triforce of Wisdom, Ganon holds the Triforce of Power, and the Triforce of Courage dwells in Link’s heart. The look nods to the DiC cartoon that was then on television (King Harkinian on the throne, a cameo for the fairy Spryte), but the tone is a good deal more serious. Ganon fools a whole village, Bagu turns thief, Link is corrupted by the Triforce of Power and starts to turn into a pig-faced copy of his enemy, and a trip home to the kingdom of Calatia ends in a trial by combat against his own shadow.

In 1991 Valiant reprinted the run as a new five-issue series, shuffling the stories between issues, dropping one and adding one, and the sixth Zelda issue that never came turned up instead as Nintendo Comics System #7. Four of its stories were collected in Valiant’s hardcover The Best of the Nintendo Comics System, and the reviewers who have gone back to it rate it well above the cartoon it borrowed from, not least because its Zelda fights her own battles.

Issue guide

The guide follows the original 1990 printing, issue by issue. Each issue paired two ten-page stories with a page or two of extras: maps, character profiles and gag strips in which Link and Zelda talk straight to the reader. Every story was written by George Caragonne. The 1990 issues carried no cover date (sources that give months disagree, so we leave them out), and the 1991 reprints mixed the stories up again; see Editions for how.

The covers are the ones Zelda Wiki files as “Volume 1” to “Volume 6”. Because the 1991 reprints swapped the covers of #2 and #4, the art shown for those two issues may come from either printing.

#1

Issue #1: “Missing in Action” and “Trust Me”

1990 · 24 pages · $1.95 · with “The Legend of Zelda” (2-page prologue) and “The Compleat Hero” (1-page gag) · cover shown at the top of this page

A two-page prologue sets out who is who before “Missing in Action” starts with Zelda making a drastic decision. As long as she holds the Triforce of Wisdom, Ganon will keep attacking Hyrule, so she means to take it far away with the help of a magic whistle. Link, back from a quest, finds her gone and catches up just as Ganon’s forces do. The whistle lies in a chamber whose guardian, an Ironknuckle, will only let the bearer of the Triforce of Courage through, so Link has to fight his way in to fetch the thing that will take her from him. He does it anyway; and in the end Zelda decides that the safest place for her and the Triforce is beside him, and stays.

In “Trust Me” the pair follow Ganon to the village of Saria, where he has passed himself off as the villagers’ friend and Link as the liar. He has secretly cursed the land so that the crops fail, wrecks the heroes’ plan to water the fields with a dam, and, when a boy starts asking awkward questions, turns the crowd on Link and Zelda. Once the villagers see Ganon for what he is, Link uses the dam to beat him, and Saria makes its peace with the heroes. The filler page, “The Compleat Hero”, is a one-page gag.

From game to page

• Zelda keeps the Triforce of Wisdom herself and makes her own choices; in the NES games she is a captive (the first game) or asleep under a curse (Zelda II).
• Saria is one of the towns of Zelda II, and Ironknuckles are that game’s armoured knights; the comic mixes both games freely.
• Ganon as a smooth-talking con man who works on public opinion is the comic’s own idea: in the games he only waits at the end.

Issue #2: “He Also Serves” and “Thief in the Night”

1990 · 24 pages · $1.95 · with “Zelda’s Consumer Tips” and “Impa’s Info”

In “He Also Serves” Impa warns that if Link leaves the North Palace, Ganon will take Hyrule, and Zelda makes him promise to stay put whatever happens. Ganon then throws everything at that promise. Trick follows trick, including one that convinces Link that Zelda has been captured, and Link, miserable, keeps his word. A single slip gives Ganon away, and the trap he built for Link ends up catching him instead. It is a neat story about a hero whose hardest job is doing nothing.

“Thief in the Night” brings back Bagu, the man from the woods who helped Link in Zelda II. He arrives at the North Palace as a guest just as somebody starts trying to steal the Triforce of Wisdom, and the somebody is Bagu: Ganon has kidnapped his giant pet frogs and wants the Triforce as ransom. Link trusts him, is fooled, works it out and then does the decent thing, lending Bagu his power-boosting Handy Glove so he can rescue the frogs himself. Bagu keeps his word this time, though he leaves Link waiting long enough to doubt it. On the lighter side, Link serenades Zelda, who takes the noise for an animal in pain.

From game to page

• The North Palace, where Zelda II begins, is the heroes’ home; the cartoon called it North Castle.
• Bagu has one small job in Zelda II (his note gets Link over the river at Saria); here he carries a whole story.
• The Handy Glove is a Zelda II item that lets Link smash blocks; the comic treats it as a strength booster.

Issue #3: “The Power” and “The Price”

1990 · 24 pages · $1.95 · with “Secrets of the Triforce”, “The Adventurer Link” and “The Legendary Zelda”

The series’ big two-parter. In “The Power” Link and Zelda go after a magic trophy that Ganon has stolen from the town of Ruto. Darknuts attack in numbers, and Link pushes Zelda to safety by way of a Wallmaster. He finds the trophy in the room where Ganon keeps the Triforce of Power, and the moment he touches it the Triforce surges into him. He breaks out, drives Ganon off and, now set on finishing him for good, demands Zelda’s Triforce of Wisdom. She refuses, and he walks away.

In “The Price” Link follows Ganon to the Palace of Parapa, where the Goriyas offer to serve him and hand him a robe like Ganon’s. Ganon means it as a trick to weaken him, but the Triforce of Power now favours its new bearer, and even the leader of the Darknuts changes sides. The Triforce of Wisdom tells Zelda that nothing short of Link’s death will stop him. She will not; she tells him she loves him; and when he turns his power on her, the Triforce of Courage leaves his heart to shield hers. A mirror shows Link that he is becoming a pig-faced copy of Ganon, and he throws the Triforce of Power away. That act of courage brings the Triforce of Courage back to him and breaks the spell. Afterwards, naturally, Zelda denies she said anything of the sort.

From game to page

• Nothing in the games has Link take up the Triforce of Power, let alone be changed by it; the comic makes the three pieces almost characters in their own right.
• The stolen trophy echoes Zelda II, in which a Goriya steals the Trophy from Ruto and Link wins it back.
• Parapa Palace is the first palace of Zelda II; Darknuts, Goriyas and Wallmasters come from the first game’s dungeons.

Issue #4: “To the First Power” and “It’s Good to Be the King”

1990 · 24 pages · $1.95 · with “Hyrule: The Overworld” (map) and “The North Palace”

Zelda gets the lead in “To the First Power”. Sick of Ganon’s endless attempts on the Triforce of Wisdom, she decides to train, and goes into the Eagle Labyrinth to test herself against his monsters. When she comes out, she finds Link caught in a Wizzrobe’s trap, and this time it is the princess who does the rescuing.

The second story, “It’s Good to Be the King”, is the comedy of the run: King Harkinian hands Link his crown and makes him ruler of Hyrule for a while, and a fairy that TV Tropes and Zelda Wiki identify as the cartoon’s Spryte turns up alongside the comic’s own fairy, Miff. It is also the one story Valiant left out when it reprinted the series in 1991. The extras are a map of the overworld and a feature on the North Palace.

We have found only brief outlines of this issue’s stories, so we have kept to them.

From game to page

• The Eagle is the first of the first game’s labyrinths, named for its shape on the map.
• Zelda clears a dungeon on her own, years before the games let her fight.
• King Harkinian’s name comes from the 1989 cartoon, not from a game.

Issue #5: “The Day of the Triforce” and “Coming Home”

1990 · 24 pages · $1.95 · with “Hyrule: The Overworld”, “Secrets of the Triforce” and a mock advert for Ambrosia Lite

Both stories take place on the Day of the Triforce, the one day each decade when all three pieces vanish. In “The Day of the Triforce” Ganon, powerless without his piece, attacks anyway to keep the heroes busy. With Link away, Zelda frees Saria from his troops on her own. Rus, the boy from issue #1, has been bitten by a rope snake, and his mother Cassiopia, a healer, cannot save him without a fairy’s help. Cornering Ganon, Zelda comes upon the fairy Miff as well, and has to choose between settling the score and saving the boy. She chooses the boy.

Link is the one away from home. In “Coming Home” he visits his parents in Calatia, and his father knocks him down and throws him out; the rest of the kingdom is just as cold, though Link is still on good terms with the queen. The cause is sitting on the throne: Link’s double, his Shadow, who locks Link and Queen Seline in a tower and means to execute them both. Seline demands a trial by combat and names Link to fight for her. Shadow tries to lure him away with word that Zelda needs him, but Link has given the queen his word, and even without the Triforce of Courage he exposes and beats his double. The reviewer at BW Media Spotlight points out that the two stories are printed in the wrong order.

From game to page

• Link has a living family and a homeland, neither of which the NES games mention.
• Shadow, the double Link fights at the end of Zelda II, returns as a plotter with a kingdom to steal.
• The vanishing Triforce, the kingdom of Calatia and Queen Seline are inventions of the comic.

The would-be #6: Nintendo Comics System #7, “Assault”

Cover date August 1991 · $1.50 US / $1.95 Canada · issue 7 of the 1991 Nintendo Comics System series

There was no Legend of Zelda #6. Instead, the next Zelda story appeared in the seventh issue of Valiant’s 1991 series Nintendo Comics System, whose first four issues had reprinted the Game Boy comic; the Video Game History Foundation catalogues it as Nintendo Comics System featuring The Legend of Zelda. Collectors went looking for a sixth issue that does not exist, and sources such as CBR and Key Collector Comics now treat this one as the sixth instalment.

The story is “Assault”. The only outline we have found (from the comicbooks.com database, which credits it to the Grand Comics Database) has Zelda, believing Link to be dead, escaping and fighting her way through a dungeon to defeat Ganon, which makes it a fitting send-off for this version of the princess. The same database credits George Caragonne (writer), Rodney Ramos (art), Dan Panosian (inks), The Gradations (colours) and Ken Lopez (letters).

CBR says Valiant’s last Zelda issue shows Link and Zelda on a date, and Kotaku mentions a two-part story in which they go on a date and Link ends up in a bar fight; TV Tropes names a story “The Perfect Date”. We have not been able to confirm where that story was printed.

Our caption

• Zelda Wiki files this cover as “Volume 6”. As the series had only five issues of its own, we take it to be the cover of Nintendo Comics System #7, but we have not been able to check the file itself.

The story as a whole

Valiant’s Zelda is a status-quo series with a slow-burning romance running through it. Home is the North Palace, where Link, Zelda, Impa and King Harkinian live; Ganon is beaten again and again but never destroyed, and the Triforce of Wisdom stays safe. What changes from issue to issue is how much the reader learns about the two leads.

Zelda is the bigger surprise. She is a princess who makes decisions (to flee Hyrule in #1, to train in #4), fights with a bow and sometimes a sword, and puts a sick child ahead of revenge in #5. Link is a hothead with a strong sense of honour; his promises (to stay at the palace, to fight for Queen Seline) drive two of the best stories, and his darkest moment, when the Triforce of Power turns him against Zelda, is resolved by an act of courage rather than a fight.

Between them runs the question the cartoon only ever played for laughs. Link keeps trying for a kiss and never gets one, but here the reader is let in on the fact that the feeling is mutual: Zelda says she loves him in #3, at the worst possible moment, and then denies it. Reviewers have singled out Zelda’s competence and the two-parter that contains that scene as the comic’s strongest points, though BW Media Spotlight called her denial the only disappointment.

Stories that never ran

Valiant had more Zelda stories in the pipeline than it printed. The Fandom Zelda wiki, citing Valiant Firsts, and CBR both list stories that were dropped: “The Fortress”, in which a mortally wounded Link has to win the trust of a healer held in a fortress; “Kiss Me, Princess!”, in which a mission is rewarded with the long-promised kiss; a pair called “Point of View” and “Another Point of View” about a runaway spell; and “Small Problem”, in which Zelda is shrunk. As far as these sources know, none of them was ever published.

Characters

The comic’s cast mixes the two NES games, the 1989 cartoon and a good many inventions of its own. In the table, the last column says where each character comes from and what the comic changed.

Character	Who they are	In the cartoon	Voice
LinkThe hero	The hero of the NES games, now living at the North Palace as Zelda’s protector. Red-haired and brown-eyed, and the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, which lives in his heart.	Hot-headed, proud of his word and always after a kiss. Corrupted by the Triforce of Power in #3, made king for a while in #4, disowned and imprisoned in his own homeland in #5.	The NES games give Link no family and no home town; the comic gives him both, in the kingdom of Calatia.
Princess ZeldaPrincess of Hyrule	King Harkinian’s daughter and keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, which sometimes speaks to her.	An archer who also handles a sword, plays hard to get and leads several stories on her own, from her escape plan in #1 to the dungeon of “Assault”.	A captive or a sleeper in the NES games; here a full partner in the fighting.
GanonThe villain	Holder of the Triforce of Power and would-be ruler of Hyrule, who keeps his pig face hidden under a hood.	A schemer and a liar more than a brute: he turns Saria against the heroes, holds Bagu’s frogs hostage and tries to make Link into a second Ganon.	In the NES games he is the final enemy and little more; the comic gives him plans and disguises.
ImpaMentor	Zelda’s elderly nursemaid.	The heroes’ adviser, whose warning sets up “He Also Serves”, and the star of the “Impa’s Info” pages.	From the first game’s story, in which she is Zelda’s nursemaid and the one who asks Link for help.
King HarkinianKing of Hyrule	Zelda’s father, who rules from the North Palace.	More capable than his cartoon self, and generous enough to lend Link his crown in “It’s Good to Be the King”.	Name and role borrowed from the 1989 cartoon.
BaguReluctant thief	The man from the woods who helps Link in Zelda II.	Visits the North Palace in #2 and tries to steal the Triforce of Wisdom because Ganon has kidnapped his giant pet frogs.	Promoted from a one-scene helper in Zelda II to the centre of a story.
MiffFairy	A fairy loyal to Zelda and often prickly with Link; artists drew her differently from story to story.	Turns up in “It’s Good to Be the King” and is found by Zelda when she tracks down Ganon in “The Day of the Triforce”.	Invented for the comic.
SpryteFairy (cameo)	The tiny fairy from the 1989 DiC cartoon.	Appears alongside Miff in “It’s Good to Be the King”, according to TV Tropes; one of the comic’s maps marks her spring.	Not from a game: a borrowing from the cartoon.
Captain KrinGuard captain	Captain of the guard at the palace.	Will put himself in harm’s way for the princess, but stays in the background.	Invented for the comic.
Arn and MediliaLink’s parents	Link’s father and mother, who live in Calatia.	Ambrosia Lite, the drink in the mock advert in #5, is made on their land. In “Coming Home” Arn, fooled by Shadow, punches his son and throws him out.	Invented for the comic: a living family for Link.
Queen SelineQueen of Calatia	Ruler of Calatia, Link’s homeland.	Imprisoned by Shadow in #5 and saved by Link as her champion. In the reprint-only story “Queen of Hearts” Zelda suspects her, wrongly; TV Tropes reads the story as hinting that she is Zelda’s mother.	Invented for the comic.
ShadowLink’s double	Link’s dark twin.	Takes Link’s place in Calatia, turns his family against him and seizes the throne in “Coming Home”.	The silent final opponent of Zelda II, given a voice and a scheme.
Cassiopia and RusHealer and son	A healer and her young son.	Rus, the boy from issue #1, is bitten by a rope snake in “The Day of the Triforce”, and his mother cannot cure him alone.	Invented for the comic.
Catherine and StormHorses	Link’s horse and Zelda’s.	The heroes’ mounts.	Invented for the comic, eight years before Epona.

From game to comic

Valiant did not adapt a game; it built a sequel series on top of two of them. In 1990 there were only two Zelda games in the shops, and the comic uses both as a shared world, adding a dash of the cartoon that was showing on television at the same time.

Taken from the games

• Setting. The stories happen after Zelda II, with Link living at that game’s North Palace. Towns from Zelda II (Saria, Ruto) and its first palace (Parapa) share the stage with the first game’s Eagle labyrinth.
• The three Triforces. The cartoon only ever had two pieces; the comic includes the Triforce of Courage that Zelda II had introduced, and makes it part of Link himself.
• Monsters. Moblins, Darknuts, Goriyas, Wallmasters, Wizzrobes and rope snakes from the first game; Ironknuckles, Dairas and Link’s Shadow from the second.
• Characters and items. Impa, Bagu, the Trophy of Ruto and the Handy Glove all come from the games, though usually with a new job to do.

Taken from the cartoon

• The name King Harkinian, and a king who is a visible, active part of the story.
• A cameo for Spryte, the cartoon’s fairy.
• The basic set-up of Link as live-in guardian of Zelda’s Triforce, always angling for a kiss. The comic plays it straighter, though: reviewers note that the bickering is replaced by mutual respect.

The comic’s own

• Calatia, Link’s homeland, with his parents Arn and Medilia and its ruler Queen Seline.
• New regulars: Captain Krin of the guard, the fairy Miff, and the horses Catherine and Storm.
• The Day of the Triforce, when all three pieces vanish once a decade, and the idea that the Triforce of Power can corrupt whoever holds it.
• Ambrosia Lite, a drink with its own fake advert.
• A Zelda who goes on quests alone, nearly a decade before Ocarina of Time put her in disguise as Sheik.

None of this counts as official history. Nintendo’s timeline in Hyrule Historia takes in only the games, and Link’s Calatian family appears nowhere else.

Who made it

Valiant and the Nintendo Comics System

Valiant was founded in October 1989 by Jim Shooter and the lawyer and businessman Steven Massarsky, through their company Voyager Communications. Before it made its name with superheroes (its first, Magnus, Robot Fighter, is cover-dated May 1991), it published a children’s line of licensed WWF and Nintendo comics, which Western Publishing distributed to big chain stores and toy shops such as Kmart, Walmart and Toys “R” Us. The Nintendo titles, sold under the Nintendo Comics System banner, covered Super Mario Bros., Game Boy, Captain N and The Legend of Zelda, with stories for Metroid and Punch-Out!! inside other books. The line ran through 1990 and 1991.

George Caragonne

George Caragonne (1965–1995), from San Antonio, Texas, had broken into comics at Marvel in the mid-1980s and learned the trade under Shooter, writing for Marvel and its children’s imprint Star Comics (Masters of the Universe, Planet Terry) as well as Star Brand. When Shooter set up Valiant, Caragonne drove across the country to join him, and he wrote much of the Nintendo line, including Captain N, Punch-Out!! and every Zelda story, while holding down a full-time job. He later co-founded Penthouse Comix, and died in July 1995 at the age of 29.

The artists

The issues credit a long list of artists, mostly without saying who did what, and different teams drew each story. These are the names given for each story by TheVideoGameLibrary’s catalogue of the 1991 printings and by the BW Media Spotlight reviews. Jade and The Gradations turn up in most of the credits; on Nintendo Comics System #7 The Gradations are credited with the colours.

We have no credits for “To the First Power”, “It’s Good to Be the King” or “The Day of the Triforce” that we can confirm, and the roles in the table are given only where a source states them.

Editions

The 1990 issues

The Legend of Zelda #1–5 came out in 1990 at $1.95 (US) or $2.50 (Canada), 24 pages each, with Link: The Legend of Zelda as the title in the indicia. Zelda Dungeon says these first printings carried no cover date at all, which may be why the sources disagree so much about when they came out: Zelda Central runs them from May to September 1990 (Atomic Avenue agrees for #1–3, the only issues it dates), while the Fandom wiki and Kotaku start the series in February 1990.

The 1991 reprint series

In 1991 Valiant put the stories out again as a second five-issue series, cut to $1.50 (US) or $1.95 (Canada). These issues did carry cover dates, in the first half of 1991 (the Video Game History Foundation’s catalogue has #3 as April, #4 as May and #5 as June 1991), and TheVideoGameLibrary lists them at 34 to 36 pages. They are easy to tell apart from the originals: each reprint cover adds a date, sets the number and price in taller type and lays out the NINTENDO COMICS SYSTEM banner differently, and #2 and #4 have each other’s cover art.

Inside, the stories were regrouped. “It’s Good to Be the King” was dropped from the reprint series (though it was collected in The Best of the Nintendo Comics System), and #4 gained a story that had not been in the 1990 issues, “Queen of Hearts”, in which Zelda wrongly suspects Queen Seline of Calatia.

Stories from the Fandom wiki’s issue table and TheVideoGameLibrary; extras from TheVideoGameLibrary, whose list for #2 is incomplete.

Nintendo Comics System #7

The 1991 Nintendo Comics System was a nine-issue series that ran from February to October 1991, and the first four issues reprinted Valiant’s Game Boy comic. Issue 7, cover-dated August 1991 and priced at $1.50, is the Zelda one, and it is where the story that would have filled The Legend of Zelda #6 ended up. Key Collector Comics notes the confusion this caused among collectors looking for a missing sixth issue.

Since then

Four of the Zelda stories (“Trust Me”, “The Power”, “The Price” and “It’s Good to Be the King”) were collected in Valiant’s hardcover The Best of the Nintendo Comics System, according to the Super Mario Wiki’s contents list; we have found no translation or digital release, and Valiant’s Nintendo comics came to an end in 1991. Copies of the original issues now change hands as collectors’ items.

Reception

The comic has picked up a small, warm following in recent years. In 2015 ShadowWing Tronix of BW Media Spotlight reviewed four of the five issues and called it the best series in the Nintendo Comics System, praising the way it swaps the cartoon’s sparring for a relationship built on respect. Issue #3 was the reviewer’s favourite, and the one to start with; #2 was judged a good story followed by a weaker one, because Bagu’s turn did little to win the reviewer over; and #5 was a really good issue, despite running its stories in the wrong order.

Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett, writing in 2012, was struck by how far ahead of the games the comic’s Zelda was: an adventurer who needs no rescuing, almost a decade before Ocarina of Time. He also liked the more serious tone and the world-building, from Calatia to an early outing for Shadow Link. In 2020 CBR gave the series a trivia feature of its own.

Trivia

• 

  Issue #5 carries a mock advert for Ambrosia Lite, a drink made on the land of Link’s parents. TV Tropes reads it as a send-up of beer commercials, and CBR notes that the brew, pitched as a warrior’s drink, has no magic in it at all.

• 

  The comic raids both NES bestiaries. Alongside the first game’s Moblins, Darknuts and Goriyas come Zelda II’s Ironknuckles and Dairas, the axe-throwing lizard men.

• 

  Ganon’s hostages in “Thief in the Night” are Bagu’s pets, his giant frogs, and the story only turns when Link confronts his guest and works out why the Triforce keeps going missing.
• There is no missing sixth issue. The story that would have filled it came out as Nintendo Comics System #7 in August 1991, which is why collectors once went looking for a Legend of Zelda #6 that was never printed.
• In “The Price”, the second story of issue #3, Zelda tells Link in so many words that she loves him. By the end of the story she is denying it.
• Link’s shadow had been the last thing he fought in Zelda II. Valiant gave the double a voice and a plan in “Coming Home”, more than a decade before Shadow Link returned as a scheming villain in the Four Swords games.
• “Queen of Hearts” is the odd one out: a new story that first appeared in the 1991 reprint of #4, in the slot left by the dropped “It’s Good to Be the King”.
• The heroes live at the North Palace, the name Zelda II used, rather than the cartoon’s North Castle: a detail that earned the comic a point from at least one reviewer.
• This Ganon keeps his pig face hidden under a hood, a choice that puzzled the same reviewer.

Further reading

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against the sources below.