Zelda BooksAside the the usual game guides published throughout the years, Zelda has had some of its very own literature available for purchased. Sadly, most of these books are now discontinued, though you can sometimes get hold of them through Amazon marketplace sellers second-hand or the online auctions like Ebay. Some of the books are available for download as scanned copies.
The range includes several 'choose your own adventure' style books where the reader could make decisions on how the action panned out, including plenty of alternate endings and puzzles to solve. There's also a novelisation written to coincide with the release of Zelda V: Ocarina of Time, a book all about legend of Zelda through philosophy and much more. Find out more below.
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Moblin's Magic Spear - Jack C. Harris |
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The Crystal Trap (book 9) - Matt Wayne |
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The Shadow Prince (book 10) - Matt Wayne |
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LoZ: Ocarina of Time - Jason R. Rich |
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How to Draw the Legend of Zelda - Michael Teitelbaum & Ron Zalme |
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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - Craig Wessel |
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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons - Craig Wessel |
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The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy - Luke Cuddy |
The Zelda Comics
Back in 1990 in America, several issues of a Zelda comic were published by Valiant. There were 5 issues all together, which contained similar drawings to that of the cartoon, and based on the characters from Zelda I and II. They expanded much more on the Zelda universe and of course, Link and Zelda's relationship (with nods to the cartoon in that sense!). They contained many familiar characters from the games and even Link's family featured and his home country of Calatia. In the Nintendo comics series there was also a Zelda special issue. My favourite all-time issue is number 3, which features the excellent story 'The Power' and part 2 "The Price". It shows the danger of how the Triforce can be easily misused and has one of my favourite Link/Zelda moments.
The full, scanned versions of the comics are available for download below, courtesy of Zelda Legends and Zelda Power. These can be saved to your computer and viewed using any image progam such as windows picture viewer.
Issue 1: February 1990
Synopsis: Stories include "He Also Serves" and "Missing in Action".
Download: Click Here (5.75MB)
Issue 2: March 1990
Synopsis: Stories include "To the First Power" and "Trust Me".
Download: Click Here (5.21MB)
Issue 3: April 1990
Synopsis: Stories include "The Power" and "The Price".
Download: Click Here (5.72MB)
Issue 4: May 1990
Synopsis: Stories include "Queen of Hearts" and "Thief in the Night".
Download: Click Here (5.14MB)
Issue 5: June 1990
Synopsis: Stories include "Coming Home" and "Day of the Triforce".
Download: Click Here (5.41MB)
Issue 7: August 1990 (Nintendo Comic System Zelda Special)
Synopsis: Stories include "Assault" and "Choices".
Download: Click Here (5MB)
After Zelda III: LttP was released, Nintendo Power issued a series of comics based loosely on the game itself and these were given away with the main magazine from January 1992 through to December 1992. They were later also released in a book format in 1993. The comics were written and illustrated by one of Japan's highly regarded comic creators, Shotaro Isinomori.
David Butler of Zelda Legends downloaded the full comic which was available for free at Nintendo's official Zelda Universe site and kindly converted it from pdf into jpg format. I have put all 12 chapters together into one file and it can be downloaded below and saved to your computer.
Details: Written and illustrated by Shotaro Ishinomori
Copyright: Dan Owsen
Synopsis: The full story of A Link to the Past with added details told in 12 chapters.
Download: Click Here (19MB)
Zelda Manga and Doujinshi
In Japan, Zelda is adored by many gamers so much, that a lot of artists produce official Manga comics based on the games, 4 koma manga comic strips and fan comics known as doujinshi. Some of these beautifully illustrated comics can still be purchased but some websites do have scanned (and sometimes even translated) versions for readers to enjoy who otherwise wouldn't ever get to see them.
The official mangas from Ocarina of Time through to Minish Cap are illustrated and written by Akira Himekawa; a collaboration of two women, A. Honda and S. Nagano. I own two Ocarina of Time mangas in this series and they are gorgeous and definitely worth purchasing. There are also Link to the Past and Link's Awakening mangas by Ataru Cagiva. These mangas expand on all the Zelda backstories and often explore character relationships more fully than what the games do.
Some manga can be purchased via certain book stores but unfortunately it can be very expensive. Amazon and Ebay are excellent places to pick the more popular ones up at good prices. You can also purchase all of Akira Himekawa's mangas from North Castle's own shop. Try these sites for tasters;
History of Hyrule
Melora has one of the biggest collections of doujinshi, manga and 4 koma. Her site contains information about them and she is working on a massive project to get as many translated as possible.
Information on all the mangas by Akira Himekawa and Ataru Cagiva.
You can view a translated Adventure of Link-based doujinshi here.
Below are a few more samples of the various mangas. They are nearly almost always in black and white with often only the first few pages being in colour. An important note is mangas always read right to left, rather than left to right and the English versions are in keeping with this Japanese tradition.
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Ocarina of Time Part 1 - Akira Himekawa |
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Ocarina of Time Part 2 - Akira Himekawa |
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Majora's Mask - Akira Himekawa |
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Oracle of Seasons - Akira Himekawa |
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Oracle of Ages - Akira Himekawa |
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Four Swords Part 1 - Akira Himekawa |
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Four Swords Part 2 - Akira Himekawa |
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The Minish Cap - Akira Himekawa |
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A Link to the Past - Akira Himekawa |
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Phantom Hourglass - Akira Himekawa |
