Original 1981 Donkey Kong Artwork Featuring Mario’s First Public Appearance Sells for $329,400
A piece of original Nintendo artwork tied to the very beginning of Mario’s history has sold for $329,400 at Landry Pop Auctions. The 1981 Donkey Kong North American Arcade Flyer Original Art by illustrator Leslie Cabarga had been estimated at $100,000 to $150,000 before the October 28 sale. The final price more than doubled the high estimate.
Landry Pop describes the work as representing the first public appearance of the character who would eventually become Mario. Created for Nintendo’s North American promotional flyer for Donkey Kong, the artwork shows the hero then known as Jumpman alongside Donkey Kong and Pauline.
The original measures approximately 19 7/8 by 16 3/8 inches and was created using acrylic on acetate over ink and airbrush on cardstock board. According to the auction house, Nintendo commissioned the artwork in 1981 through the advertising agency Dentsu. Cabarga’s depictions of Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong were also later used on the front of Ralston Purina’s Donkey Kong cereal box.
The artwork dates to a pivotal moment for Nintendo in the United States. Donkey Kong arrived in arcades in 1981 after Nintendo’s Radar Scope had failed to gain traction in the American market. Shigeru Miyamoto developed Donkey Kong as a new game that could make use of the company’s unsold arcade hardware, introducing Jumpman in the process. Jumpman would soon take the name Mario. Landry Pop notes that the new name was inspired by Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America’s Washington warehouse, and became firmly established with Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982. Mario Bros. followed in 1983, before Super Mario Bros. arrived for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.
The history of the physical artwork may be nearly as interesting to collectors as the image itself. It came from the collection of Donna Darbous, a former Nintendo of America advertising executive. Landry Pop says Darbous noticed original Nintendo illustrations among materials being thrown away during an office expansion in the late 1980s. With permission from her supervisor, she saved several pieces.
Darbous later stored the artwork away and did not rediscover the archive until decades later. According to the auction house, the Nintendo pieces had been tucked inside the flat drawers of a coffee table alongside prewar lithographs she had collected during travels in the Czech Republic.
The collection included other surviving examples of Nintendo production and promotional art from the period when the company and its characters were rapidly becoming fixtures of American popular culture. Another piece from the same collection, original Mario and Luigi production artwork dating to around the 1985 release of Super Mario Bros., sold for $17,080 against an estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. Original promotional artwork created for Nintendo’s 1982 Mickey & Donald Game & Watch sold for $10,980.