He's been swallowed by giant fish, thrown colored pills at germs, and even gone to the Olympics, but Mario's first comic book appearance is bizarre for even him.

Back in early 1983, Marvel Comics produced a comic called Blip Magazine. Here's one of the coolest covers it ever produced.

This comic had an incredibly short run, but it was filled with celebrity interviews, gaming tips, news, and jokes such as this gem: "Q: What happened with the Atari delivery truck was in an accident? A: De-Fender got dented."

Blip was pretty much the best thing ever, and it was made even better by the introduction of Mario and Donkey Kong comics.

Issue number one (not the one pictured above) was Mario's first comic book appearance. It is a tale of an inept news reporter who tries to interview Mario while Donkey Kong continually kidnaps a nameless princess. In the comic, we learn that Mario is blindly saving the Princess even though he doesn't know her, that Donkey Kong was born out of an experiment to breed gorillas to do construction work, and that Donkey Kong keeps kidnapping the princess because she reminds him of his mother. Pretty creepy, Marvel. The princess ultimately subdues the beast by scratching Donkey Kong behind the ears.

Here's a quick look at the first few pages:

You can also read the whole issue here. It's an interesting look at Mario before he developed the personality that he has today.

[Source: Comic Book Resources]