I’m willing to bet there are more than a few Zelda fans among my readers. It’s one of Videogames’ most storied franchises and means as much to the childhoods of many as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Recently, on a forum I frequent, the members there started compiling some of the wonderful art produced for the series, officially or fan-made, and it made me bloody nostalgic.

I’ve gathered together some of my favourite images from that thread, all illustrated by fans of the series:

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good!

And some great thinking-outside-the-box portraits of the ubiquitous hero of the series:

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good!

And, then… there’s this:

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good!

Truly the stuff of nightmares.

Many more images can be found at this link.

Discussion
  • […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Aidan Moher, Tor.com Fantasy. Tor.com Fantasy said: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA has never looked so good! Lots of great artwork: http://bit.ly/eoXA8q […]

  • Meghan February 15, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Wow, some of these are truly fantastic. That first one in particular just feels perfectly Zelda to me. These are making me nostalgic too!

  • Liz February 15, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    Thanks for posting these! :)

  • Shane February 16, 2011 at 6:50 am

    Did said forum post original Links? Most likely Deviant Art, but Links would be great to credit the source / artist. I want to buy a print of the first one to have framed and hung in my home library.

  • aidan February 16, 2011 at 6:58 am

    @Shane — The first piece is actually the only one I *do* have a source for. It’s by Chris Newman, whose artwork I posted about on Monday, and can be viewed on his DeviantArt profile.

  • M. McGriff February 16, 2011 at 7:38 am

    Sweet!! Loving these especially the collage with the characters. Totally cool!

  • Kevin February 16, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    The first one is amazing.

  • Shane February 17, 2011 at 7:59 am

    Aidan – Thanks!

  • Juhan February 18, 2011 at 9:10 am

    These look great! On an semi-related note: for some reason my favorite Zelda games are always the ones where Link is away from Hyrule (in some parallel universe or something) Majoras Mask, Links Awakening, etc.

    Hyrule locations get repetitive after a while. Anyone else agree with me on this?