Supper Mario Broth: A Brief History

If you have followed Supper Mario Broth for longer than a few months, you will likely have seen me, or other readers, mention "the original author of Supper Mario Broth". And if you wanted to find out more about the history behind the blog, how it came to be, and what exactly the original owner and I did, this series of posts is for you.

Before I start, please understand that while the original author has given me full control of the blog and permitted me to post its history, there was one specific request: to not divulge that person's identity. Therefore, I will not refer to that person by name, and instead say "the Creator".

The relationship between the Creator and me has always been, and continues to be, amicable. However, that person simply stopped being interested in Mario at some point and now does not want a name to be attached to the project. I hope you can respect the Creator's decision.

It all started in 2012 when the Creator approached me with the idea of launching a Tumblr blog focused on a variety of Mario content. Knowing how much I love the franchise, the Creator knew I would be the main contributor. For the Creator, the main goal would be to post humorous content; for me, to post factual content. Note that this has never led to any conflict - long-time fans will remember both types of content simply coexisting on the blog.

In this article, I will talk mainly about the creation process of the blog's name, design and icon. In future articles, I will talk about the content that was prevalent in the blog's early days, and the entire history of the blog until the launch of the Patreon campaign.

The first thing we did was choose a name. It needed to be something that showed that there would be a wide variety of Mario content. The Creator suggested "Mario Smorgasbord". I approved of the name and drew a logo.

The font is styled after the logo of Mario Party DS, while the little creatures around the words are Smorgs, enemies from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - to make a pun on "smorgasbord". The blog operated for a few days under that name and logo.

However, both the Creator and I noticed that only a small percentage of viewers would know what Smorgs are, being a rather obscure enemy (in the context of Mario in general). Thus, the name was scrapped and we needed to come up with another, more widely understandable concept.

The Creator suggested to take the phrase "Super Mario Bros." and change it slightly, perhaps to add wordplay, but still be recognizable. After a round of brainstorming producing ideas like "Soapy Mario Bath", we agreed on "Supper Mario Broth".

The idea for a banner was clear: it would be Mario and Luigi eating broth, for supper. However, the icon was less obvious. We struggled to think of what Mario imagery could best represent the idea of "supper" or "broth".

I suggested that we use one of the vegetables from Super Mario Bros. 2 as the icon. The Creator said that it would be better if the icon was not something ripped straight from a game, but a unique graphic that would be associated only with the blog. I drew a pixel artwork of an original vegetable, a radish.

The Creator said this was almost perfect, but save for the eyes, not really recognizable as a Mario item. I had to agree. Finally, the Creator had an idea: to take the Carrot power-up from the monochromatic Game Boy game Super Mario Land 2, and then to colorize it. This way, it would be both a clear reference and a unique piece of artwork due to being in color.

We both decided to colorize it and then compare the results. My coloration was less inspired, with standard green leaves. The Creator's coloration with its striking bluish leaves was immediately eye-catching, and we decided to use it as the blog's icon... which it remains to this day.

I then drew the banner, which is also still in use after minor changes.

The banner contains a few references that might escape some readers. Note the Carrot in Mario's bowl, referencing the icon. The jar in the middle of the table is a Magic Vase from Yoshi's Story, while the cookies on the plate next to it are designs from Yoshi's Cookie.

Thank you very much for reading.