The Mother video game series (known as EarthBound in the west) might have concluded, but it seems that something comic book related might be happening with the franchise, as Shigesato Itoi's company has put out a tweet asking for manga artists who like the Mother series.
Mother is the name of a trilogy of games spanning the NES, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy Advance. The three Mother games are kooky RPGs that use contemporary (for their time) settings. The original Mother game was localized as EarthBound Beginnings on the Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console, the second Mother game became EarthBound on the Super Nintendo, and Mother 3 has yet to receive an official localization. Series creator Shigesato Itoi has said that he is finished with Mother, but characters like Ness and Lucas still make their way into the Super Smash Bros. franchise.
It seems that there is something related to the EarthBound/Mother franchise in the works. The official Twitter page for Hobonichi (the company owned by Itoi) has uploaded a tweet asking for manga artists who like the Mother series to get in touch. According to Siliconera, no further information about the nature of the project was given.
It might seem as if this advert could be for a comic book adaptation of the Mother trilogy, but the project could be any number of things. It's possible that Itoi wants to make a manga about the development of the Mother series, in a similar manner to the Satoshi Tajiri manga that chronicled the creation of Pokémon. It's also possible that an artist might be needed to create new illustrations of the Mother series characters for merchandise, as Hobonichi releases a lot of items related to the franchise.
The EarthBound/Mother series may be over, but its spirit lives on in games like Undertale and the Lisa trilogy. Itoi has said on many occasions that he is done with the Mother series and even Nintendo seems reticent to rerelease the games, but this new Twitter post offers a sliver of hope that new Mother content could be on the way.
Source: Hobonichi Shinbun/Twitter, Siliconera