Bananaman

Bananaman is a British comic book fictional character. Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, being portrayed as a schoolboy who is transformed into a muscled, caped figure when he eats a banana. The character originally appeared in Nutty as the backpage strip in Issue 1, dated 16 February 1980 drawn by John Geering. He has since appeared in The Dandy and The Beano.

Original strip

The original strip, by Dave Donaldson^[1] and Steve Bright, written and developed by the latter, and mostly drawn by John Geering until his death in 1999, is essentially a parody of Superman and Batman with shades of Captain Marvel and his British twin, Marvelman and occasionally other Silver Age characters, while also combining comic slapstick with a heavy dose of eccentric British humour similar to Alan Moore's contemporary work on Captain Britain.

After John Geering died in 1999, Barrie Appleby took over and later Tom Paterson. In 2003, the original scriptwriter, Steve Bright drew it, until 2007. Sporadically from 2007 to 2010 the character appeared in reprinted strips from the John Geering era. For a short time, in late 2008, artist Chris McGhie reinvented Bananaman in a series of new strips. Chris' other work included The Three Bears for The Beano (in 2002) and the characters on Yoplait's 'Wildlife' product range. Two new strips appeared that year drawn by Barrie Appleby as well.

Since the Dandy revamp occurring in October 2010, Wayne Thompson took over drawing Bananaman in a style reminiscent of French cartoonist Lisa Mandel, a popular artist in The Dandy who has previously drawn Jak, Agent Dog 2-Zero and, occasionally, Bully Beef and Chips. In Issue 3515, Wayne's style notably changes and looks more cartoony and detailed. As of spring 2011, Thompson's version of Bananaman appears in full colour over two pages.

From 1983–1986, Bananaman also had his own annual. This was unusual because, unlike many other comics at the time, Nutty never had an annual. Unlike Dennis the Menace and Bash Street Kids, which mostly consisted of reprints these annuals were entirely new material.

In issue 3618, dated 14 January 2012, Bananaman made his debut appearance, as John Geering reprints, in The Beano, however he continued to appear in The Dandy. Another Beano character, Bananagirl of Super School, was revealed to be his cousin.

The Dandy print comic ended in December 2012, but Bananaman is still seen in the digital version drawn by Andy Janes. New Bananaman strips drawn by Wayne Thompson and written by Nigel Auchterlounie, Kev F Sutherland and lately Cavan Scott continue to run in The Beano through 2014.

Character

In the strip, Eric Wimp, an ordinary schoolboy living at 29 Acacia Road, Nuttytown (later changed to Dandytown and then Beanotown when the strip moved to other comics), eats a banana to transform into Bananaman, an adult superhero, sporting a distinctive cowled blue and yellow outfit complete with a yellow two-tailed cape resembling a banana skin. His superpowers include the ability to fly, superhuman strength (often quoted as "twenty men... twenty big men" but sometimes limitless, with "nerks", "women" and "snowmen" all being used in place of "men"), and seeming invulnerability. This is offset by the fact that he is just as naive and foolish (if not more so) as his alter ego; as mentioned in the comic once or twice, he has the "muscles of twenty men and the brains of twenty mussels".

If Bananaman needs extra power, bananas can be eaten for strength boosts, provided by his faithful pet crow; if he does not have enough strength to shatter an ice block, for example, after eating another banana, he will have enough. If he eats lots of bananas in one sitting, he quickly becomes obese in his transformation; if he eats bananas that are not full, he transforms with extra weight in the lower part of his body. There have also been comics where he has eaten a variant on normal bananas, and transforms differently, reflecting the difference in that banana. The effects of eating the bananas are not consistent from story to story.

Varying origins

Eric was rocketed to Earth from the moon as a baby, and gained his powers because the crescent moon resembles a banana. Bananaman resembles Superman in two respects. Firstly, he has a kryptonite-style weakness to mouldy bananas. Furthermore, he even has a Fortress of Solitude-style building at the North Pole, made out of a giant banana. During early board meetings, the designers thought of the aspect of Bananagirl to accompany the series. The girl would have been called Margaret Wimp, and be the "sister" of Eric. This idea was scrapped later on in production, because the concept of two children being related without parents would be too far-fetched for children to understand, however the idea was revived for a Beano comic strip.

In the 1991 Dandy Annual, Bananaman's origin was changed to that of being a normal Earth baby in a maternity hospital, who obtained his powers after unintentionally eating a banana in which General Blight had hidden a stolen supply of Saturnium (presumably similar to uranium, neptunium or plutonium), and accidentally left it next to Eric. However, later issues referred to the first origin as the real one.

Other characters

Bananaman initially faced a different pastiche supervillain each week, who were often lampoons of the kind of single-issue, uncreatively-named villains that heroes fought during the Silver Age, or tips-of-the-hat to famous supervillains. Bananaman's arch enemy is General Blight, a parody of Adolf Hitler and generic criminal mastermind who in later strips largely replaced the criminal-of-the-week.

The strip's medium-subverting elements became toned down as the strip gained in popularity, becoming more simplistic to appeal to the new audience. Bananaman gained a talking crow sidekick called simply Crow, and became so stupid he often forgot how to fly or to use the door. Eventually, Bananaman even began to go to school despite being an adult.

Bananaman is allied with Chief O'Reilly, a stereotyped Irish policeman (apparently in homage to Batman's James Gordon or the equally stereotyped Chief O'Hara in the 1960s Batman TV series). He used to wear an Indian feather headdress as a visual pun on Chief, and in later strips wore a hat with a flashing blue light on the top. Chief works in a police station shaped like a giant police helmet, which frequently has to be rebuilt after Bananaman accidentally destroys it. O'Reilly rings up Eric to get him to talk to Bananaman, presumably thinking Eric is Bananaman's assistant of some kind, as in the cartoon series it is made clear that the Chief is not aware of Eric's being the superhero.

Television cartoon series

In 1983, the BBC made a cartoon series which included a catchy theme tune and featured the voices of The Goodies. It was produced by Flicks Films and DC Thomson's Other Classics for Abbey Home Entertainment in association with Jim Henson Productions. Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge, had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader based on Selina Scott and also a possible homage to Lois Lane.

Graeme Garden (incorrectly credited as Greame Garden on some episodes) voiced the characters of Bananaman, General Blight and Maurice of The Heavy Mob, Bill Oddie voiced the characters of Crow, Chief O'Reilly, Doctor Gloom and the Weatherman, and Tim Brooke-Taylor voiced the characters of Eric, King Zorg of the Nerks, Eddie the Gent, Auntie and Appleman, as well as narrating the episodes. Jill Shilling voiced Fiona and any additional female characters, including Eric's cousin Samantha (but not Auntie). It lasted for forty episodes between 3 October 1983 and 15 April 1986.

Bananaman was aired in the United States by the Nickelodeon cable network as a companion piece to Danger Mouse, but Bananaman never came close to reaching that series' American popularity. The show also aired during the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) after school timeslot and is considered one of the Classic ABC shows.

Some episodes of Bananaman were used in 1997 on the British Cartoon series "The Pepe and Paco show" created by Henson International Television.

Some of these episodes would eventually re-appear in print form in The Dandy in 1998, coinciding with the BBC repeating the series that year, and were reprinted in the comic in Spring 2007, now promoting the DVD. Each episode was roughly five minutes from start to end. Phrases from the show, "twenty big men" and "ever alert for the call to action", are still used in the comic today.

Cast

• Graeme Garden as Bananaman^[2]
• Bill Oddie as Eric, Chief O'Reilly and The Weatherman^[3]
• Tim Brooke-Taylor as Narrator^[4]
• Jill Shilling as Various characters^[5]

Credits

• Painters : Richard Adams, Jane Beecham, Marianne Coldner, Paul Heyward, John Tillet, Anne Whitford
• Tracers : Janine Arthy, Jacqueline Millar, Olive Scott, Phyllis Vince, Anne Ward, John Tillet, Linda Butcher
• Checker: Katherine J. Cowan
• Animators : Richard Cox, Joan Garrick, Geoff Loynes, Janet Nunn, Alan Green
• Layouts : Gil Potter
• Backgrounds : Russell Peerman
• Editing : Morgan Daniels Limited
• Rostrum Camera : Stephen Williams, Trevor Bond Associates Ltd
• Music : Dave Cooke
• Production Controller : Thomas Barker
• Production Coordination : Thomas Barker, Pat C. Morton
• Script Writers : Bernie Kay, Terry Ward
• Producers : Trevor Bond, Terry Ward
• Director : Terry Ward
• Made by : 101 Productions
• Copyright Bananaman Productions Ltd 1983

Film adaptation

It was announced in March 2014 that DC Thomson in conjunction with Elstree Studio Productions will be producing a Bananaman movie with a release date of 2015.^[6][7] In May 2014 DC Thomson unveiled the first teaser poster for the film.^[8] The official website now states 'coming soon' instead of 2015.^[9] In September 2015, it was announced that the movie was in 'early stages'.^[10] With news that a Bananaman musical is being created, the musical's facebook page, in January 2016, stated that the movie is now in development. However a release date is not mentioned.^[11]

Musical production

Near the beginning of January 2016, it was reported that Bananaman would be turned into a musical for the west end. A industry launch would take place on the 2nd February the same year, showcasing the musical. ^[12]

References

External links

• Bananaman at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Episode guide
• International Hero
• Bananaman at the Internet Movie Database
• Bananaman at TV.com
• Official Bananaman movie website