View source for Bananaman

{{short description|British comic book character}}
{{Other uses|Banana Man (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}
{{DC Thomson comic strip
|strip_name=Bananaman
|image=[[File:Bananaman_-_Beano_Superhero.jpg|250px]]
|other_names=
|creator=[[Steve Bright]] (writer/artist)<ref name="Bananaman40Years">{{cite web|url=https://downthetubes.net/happy-birthday-bananaman-co-creator-steve-bright-celebrates-40-years-of-the-hapless-superhero/|title=Happy Birthday Bananaman co-creator Steve Bright celebrates 40 years of the hapless superhero|date=14 February 2020 |access-date=2022-04-30}}</ref><br>Dave Donaldson (writer)<ref name="Bananaman40Years"/><br>[[John Geering]] (artist)<ref name="Bananaman40Years"/>
|writer=Barrie Appleby<br>Tom Paterson<br>Wayne Thompson<br>Nigel Auchterlounie<br>Kev F Sutherland<br>Cavan Scott<br>Tommy Donbavand<br>Danny Pearson<br>Morris Heggie
|artist=Ned Hartley<br>Wayne Thompson
|beano_start=Issue #3618 (14 January 2012)
|dandy_start=Issue #2287 (21 September 1985)
|nutty_start=Issue #1 (16 February 1980)
|beezer_start=
|topper_start=
|beezer_topper1=
|sparky_start=
|cracker_start=
|beano_end=
|dandy_end=Issue #3610 (11 December 2012)
|nutty_end=Issue #292 (14 September 1985)
|beezer_end=
|topper_end=
|beezer_topper2=
|sparky_end=
|cracker_end=
|main_character=Bananaman
|alias=Eric Allan<br>Eric Wimp<br>Little Eric<br>Eric Wenk Bannerman
|family=[[Super School|Bananagirl]] (cousin)
|friends=Chief O'Reilly, Crow
|type=
|team_members=
|other_members=
|characters=
|other_characters=
|crossover=
|powers=[[Superhuman strength]]<br>Flight<br>Invulnerability<br>Breathing in space<br>Helium-boosted heat finger<br>Also equipped with gadgets: Thermal Banana, Banana Laser Gun, electronic thermal underwear.
|weakness=Immense stupidity (quoted as having "The muscles of twenty men, and the brains of twenty mussels")
}}
'''Bananaman''' is a fictional character appearing in British comic books. Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, being portrayed as a schoolboy who is transformed into a muscled, caped adult man when he eats a banana. The character originally appeared in ''[[Nutty]]'' as the back page strip in Issue 1, dated 16 February 1980 drawn by [[John Geering]].

He has since appeared in ''[[The Dandy]]'' and ''[[The Beano]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/bananaman-the-musical-coming-to-theatres|title=Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really|magazine=Wired UK|first=Matt|last=Kamen|date=13 January 2016|access-date=11 April 2019|via=www.wired.co.uk}}</ref>

==Original strip==
The original strip, by Dave Donaldson<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/news_search_results.htm/news_article.htm?articleid=21563 |title= Comic creator legend at special Edinburgh Castle event |publisher=Historic Scotland |access-date=18 August 2012}}</ref> and Steve Bright,<ref name="Bananaman40Years"/> 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 elements of [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]] and his British twin, [[Marvelman]], and occasionally other [[Silver Age of Comic Books|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]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBWSDgAAQBAJ&q=steve+bright+bananaman&pg=PA190 |title=The British Superhero |date=15 March 2017 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-4968-0740-3 |access-date=11 April 2019 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

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 the end of 2008, artist [[Chris McGhie]] reinvented Bananaman in a series of new strips.

McGhie's other work included The Three Bears for ''[[The Beano]]'' (in 2002) and the characters on [[Yoplait]]'s 'Wildlife' product range. Two new strips drawn by [[Barrie Appleby]] appeared that year as well.

Following the ''Dandy'' revamp of October 2010, Wayne Thompson took over drawing Bananaman in a style reminiscent of French cartoonist [[Lisa Mandel]]. Thompson was a popular artist in ''[[The Dandy]]'' who had previously drawn Jak, Agent Dog 3-Zero and, occasionally, [[Bully Beef and Chips]].

In Issue 3515, Thompson's style changed notably, becoming more cartoonish and detailed. As of spring 2011, Thompson's version of Bananaman appears in full colour over two pages. From 1983 to 1986, Bananaman also had his own [[Annual publication#British annuals|annual]]. This was unusual because, unlike many other comics at the time, ''[[Nutty]]'' never had an annual.

Unlike [[Dennis and Gnasher|Dennis the Menace]] and [[Bash Street Kids]], which mostly consisted of reprints, all the material in these annuals was new. 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 was 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]] continued to run in ''The Beano'' throughout 2014.

In 2016, writing duties for the strip were taken over by [[Tommy Donbavand]] and [[Danny Pearson (comics)|Danny Pearson]], and since 2018, Bananaman has been written by [[Ned Hartley]].

==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 many 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. In one Beano issue with Eric unable to find a banana, he resorted to drinking banana milk, becoming a liquid, totally useless version of Bananaman who later in the story is mopped up by a janitor.

==Varying origins==
Eric Wimp was rocketed to [[Earth]] from the [[Moon]] as a baby, and gained his powers because the [[Lunar phase|crescent moon]] resembles a banana. Bananaman resembles Superman in having a [[kryptonite]] style weakness to mouldy bananas, and a [[Fortress of Solitude]] style building at the North Pole, made out of a giant banana.

During early board meetings, the designers thought of having Bananagirl accompany the series. The girl would have been called Margaret Wimp, and be the "sister" of Eric. This idea was scrapped later 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 [[Super School|Beano comic strip]].

In the 1991 ''[[The Dandy Annual|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', 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 of Comic Books|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.

Other villains included mad scientist Doctor Gloom, Bananaman's evil fruit counterpart Appleman, the mischief making Weatherman and dessert fiend Captain Cream.

Eric's punk-style shaved head was replaced by a more typical 1980s-style haircut,<ref>{{cite comic|title=Nutty|publisher=D. C. Thomson|issue=182|date=1983-08-06|story=Bananaman|page=1|panel=1|url=https://archive.org/details/Nuttycomic|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref> Bananaman gained a talking crow sidekick called simply Crow,<ref>{{cite comic|title=Nutty|publisher=D. C. Thomson|issue=180|date=1983-07-30|story=Bananaman|page=12|panel=3|url=https://archive.org/details/Nuttycomic|access-date=2018-03-18}},</ref> and Bananaman 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 [[Jim Gordon (character)|James Gordon]] or the equally stereotyped Chief O'Hara in the 1960s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' television series). He used to wear an [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] [[war bonnet|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==
{{Main|Bananaman (TV series)}}

From 1983 to 1986, the [[BBC]] aired a [[cartoon]] series based on Bananaman and featuring the voices of the members of [[The Goodies]]. It was produced by 101 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 her mother Auntie). The programme 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 (1981 TV series)|Danger Mouse]]'', but ''Bananaman'' never came close to reaching that series' American popularity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 |date=2005 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-1-4766-6599-3 |edition=2nd |pages=111–112}}</ref> The show also aired during the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]'s (ABC) after-school timeslot, and is considered one of the [[Classic ABC]] shows.

In 1997, some episodes of ''Bananaman'' were used on the cartoon series ''The Pepe and Paco Show'', created by [[Henson International Television]].

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

On 22 February 2021, [[Fox Entertainment]] announced that they would be producing a new ''Bananaman'' series with [[Bento Box Entertainment]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-02-22|title=Bananaman to return in new cartoon series|url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/6222/bananaman-to-return/|access-date=2021-02-24|website=British Comedy Guide|language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
In March 2014, it was announced that DC Thomson, in conjunction with [[Elstree Studio Productions]], would be producing a movie on ''Bananaman'', with a release date in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trailer-geek.com/movie/bananaman/ |title=Bananaman Movie |publisher=Trailer Geek |access-date=18 March 2014 |archive-date=18 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318180844/http://www.trailer-geek.com/movie/bananaman/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=MetroFilm>{{cite news|title=Peel the power! Comic favourite Bananaman is latest superhero bound for big screen|url=http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/18/peel-the-power-comic-favourite-bananaman-could-be-latest-superhero-bound-for-big-screen-4639287/|access-date=18 March 2014|newspaper=Metro|date=18 March 2014}}</ref> In May 2014, DC Thomson unveiled the first teaser poster for the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scannain.com/movie-news/bananaman-teaser-poster |title=Poster: Teaser for DC Thomson's feature film version of Bananaman |date=25 May 2014 |publisher=Scannain |access-date=25 May 2014}}</ref> By September 2015, the official website stated "coming soon" instead of 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bananamanmovie.com/ |title=Bananaman &#124; Official Movie Site |publisher=Bananamanmovie.com |access-date=2016-01-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202195059/http://www.bananamanmovie.com/ |archive-date=2 February 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> In September 2015, it was announced that the movie was in the early stages.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hutchins |first=Robert |url=http://www.licensing.biz/big-interviews/read/start-licensing-s-ian-downes-on-the-appeal-of-cult-classic-brand-bananaman/042659 |title=Start Licensing's Ian Downes on the cult appeal of Bananaman &#124; Big Interviews |publisher=Licensing.biz |access-date=2016-01-30}}</ref>

In January 2016, the ''Bananaman'' musical's page on Facebook posted that the movie adaptation is now in development, saying "This fruitiest of superheroes is experiencing a revival elsewhere – ''Bananaman The Movie'' is also in development". However, a release date was not mentioned.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/bananamanmusical/posts/720656384702793 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/720652874703144/720656384702793 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|title=For the first time ever, Bananaman will... - Bananaman the Musical|website=www.facebook.com|access-date=2016-05-29}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

On 8 June 2016, the now newly formed Beano Studios issued a press release. The release noted that Beano Studios was formed to bring their properties to life through television, film and live performances based upon present projects which were being worked on. "Beano Studios is currently also exploring plans to take Beano characters to the bigger screens and stages worldwide."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/company/beano-studios/|title=Beano Studios Overview|website=LinkedIn}}</ref>

By June 2017, the official site had been removed.

==Musical production==
Near the beginning of January 2016, it was reported that ''Bananaman'' would be turned into a musical for [[West End theatre|West End]]. An industry launch took place on 2 February 2016, showcasing the musical. The musical ran from the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018, at the [[Southwark Playhouse]] in London. It is unknown if it will be produced worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Bananaman musical being developed {{!}} News {{!}} The Stage|url = https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2016/bananaman-musical-being-developed/|website = The Stage|access-date = 2016-02-02|language = en-US|date = 13 January 2016}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/banaman.htm International Hero]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160202195059/http://www.bananamanmovie.com/ Official Bananaman movie website]
{{Beano}}
{{Dandy}}
{{D. C. Thomson Comics}}

[[Category:British comics characters]]
[[Category:Bananas in popular culture]]
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