Bananaman
Bananaman is a British comic character. He originally appeared in Nutty as the backpage strip in issue 1, dated 16 February 1980, and was later promoted to a three-page colour strip on Nutty's front and middle pages, and then a one-page black and white strip when Nutty merged with The Dandy comic in 1985. The strip has appeared intermittently since, and is running as of 2004, now a two-page colour strip usually drawn by Tom Paterson or Steve Bright.
Eric Wimp (later Eric Twinge), a young schoolboy, originally lived at 29 Acacia Road, Nuttytown. Whenever he eats a banana he transforms into Bananaman, an adult superhero, and sports a distinctive blue and yellow outfit. His superpowers include the ability to fly, super human strength, and resistance to damage.
The overall tone of the strip, mostly drawn by John Geering until his death in 1999, is essentially a parody of Superman and similar superheroes, which combines usual comic slapstick with a heavy dose of eccentric British humour and, considering the medium, the occasional subversive element. Eric was rocketed to Earth from the Moon as a baby, and gained his powers because the crescent moon resembles a banana. He has a kryptonite-style weakness to mouldy bananas, and at one point even a Fortress of Solitude-style building at the North Pole, made out of a giant banana. This origin story, however, would later contradict the one seen in the 1991 Dandy Annual. Here Eric was a normal Earth baby in a maternity hospital, and inherited his powers after unintentionally eating a Banana that the villain General Blight had hidden a stolen supply of Saturnium in, and accidentally left it next to Eric.
Bananaman is allied with Chief O'Reilly, a stereotyped Irish policeman, apparently a 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. He also used to work in a police station shaped like a giant police helmet.
Villains include Appleman, Weatherman, Clayman and Doctor Gloom, who are clearly based on other super villains, and more imaginative villains such as The Heavy Mob, Auntie, Impossible Man (who performs impossible things such as hopping at 100mph) and Scotsman (who controls haggis with a set of bagpipes).
As the strip gained in popularity these elements were toned down, and Bananaman gained a talking crow sidekick called simply Crow. The strip was aimed at a younger audience (Bananaman was now so stupid he often forgot how to fly, and for some reason the adult Bananaman started to go to school). Many of the pastiche villains were replaced by General Blight, a generic criminal mastermind.
In 1983 the BBC made a cartoon series which included a catchy theme tune and featured the voices of The Goodies. Graeme Garden 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, Eric and the Weatherman and Tim Brooke-Taylor voiced the characters of Auntie and Appleman, as well as narrating the episodes. It lasted for forty episodes between 3 October 1983 and 15 April 1986. Some of these episodes would eventually re-appear in print form in The Dandy in 1998, coinciding with the BBC repeating the series in that year.
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