Bananaman (TV Series 1983 -1986)

 

Plot

Stupid, but well-meaning and super-strong super-hero, Bananaman gets his strength from eating bananas. Before he eats a banana, Bananaman is a young boy called Eric who is keen to keep his alter-ego a secret. His best friend is a crow who brings bananas to Eric (or Bananaman) when they are needed for extra strength. Bananaman is always ready to fight
the baddies.

 

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 101 Film Productions (Later Flicks Films). Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge, voiced by Simon Tweed and 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.

 

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 Nurks, 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 Dangermouse, 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 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 are now being reprinted in the comic as of April 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.

Original strip

 

Original stripThe original strip, written by Steve Bright and mostly drawn by John Geering until his death in 1999, is essentially a parody of Superman 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. In the strip, Eric Wimp, an ordinary schoolboy, living at 29 Acacia Road, Nuttytown (later changed to Dandytown after Nutty's demise), 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.

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.

 

Bananaman is still a star of the modern Dandy comic, although from April 2007 the character was appearing in reprinted strips from the John Geering era. Chris McGhie is the latest artist to take on Bananaman and his re-invention of the character with his own style appeared in The Dandy in the second half of 2008. Chris' other work includes The Three Bears for the Beano (in 2002) and the characters on Yoplait's 'Wildlife' product range.

From 1983-1986, he had his own annual, the 1984 one was a Marks & Spencer exclusive, the next one was titled "Bananaman Annual 1985". This is unusual for two reasons - Nutty comic never had an annual, and all other DC Thomson annuals of that era were called "The (title) Book". The remaining two are called "Bananaman, Your TV Hero" with the year (1986 and 1987) after that. Unlike Dennis the Menace and Bash Street Kids, these annuals were entirely new material.

 

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.

 

Enemies include:

Syndney aka Toymaster 10 year old parody of Toyman

 

Witchy Woman parody of Scarlet Witch

Doctor Gloom, a Doctor Doom homage, Blight's sidekick

 

Appleman, Bananaman's arch-enemy in the early strip, parody of Bizarro, created by Dr Gloom. In later comics, he becomes an ally to Bananaman

General Blight Bananaman's current arch enemy, parody of Adolf Hitler

 

Weatherman works for General Blight

Clayman parody of Clayface

 

The Heavy Mob, a group of thieves led by Eddie the Gent

Auntie, a nanny with remote control-led balls of knitting wool as weapons; possibly a parody of Granny Goodness

 

Impossible Man, complete with a quiff who performs impossible things such as hopping at 100 mph

Foul Five parody of Famous Five

 

Scotsman, who controls haggis with a set of bagpipes

The Nerks, an alien race bent on conquering Earth, led by King Zorg

 

Bubblegum Bert

Skunk Woman, an homage to Catwoman

 

Captain Cream

Mouseman, a gigantic mouse

 

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. General Blight, a generic criminal mastermind, largely replaced the inventive criminal-of-the-week.

Bananaman is allied with Chief O'Reilly, a stereotyped Irish policeman (apparently an 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 big blue superhero.