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Absolute Bananaman In The Beano Comic

Absolute Bananaman makes his official debut in this week's Beano comic, courtesy of creatoir Ned Hartley... will this be the last?

Published Fri, 04 Apr 2025 05:57:08 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, schoolboy Eric Wimp who is transformed into a muscled, caped superhero when he eats a banana. Appearing in the Beano comic book published by DC Thompson, he has parodied a number of current superhero themes over the years, depending on the creative team. Well, current creator, Ned Hartley has decided that it's time for Absolute Bananaman. He posts " In the Beano this week meet… Absolute Bananaman!"

Absolute Bananaman In The Beano Comic — Bananaman in the Beano from Ned Hartley

Looking rather like this version from the first issue by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta.

It's not the first time Ned Hartley has taken the Man Of Peel in this direction. We have had scenes taken from Spider-Man No More and the Reign Of The Superman in previous issues of the Beano with Bananaman taking on many other identities as a result. And years ago, Kef F Sutherland, former collaborator with Mark Buckingham, gave Bananaman and the Beano, the character of Miraclebanana, as well as a brief summary of copyright law. But if we have Absolute Bananaman now, how far will that spread? Absolute Dennis The Menace? Absolute Minnie The Minx? Absolute… Plug?

Bananaman was created by Dave Donaldson, Steve Bright and John Geering, he first appeared in the weekly British kids comic Nutty in 1980, which I totally bought before transferring to The Dandy and then Beano, the second longest-running comic book in the world – the longest being Action Comics by a few weeks. The character gained greater fame when, from 1983 to 1986, the BBC aired a cartoon series based on Bananaman featuring the voices of the members of The Goodies, which I totally watched. And Bananaman even had a musical stage version of the comics in the Southwark Playhouse in London in 2017 and 2018, which I totally missed.

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