An A-peeling Interview

Welcome Back to Comic Unknown!

With the vast amount of interviews here we have yet another awesome interview!
 Banana Man's creator Vincent Cracchiolo

What made you want to work in the comicbook industry?

I have been a comic fan my whole life, and so after reading thousands of comics, sometimes you want to do something of your own. You don't necessarily think you can do it better, but you feel like you have your own stories to tell or show.



How did you and Chris Caldwell create the idea of Banana Man?

It all started as a request from a friend of mine who had graduated from the Kubert School of Cartooning, Chris Caldwell. He wanted me to write a superhero comic for him; I wanted to write about something realistic. So I wrote about a superhero who had no powers. Everything that would happen could actually happen in real life; it would just be rather unlikely.

In a sleep deprived state while working a couple jobs I came up with what I thought would be a universally appealing hero: Banana Man. We threw together a short book just to see what kind of reaction we would get at the local comic convention, and I left the story with an open ending just in case...


Who is your favorite all time super hero/villain? Why?

Spider-Man is the best all time superhero. Great powers, great costume, real world problems, and then he doesn't take himself too seriously. If you are reading a comic, you want it to be funny.





Why a Kickstarters campaign?

I always wanted to publish the book professionally, but it is expensive to get it printed, and then there is a lot of pressure to sell the book after that to try and recoup your costs. Kickstarter allowed me to basically presell the book, that way the printing is paid for up front, then I just ship the books out. It made is risk free for me, and that ended up opening the book up to all sorts of people that would never have heard about it before.


Did you ever consider another crowdfunding site?

I never considered another crowdfunding site. There are all sorts of them now that just try to copy what kickstarter has done, and they try to put it down by saying you don't keep the money if it doesn't get funded. That is kind of the point though, if my book only got halff funded I would not have wanted to keep the money because then I would be responsible for the other half so that I could get the product to the people that paid. And if you are just worried about not getting funded, then maybe you don't need to be doing the project.


Were you expecting the amount of pledges Banana Man recieved?

I was not expecting the pledges I received at all. I put a low price to get funded just wanted to get it made and hoping for the best. I have never made money on this really, I just didn't want to lose money. I ended up making it a little high just to be safe, and it was interesting to say the least to watch the pledges over the month. I was expecting it to be mostly friends and family, which I kind of feel bad about, they don't need to fund my dreams out of guilt, but kickstarter really has a lot of people that browse it looking for cool projects. Almost 70% of my backers were people through kickstarter.

What should people expect in the Trade Paper Back?

The TPB is the complete collection, I have thrown everything we ever printed in there, plus all the fliers and some extra things I have thrown in. We are also doing two new pages at the end to kind of cap everything off.





Did you ever have a scene/ issue where you look back and thought "WOW!"?

Yeah, going back through and putting this altogether has been pretty funny. There are a few things I am finding questionable, like poop in the microwave, but I never got any negative feedback.



How can viewers find your comic book?

The website is the best place to go, crackcomics.com. It has not been updated since the last issue came out since I have been busy working on the TPB, but I will get it updated once the book is off to the printer. There is lots of stuff on there to go through.


Are there any more book coming from Crack Comics in the future?

No more plans for any more comics, it took me so long to get this last one out, but it felt very rewarding to finally finish it, and it ends in a great spot.

Directly from the creator, the TPB will be coming out soon. Want to know what else C.U. will have in store for you? Just follow the blog and our Facebook/Twitter pages and keep up to date for everything C.U.

History Of Banana Man

Welcome back to another great installment of COMIC UNKNOWN!

Here is a bit of history of Banana Man that can be found in Issue 8 of Banana Man, The Final Issue!!
Enjoy!

Andre Andre is a high school nutrition teacher in Taylor Tuckey, Michigan. He had become disillusioned at his job as students attention spans were becoming shorter. He sewed a costume of his own creation to become Banana Man. He then held a school assembly in the gymnasium where he preached the importance of potassium in the students’ diet. His speech was interrupted by a mysterious figure who was dressed in an ape outfit that had his own message about a bleak future where the Earth was overtaken by talking apes. This figure came to be known as Gorilla Guy.

 Banana Man smacked Gorilla Guy with a banana which did not turn out to be an effective attack as Gorilla Guy responded with a punch that knocked him down. Banana Man then went and created a concrete banana and sewed a banana peel around it. Gorilla Guy thought this was simply a regular banana until Banana Man knocked him out with it. The students at the assembly had thought Banana Man was pretty strange, but after hearing what Gorilla Guy had to say they came to appreciate Banana Man. Gorilla Guy was able to slip away as Banana Man was basking in his glory.

 Andre became obsessed with figuring out who Gorilla Guy was, but could not come up with a way to find him. He decided to attend a comic book convention where Linda Harrison, one of the stars of the original Planet of the Apes movie, was scheduled to appear. This turned out to work against Andre as the convention had lots of people dressed in gorilla costumes. Gorilla Guy did eventually reveal himself when he found out that Linda Harrison could talk. This enraged him because in the movie she was mute. Banana Man had created more weapons including nan-chucks and a bananarang, but he was topped by Gorilla Guy who had created a banana blade.

 Banana Man was stuck paying for toys that were damaged in the battle. He did however find a raffle ticket that Gorilla Guy had dropped that was for his school raffle from which he deduced that Gorilla Guy must work at his school. While playing with his newly acquired convention toys, Andre was interrupted by Kelly, a fellow teacher, with whom he was supposed to meet to go over her lesson plans. Andre was very disappointed that because of his distractions with Gorilla Guy he had missed an opportunity to hang out with the hottest teacher in the school.

 Andre then started looking around the school to find Gorilla Guy’s identity. After eliminating several teachers and the janitor, Andre was visited by a student, Alvin, who was offering to sell raffle tickets. Alvin informed Andre that he had been selling tickets in packs of five, so Andre offered to eliminate a detention he had given Alvin in exchange for Alvin rigging the raffle. Alvin would call off one of the tickets that was one number up from the ticket that Andre had found at the comic convention that was dropped by Gorilla Guy. During halftime of the school football game, Alvin called off the winning number where the winner would receive a George Foreman refrigerator.

 The ticket belonged to Mr. Frank, the school science teacher. Banana man tackled Frank from behind, and accused him of being Gorilla Guy. Frank denied this, but Banana Man did not believe him until Gorilla Guy showed up behind him. Banana Man and Gorilla Guy had a brawl that encompassed the entire football field where Banana Man was finally victorious. Gorilla Guy was revealed to be Alvin who received another detention. Andre then started to notice a smell in his classroom where he discovered that someone had urinated.

 Andre discussed this with the principal, Mr. John, who informed him that this had happened numerous times during the previous week. John decided to give Andre a chance to prove himself as Banana Man and assigned him the task of finding out the identity of the Tinkler. Andre was very proud of this, but he was made fun of by Mr. Frank who still resented being tackled. The two of them discovered the latest attack of the Tinkler in the teacher’s lounge where they found that the his attacks were not limited to the liquid method of human waste. Banana Man then created a cardboard cutout of himself that he wired with electricity to lure out the Tinkler.

 This proved to be too tempting for the Tinkler as he was caught within minutes of it being set up. Andre was then reprimanded by John who did not approve of his methods. Luckily the student that was caught was not seriously injured, and he had a bad home life so his parents did not get involved. Andre was still discouraged that he was not making a difference in anyone’s life, and he tried making a poster to help better influence eating habits. This poster was defaced, and then the replacement poster was stolen. Frank continued to make fun of Andre to which Andre replied that he didn't care if he only reached one student it would still be worth is effort. This did not stop Frank’s taunts, but Andre eventually realizes that his life was not that bad.

 Unknown to Andre, it was revealed that there was a student that Banana Man’s influence had reached, and this student had stolen the poster to hang in his room at home. Mr. Frank was the next person to interrupt one of Banana Man’s assemblies. Frank was dressed in his own costume and called himself Yo-Yo Man. Banana Man chased him back to his office where Yo-Yo Man had set up a trap. Banana Man found himself strung upside down over a boiling vat of chocolate. He was able to escape with the help of Gorilla Guy. Gorilla Guy had been suffering from a nutritional deficiency which he was able to overcome by eating more bananas. Together Banana Man and Gorilla Guy pummeled Yo-Yo Man. All three were reprimanded by the principal, Mr. John.

Want to purchase Banana Man? Just click on this link to go directly to Banana Man's Website!

With much more to come, keep your eyes peeled for more of Banana Man from COMIC UNKNOWN. Don't forget to follow C.U. here and on twitter for an instant feed of everything C.U.

Got Banana?

Welcome back to another great installment of COMIC UNKNOWN!

Unlike our other updates, this one will make you go BANANAS!! How you might ask? With Vincent J. Cracchiolo's indie mini-series of Banana Man! 

 

 With the name of Andre Andre (not a typo), Banana Man finds himself as a high school nutrition teacher who preaches to everyone about the importance of potassium while dressed accordingly. While in a school assembly, Banana Man is faced with an enemy with the name of Gorilla Guy in which believes that the Earth will be overtaken by talking apes. Gorilla Guy is his main adversary, and his identity is a mystery at first. With the first mini-issue published in 2001, the eight mini-issue series was released sporadically for more than a decade.

 But of course a great comic isn't done within a day. Banana Man #8 was released in May 2013. Each issue is available for purchase here for only a womping $0.50 EACH! (Excluding #8 for $1.00). In other words for only $4.50 you are getting over 80 pages of potassium, you just can't beat that in today's prices. 

 One great thing I really enjoyed about Banana Man besides the actual story and the price is that there are lots of pinups, parodies and extras throughout. This is a great and fun book to read with awesome references. 

With much more to come, keep your eyes peeled for more of Banana Man from COMIC UNKNOWN. Don't forget to follow C.U. here and on twitter for an instant feed of everything C.U.