Before creating the award-winning Bandette, the husband and wife team Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover collaborated on the black-and-white comic Banana Sunday, an all-ages story about a woman and her pet primates. Originally released in 2006, Banana Sunday will return in October from Oni Press in full color.
For the new edition Tobin and Coover have teamed up with colorist Rian Sygh. It’ll also feature a new introduction by Tobin (who wrote it under the pseudonym Root Nibot) and previosuly uncollected artwork by Coover. Coover also said it has been “revised and edited for today’s readers.”
“Banana Sunday, I think, speaks to the kid in each of our hearts, the kid who grew up wondering what it would be like if animals could talk, and what it would be like to truly be friends with them,” Tobin said in a press release. “In Banana Sunday, the kid in our hearts finally gets those questions answered, and just like the adult in our hearts suspected, the answer is… chaos.”
The story features Kirby Steinberg, who is having a bit of trouble fitting into her new school, and the three talking primates she cares for: Chuck, the professorial orangutan; Knobby, the love-stricken spider monkey; and Go-Go, the befuddled golden gorilla. It’s a fun story that explores the challenges of high school with the added complexity that talking animals can bring.
“Banana Sunday holds a special place in my heart: it was the first time my work was accessible to readers of any age; it was the first major project I made with my husband Paul Tobin; it was the first story we made after leaving our day jobs in Iowa to move to Portland to become full-time comic creators,” Coover said. “I am thrilled to have this story available again, and with such gorgeous colors by Rian Sygh, it’s even better than before!”
Look for the new edition in October.
