MONKEYS, MAYHEM, AND MYSTERY COME TO ONI THIS JULY!

press release:
Oni Press is pleased to announce the July debut of BANANA SUNDAY, a fun filled four-issue comic from Root Nibot and Colleen Coover (SMALL FAVORS).

Kirby Steinberg is having a bit of trouble fitting into her new school. It’s hard enough being the new kid, but she’s also the guardian of three monkeys who have all gained the power of speech, and will be attending school with her. When her new friend Nickels, a crack reporter for the school paper, decides there’s something suspicious about the monkeys, the fun is just beginning. How do you keep track of three monkeys, make new friends and get good grades? Kirby shows us how in BANANA SUNDAY!

"Many of the ideas for Banana Sunday came about one day while I was at a zoo, watching an orangutan," Nibot commented. "I started thinking about how monkeys and humans would interact, if only monkeys could voice their ideas in ways we could understand. Boom, I wanted talking monkeys. And I wanted THREE monkeys because I needed an orangutan, as one was the catalyst for a lot of my thoughts. But I love gorillas, so I needed a gorilla. Also, I've had a bit of a fascination for spider-monkeys ever since one stole a pair of my sunglasses when I was a child. So, Chuck the Orangutan, Go-Go the gorilla, and Knobby, the spider-monkey. All of whom are monkeys, but represent different types of humanity."

Coover discovered the monkey’s personalities as she set out to draw them. "Root has created distinct individuals so they all have their own body language," she commented. "Chuck conducts himself with an air of superiority, Knobby's constantly on the lookout for someone to flirt with, and Go-Go has the determined focus of a simpleton attempting to understand the world around him. Monkeys are great fun to draw because they look like us, but behave with animal disregard for consequence. In other words, they're naughty!"

But the monkeys aren’t the only ones in the book; Kirby and her human friends get their fair share of attention too. Joining Kirby and Nickels is Martin, a maybe love interest for Kirby.
"All of them are in their mid teens, which I think is a GREAT age to write about," Nibot continued. "Even the easy things are chaotic at that age, and everything is so full of drama. The world is open and waiting, but damn scary at the same time. I pulled from my own high school days; how they were a mixture of freedom and slavery, grandeur and suck."

Coover adds, "What I really love about Root's story is the friendship that develops between Kirby and Nickels, in spite of the fact that Kirby keeps a secret that Nickels is determined to uncover. This is the kind of friendship that only happens in school."

BANANA SUNDAY is jam packed with fun and humor appropriate for all ages.

BANANA SUNDAY #1 will feature 24 pages of black and white story and art. With a cover price of $2.99, it will ship to comic book stores in July 2005. Future issues will ship on a monthly basis.