Boston-based comics artist Adam Kane is the creator of the often humorous, always intriguing comic MoonBanana. To learn more about the comic’s origins, and the concept of lunar fruit in general, the Reglar Wiglar asked Adam a few questions. —Chris Auman
1. Who are you?
In Alice in Wonderland, the caterpillar asks Alice “Who are you?”, and she says, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.” I think I could say the same here! I also happened to be asked this recently by a Zen teacher. I said, “I don’t know,” and he nodded and told me another acceptable answer would be to slap the floor.
2. What do you do?
I draw, write, read, play music, sit, walk, and teach English.
3. What is MoonBanana?
A self-published comic book series collecting the comic strips I make throughout the year. These are usually short, self-contained strips—even the ones with recurring characters. Sometimes a poem sneaks in there too.
The title comes from a joke I used to make with friends in high school, over a decade ago. I drew a plump banana that looked like a crescent moon with a face, and joked that it was a deity of some kind: “Believe in MoonBanana!” Just high school nonsense, but I held onto it. I turned it into a short-lived strip and named my comic collection after it. But it wasn’t until after I named my first collection that I saw the name MoonBanana as a nice balance of the poetic (moon) and the silly (banana)—which is what really good nonsense is!
4. What are your comics about and how long have you been making them?
I’ve been making comics since I was in elementary school, but never tried to share my work with a bigger audience until I put out MoonBanana #1 in 2022, when I was 27.
I’m not entirely sure what these comics are about. The title comic follows a man who believes the moon is a sentient banana, and confides this to his entirely unresponsive pug named Bixby.
One series in the collection is called “The Great Nardini”, which is a wordless comic about a magician who is often the unwitting recipient of the world’s own magic tricks. In one strip, for example, his shower drain hairball comes to life.
A newer comic in the forthcoming issue is called “Winnifred,” about a kindhearted bag of trash. She sits on her couch all day and tries to learn about the world through the TV.
I’m sure these all sound dissonant and miserable—but these characters delight me. I love them. When I make comics, I try to just follow what surprises me and makes me laugh.
5. What was your first comic/character or art project?
The earliest comic I can remember making was in elementary school, about a character called Toast—he was a piece of toast with line segment eyes, lanky limbs, and big tennis shoes like Sonic the Hedgehog’s.
Toast was friends with a blueberry named Jerry, based on a blue bouncy ball I had.
Their dynamic was unconsciously ripped from Calvin and Hobbes, which I read obsessively. Toast was zany and reckless, and Jerry was calm and intelligent.
In the fifth grade, I Xeroxed a stack of Toast comics and traded them with other kids at a school craft fair. It was mostly a success, but I’ll never forget seeing a copy of it in the trash later that day!
6. Where do you live and how did you get there?
I live in Boston, and I often wonder how I got here. I moved across the country from Bellingham, Washington for graduate school, where I am still serving my sentence, after six years.
7. What do you like most about the place where you live?
My friends, the pigeons, the rats, the turkeys, the museums, Hub Comics, Armageddon Records, the people that grew up here and have that blunt Bostonian brand of hospitality, Western Massachusetts, and the fall season.
8. What do you like least about the place where you live?
All the other seasons, the noise, the waste, the crowds, the anxious energy, and the finely choreographed horror show of its traffic system.
9. Where can people find your work?
On my website, kanescomics.bigcartel.com or on Instagram: @adamkanecomics. The excellent Boston comic shops Million Year Picnic and Hub Comics stock MoonBanana, as does RoosterCow.com, of course.
10. What’s next for you?
MoonBanana #3 will be ready to print in a month or two, and I intend to play with the format a bit and include some surprises this time. The Great Nardini is being published on SOLRAD, a wonderful online comics review, and I’m preparing an extra-long strip for them soon. I have plans for a couple nonfiction mini-comics too, but who knows when those will happen!
Thank you comics artist Adam Kane!
Learn More
Read reviews with other comics creators such as Fran Lopez, O. Stevens, Flo Woolley, and more!
Read this Important Message About Banana Peels.