Help Support Mark McKenna’s Banana Tail and The Checkerboard Jungle On Kickstarter

Go Bananas

We are always keen to help support comic crowdfunding campaigns and here’s some info on Mark McKenna’s Banana Tail and The Checkerboard Jungle, funding now on Kickstarter…

Creating a kids property isn’t as easy as it seems. Everybody has an idea for a kids book, don’t they? But if you consider the sheer amount of submissions to the actual amount of kids books that get published every year, it’s quite the contrast. Thousands of submissions compared to hundreds that “may” see print.

I created Banana Tail back in the late 1990s with my dear old departed dad and he’s never gotten to see that his son, me, developed his idea into a beloved children’s book series for those familiar with it. I started out submitting Banana Tail to staples in the children’s book market like Little Golden Books, Little, Brown, and Simon & Schuster and got very close to getting a contract with a few of them. It was eye-opening to say the least, but these “near misses” helped me realize I had something worthy.

I pressed forward and with the help of my lengthy career in comic books and some name recognition, I was able to get some support from comic book and review sites that saw one of their own branching outside the world of superheroes and into unfamiliar territory. 

And now, here we are 17 years after self-publishing the first title in a series of books I had imagined in the world of Banana Tail. I have produced four Banana Tail books that have been sold through Barnes & Noble, as well as comic book stores around the country. Banana Tail’s stable of books ranges from the original comic-sized picture book titled Banana Tail to the most recent Halloween-themed BOOnana Tail’s Halloween Special (see below). Diamond Distributors added a “spotlight” to the BOO comic and helped it get more notice and sell quite well. BOO was developed to grow with young readers that had the earlier storybooks read to them as toddlers. I’ve taken Banana Tail and Friends outside of the publishing realm and have created t-shirts, coffee mugs, BBQ aprons, superhero prints and jigsaw puzzles featuring the characters.

The series also includes Banana Tail’s Tales and Activities book and Banana Tail’s Colorful Adventure (Image Comics) computer-generated hard cover. The first two books focused on Banana Tail himself and Reena, the young mood color-changing rhino. Rounding out the trio of best friends is Tic Tac, the plaid zebra featured in Banana Tail and The Checkerboard Jungle.

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE THEN ONE ITEM ADD THE AMOUNT OF THE SECOND (OR THIRD) ITEM TO YOUR PLEDGE AND AT THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN WHEN I SEND OUT THE SURVEY, MENTION IT AND IT WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR REWARDS. ALSO: IF YOU DON’T SEE AN ITEM YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN, CERTAINLY ASK ABOUT IT. IF IT’S MANAGEABLE, IT’LL GET DONE!

Least I forget… A few years back I created a Banana Tail art portfolio enlisting some of today’s top illustrators. Comic legend WALTER SIMONSON leads the way with an illustrated and hand colored Banana Tail and Tic Tac. Following Walter is top cover artist Greg Horn, luminaries Jim Calafiore, Shawn McManus, Sara Richard and Kristen Sorra. I tell you this why? READ ON…

*BONUS NOTE* Pledges OVER $30 will automatically receive the unsigned “suitable for framing” Banana Tail print portfolio.

Pledges over $50 will receive the “signed and numbered” Banana Tail print portfolio. LIMITED to 100 signed sets.

So, if you and your kids have been following Banana Tail since its inception or are new to the kids property, here’s your chance to continue following his adventures or maybe pledge for the series of books and catch up to what many fans have been enjoying for the past 17 years!

Some testimonies!

“Her favorite book! My 3 year old daughter loves this book. The pictures are wonderful, much more interesting to her than most children’s book illustrations, and the text is great, too. She has several hundred books and loves many. Every night, she gets to pick 3 stories to have read before she sleeps. This is the first time that she wanted me to read one story 3 times. Get it. Now.”

— Anonymous Mother

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“Author Mark McKenna has created unique colorful characters with telling expressions in his book Banana Tail; capturing both my imagination and the imagination of my six year old son. McKenna not only takes us on an wondrous adventure in this story, but reminds us of an important moral–acceptance.”

— Jennifer O’Connor
          Reporter
Warwick Valley Dispatch

Risks and challenges

Banana Tail and the Checkerboard Jungle is my 5th Btail project and Ive had very little concerns with risks, since Ive successfully funded the past few. The challenges come with having my creative team around me complete the project in a timely fashion as well as having enough funds after fees to finish the project without having to dig into my pockets for any possibly unseen publishing expenses.

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