Bane is a kid who has Made Some Mistakes in his young life-- he earned that nickname-- but now he's eager to prove himself. He's impulsive, has poor judgment, trusts probably the wrong people, and puts himself in bad situations without thinking it through first. He doesn't want to be a screwup anymore, so he's constantly trying to avoid screwing up, which, of course, leads him to screw up.

He never forgets what anyone does for him and will defend his friends to the end of the earth, which makes him far too eager to take it outside and much too likely to get his ass handed to him in a fight, but he would do it again for any of his friends in a moment. He's forgiving, as he knows everyone makes mistakes, but wary and skeptical and afraid of falling back into his old life.

Overall, he's loyal, fierce, and wild-- and unintentionally dramatic-- and he's trying so hard.

Bane is tall, skinny, and always at least a little banged-up looking. He has a cauliflower ear (his left), blue eyes, and roughly-cut bright blue hair Luke talked him into.

For clothes, everything (the little he has) is too big and kind of shabby, but he's usually wearing an old denim jacket and green sneakers. His favorite shirt is one for his friend's band, Poultrygeist.

Bane's arms are usually covered, but if they're not, you'll see that he has a number of bad tattoos. They're all teenage stick-and-pokes, mostly from friends from his years on the road, and his regret about the less tasteful ones is why he covers his arms when he's trying to make a good impression on people. Some of Bane's tattoos are more meaningful to him, though: the "NOT YET" on his upper right arm, a ribbon with "I have seen worse sights than this" (a line from The Odyssey) on his left, and the bad luck symbols on the backs of both hands. The words "BAD LUCK" across his knuckles were his first tattoos, a wry reminder of the effect he feels he has on other people's lives.

Bane tends to wax poetic-- as in actually make up poetry-- when he's nervous, which is often. He's a high school dropout, but he liked English class, and he's interested in Greek myths. He's liable to use them in analogies, whether he remembers them right or not. Bane's favorite high school teacher introduced him to Homer, and for a guy who doesn't read much and frequently misplaces his few belongings, he has actually managed to keep his copy-- stolen from the school library-- of The Odyssey safe with him over the years. The book is important to him, because Odysseus's journey reminds him of the struggles he's gone through in his own life.

Bane is very afraid of bugs, especially beetles or anything with pincers, and he is not ashamed to make one of the girls in the band deal with a scary bug while he hides. Heto, on the other hand, would tease him about it before eating the bug, but hey, the job's done either way.

Bane's a Red Sox fan, but he hasn't actually had a chance to watch a game in a while. He still can hardly believe that the Sox finally "reversed the curse" in 2004, and that World Series was one of the greatest joys he had during some tough times.

He has a skateboard... sometimes. Where did he leave it, again? Bane doesn't know how to do any fancy tricks, not well, but he noodles around with it all the time (at least during the times when he hasn't misplaced it).

Bane is an intense drummer, like Steve Moore, the drummer at the wrong gig, or Sebastien Schultz (formerly of Bad Veins). Even when he's not drumming, he's animated, and gesticulates wildly. He's fidgety, jumpy, and paces a lot. He's often holding a pair of drumsticks and messing around with them, or tapping his thighs or other surfaces when he isn't.

He sings or talks to himself when he's nervous but should definitely not be allowed near a microphone.

At the start of the comic, he's busking in the subway for cash, either with his "Frankenstein's kit" or with buckets. He can't seem to hold onto equipment, so his drumkit is in a shambles and the pieces of it are constantly changing.

He loves Irish punk bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, as well as metal and punk in general.

French Fry is a dog Bane "owns", though it's probably more accurate to say that the two are just a couple of strays who pal around together. French Fry follows Bane around and sits with him when he busks, and he likes to hang around with Lance when he works in the squat's garden. You could say he's the squat's guard dog, but he's too quiet and friendly for that, probably.

French Fry is a rough-and-tumble terrier mutt with scruffy, curly tan fur, and three legs (he's missing the left rear one).