Greg Banks

The protagonist of the novel Say Cheese and Die! and its sequel Say Cheese and Die - Again!.

Say Cheese and Die!
We are first introduced to Greg in '''Say Cheese and Die! '''One boring afternoon in Knots Landing, his home town, Greg and his friends Shari Walker, Michael Woods, and Doug "Bird" Johnson dare each other into exploring the Coffman House, an old abandoned house so called after the family who used to own it, is reported to be haunted, and is believed to be "home" to a homeless old man known to the local kids as "Spidey". When they go into the basement, Greg accidentally uncovers a secret compartment in the wall from which he takes out a strange camera, the kind that snaps instant pictures. He uses it to snap a picture of Michael posing on the basement stairs, when suddenly the railing gives way behind him and he takes a nasty fall. Luckily Michael comes off with only a sprained ankle, but then the friends hear Spidey returning, and they just barely escape in time before he catches them. It is then that Greg realizes that he still has the camera, but neither nor his friends are willing to go back to return it. Then they notice the picture Greg has taken with it depicts Michael falling through the stairway railing, but only Greg is sure it happened after the picture was taken, not before.

This leads to a series of weird incidents involving the camera during which Greg realizes that the camera not can predict the future through the pictures it takes, but somehow causes them to happen. For example, when he takes a picture of his father's new car, it is depicted as totaled from an accident, which sure enough happens while his father is driving it, though fortunately the man survives, albeit with a broken leg. But perhaps the most sinister occurrence is when he snaps Shari's picture at her birthday party, and although he has aimed it directly at her, her image is no where to be seen, and then later she mysteriously vanishes, only to reappear when in a moment of despair he rips up her photo.

When Greg realizes that he is being stalked by Spidey, who obviously is trying to get the camera back, Greg with Shari in tow decides to return the camera back to the Coffman House in the secret hatch he found it. But at the house, he and Shari are trapped in the basement by Spidey, who confirms Greg's belief about the camera, saying it was the result of a curse brought about because Spidey had stolen it from the man who created it. Despite the fact that the camera has destroyed his life, Spidey is determined to keep it a secret, and is determined to hold Greg and Shari prisoner in the basement to keep them from revealing its secret. During a struggle with Greg, Spidey has his picture snapped by Shari, and dies of fright (as depicted in the photo). Greg and Shari escape from the Coffman House and send an anonymous tip to the police about Spidey's death, and hope that this will be end of the affair, unware that two local bullies, Joey and Mickey, have found the cursed camera...

Say Cheese and Die - Again!
In Say Cheese and Die - Again! Greg Banks recounts the story of his encounter with the Camera as an essay for his English class, which he needs to pass in order to avoid going to summer school. But his mean teacher, Mr. Saur, refuses to give him a passing grade, as he insists that the essay has to be based on a true experience, and of course he doesn't believe Greg's story about a camera that can predict the future. Despite the advice of Shari, Bird, and Michael, Greg decides to visit the Coffman House once more and retrieve the Camera to show Mr. Saur, hoping that proving that it can predict the future his teacher will have to pass him. Teasing from classmates about the camera motivates Greg all the more.

At the Coffman House, Greg discovers that a new family has purchased the house and thrown everything in there out, but among the debris he discovers the Camera, and when a young boy from the family tries to take it from him, Greg accidentally takes his picture which results in the boy having a nasty accident (as pictured in advance in the photo). Afterwards, Shari tries to stop Greg from showing the camera, and in the struggle, they end up snapping each other's picture, which results in Greg gaining weight and becoming very fat while Shari finds herself wasting away. Greg's solution is to have his big brother Terry, who works at a photo shop, to take a negative of the photos, which undoes the effects and returns him and Shari to their true sizes before Greg bursts and Shari wastes away to nothing. Greg afterwards takes the camera to Mr. Saur, who to his horror decides to prove if its powers are true by snapping a picture of Greg and the rest of his students. We are not told about the results...

Appearances on Goosebumps (tv series)
Both Say Cheese and Die! and Say Cheese and Die - Again! were adapted as episodes in the television series based on the Goosebumps books, the former in season 1, and the latter in Season 3. Greg Banks was played in Say Cheese and Die! by a young Ryan Gosling, while in Say Cheese and Die - Again! he was played by Patrick Thomas.