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The Bogie Man is a comic book series created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant with artist Robin Smith.

Contents 1 Publishing history 2 About the series 3 The Bogie Man on television 4 External links

The title was initially pitched to DC Comics but after they refused it, Wagner and Grant then decided to publish it independently with Fat Man Press rather than take it elsewhere. Fat Man Press was a publishing company based in Glasgow run by John McShane, a well known name in British comics fandom. The title was planned to be a four issue mini series and was due to tie in with Glasgow being the 1990 European City of Culture.

The first issue was released in 1989 and sold incredibly well for an independently published British black and white comic, even problems in shipping issues on time never affected sales. This ended up being the only title Fat Man Press published and The Bogie Man next appeared in the pages of Toxic!, a new weekly comics set up in direct competition to 2000 AD. This time the artist would be Cam Kennedy as opposed to Robin Smith.However problems meant that the story was never completed in Toxic!, and the comic was cancelled when its publisher went bankrupt in 1991.

The series was then picked up by Atomeka Press, who completed the Toxic! story (with Smith back as artist) as well as releasing The Manhattan Project, a one off special. Atomeka also released a trade paperback of Chinatoon (originally called The Chinese Syndrome in Toxic!), the second story, while John Brown Publishing released a collection of the original series in 1992.

After this the character entered limbo for several years before a fourth story, Return to Casablanca, was serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine in 2005.

The character remains one of John Wagner and Alan Grants personal favourites that they have either created or worked on.

The stories revolve round Francis Forbes Clunie, a Scottish mental patient who suffers from the unusual delusion that he is Humphrey Bogart, or rather a composite of the characters he played in his films.

Each story revolves round his construction of a completely fictional story in which he is the hero and only he can solve the 'mystery' of his own construction.

His first appearance in the original four-issue miniseries published by Fat Man Press, Clunie, newly escaped from a Glasgow mental hospital, stumbles on an attempt by small-time criminals to fence some stolen turkeys. Associating the "big birds" with The Maltese Falcon, Clunie drags a gullible waitress and the nearest convenient "fat man" into proceedings, until, pursued by the criminals and the police and quoting dialogue from a variety of Bogart films, he demolishes half of Glasgow's Central Station.

The next story, Chinatoon, revolved round Clunie thinking he is dealing with a gang of Chinese criminals in Glasgow, while the next (The Manhattan Project) followed Clunie as he rescued Vice President Dan Quayle from an entirely imaginary assassination plot. A fourth story, "Return to Casablanca", was serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine in 2005.

A television film version was produced by the BBC and screened on BBC2 during Christmas 1992. It starred Robbie Coltrane as Clunie, with Fiona Fullerton and Midge Ure, and was based upon the original four issue mini series. It was not received well by critics and had poor viewing figures.

Wagner and Grant felt the film was a huge disappointment, partially due to Coltrane's performance, but also due to the makers not granting them more influence in how it was made.

It has only ever been shown once and there are no plans to release the film on DVD.

• Review at Ninth Art
• John Wagner interview
• The Bogie Man at IMDB