The Mysterious Bogie Man.

I’ve been writing and illustrating a comic book now for nearly 2 months now.

It’s called Al Cook’s “Necropolis” and that’s because it’s set (and sometimes drawn) in Glasgow’s Necropolis.
You can visit HERE.
It’s early days yet and putting it all together takes a LOT of time but I’m having a ball doing it!

I showed some unfinished storyboards to a pal in work and he asked me if I’d ever heard of “The Bogie Man” comic books by John Wagner, Alan Smith & Robin Smith.
Shame on me.
I hadn’t.

See,
I don’t read comic books.
I don’t really own any either.
Maybe one day I’ll start a collection.

A hobby like that takes time and money and I don’t have either.

But anyways,
This “Bogie Man” series has me intrigued.
From Wikipedia,
Here’s a wee bit about it…

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

A four issue black and white miniseries was published, beginning in 1989 to tie in with Glasgow being the 1990 European City of Culture, in which 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.

Does that sound great or what!

The covers look like this:

…and somehow, I’m gonna buy all of them.

Oh aye!
It may also interest you to know that “The Bogie Man” was made into a TV film by the BBC in 1992 and it starred the great Robbie Coltrane in the title role.

The film didn’t do so well and it’s only ever been shown once.
There are no plans for a DVD release.
BUT!

We live in good times my friends and “The Bogie Man” is on the tube HERE.

Future Glasgow.

I love Glasgow.
I think it’s the second best best city in the World but have you ever wondered what the place will be like in the future?

Have you ever wondered what George Square would look like if it had a massive swimming pool in it?
Or, how would Buchanan Street look with an elevated monorail?
Or better still,
How would Central Station look with a giant hi-tech termite mound on top of it?
Ever wondered about that?

I know I have.

And the answer is: Probably a lot like this:

These photos were all found on one of my favourite Glasgow sites: Future Glasgow.
Take a look HERE.