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The Bogie Man by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Robin Smith, is Loose Again!

By John Freeman on May 16, 2023

The Bogie Man - The Incomplete Files - Cover

This summer sees the long-awaited return of The Bogie Man, in a near-complete collection of tales as Scotland’s favourite crackpot detective is once more loose on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh, written by John Wagner (Judge Dredd/A History of Violence) and celebrated Batman/Lobo writer Alan Grant, drawn by 2000AD’s former art editor Robin Smith.

Escaped from Greenock’s Spinbinnie Hospital, Francis Forbes Clunie suffers from an extreme and unusual delusion – he believes he’s Humphrey Bogart, or an amalgam of characters played by Bogart and others in classic noir films like The Maltese Falcon. Fabricating a ‘case’ as he goes along, ‘Bogie’ sucks innocents he meets into his bizarre fantasy, leaving mayhem and confusion in his wake.

The award-winning original story, released to coincide with Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture, remains the UK’s highest selling independent comic, and has since spawned a BBC comedy-drama and sequels Chinatoon (1993) and Return to Casablanca (2005).

“The original books are very hard to find now,” says Wagner, “with copies selling for outrageous sums on eBay. We felt it was the right time to make the Bogie Man adventures available again to readers at a more reasonable price.”

The Bogie Man by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Robin Smith

Return to Casablanca, set in Edinburgh, has never before been reprinted and in addition, for the more than 300-page volume, Wagner and Smith have created a new short story, Key Largs, based on a title dreamt up by late co-creator Grant, who sadly passed away in 2022.

The book will be launched this May via Kickstarter, when there will even be a chance for readers to feature in the comic strip themselves, as well as perks on offer such as poster and more, with Mike Perkins (Captain America, Swamp Thing) providing the cover to a hardback edition.

“Just send us a couple of photographs,” says Smith, “and you could be personally roughed up or verbally abused by Bogie.

“As he would say – ‘You know you got it comin’.’ ”

• The Bogie Man: The Incomplete Case Files is on Kickstarter from 25th May to 9th July 2023 – head here to be notified on launch

• Check out The Bogie Man at

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.