Francis Forbes Clunie is an inmate at Scotland’s Spinbinne Mental Home who bears a startling resemblance to actor Humphrey Bogart; unfortunately, this has led to a deep-seated delusion that he is a bizarre amalgam of all of Bogart’s most famous characters. Every so often Clunie escapes, and leaves a trail of chaos and confusion in his wake as he re-enacts plots and solves mysteries from Bogie’s movies, working people and events around him into this fantasy – so overhearing crooks discussing stolen Christmas turkeys becomes a hunt for the Maltese Falcon, and woe betide the first unfortunate “Fat Man” Clunie encounters.
Created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and drawn by artist Robin Smith, the original Bogie Man comic was printed in Scotland by Fat Man Press. Sequels were subsequently published in UK’s Toxic and by Tundra and Atomeka. Most recently he returned and rampaged through Edinburgh in Judge Dredd Megazine.
In 1992 Scottish actor and comedian Robbie Coltrane played Clunie in a BBC TV adaptation of the original miniseries.