« I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited. » — Charles Bronson
Welcome to our 400th post! I suppose a Steve Ditko birthday post would have been more momentous, but I did that already a couple of years ago, while he still drew breath.
Today, our man Charles Dennis Buchinsky, aka Charles Bronson (1921 – 2003… he would have turned 98 today — picture that!) squeezes in a rather routine bit part (merely credited as « The Pilot ») in Joe Molloy and Mike Zeck’s nonsensical hijacking melodrama Only a Toy. Heck, read it here if you don’t believe me.
Oddly enough, this expanded cameo came about just a year after Bronson’s megahit Death Wish, as Bronson reached the pinnacle of his earning power (in inverse proportion to the quality of his output, thanks to his long association with the shady Cannon Group). Presumably, he was just doing a favour for his old pal Zeck.
Ah, but this wasn’t the first time cartoonists had paid such tribute to Bronson: in 1971, writer Jean-Marie Brouyère and artist William Tai (aka Malik) created the South-America set Archie Cash series for Belgian bédé weekly Spirou. The series had a healthy run of 15 albums (what one would call a graphic novel over in North America) between 1973 and 1988.
The Italians would then follow suit, “borrowing” Jean-Paul Belmondo‘s likeness for their Goldrake series around 1972, followed by Alain Delon‘s looks for Playcolt, and more exploitively, Ornella Muti‘s charms for Sukia. Mind you, all these liberties with celebrity likenesses don’t make Brian Hitch‘s laziness and lack of imagination any less reprehensible.
Anyway, back to our birthday boy: if you want to see Bronson at his finest, I recommend his early, pre-moustache TV showcase Man With a Camera (1958)… the 29-episode boxed set’ll cost you peanuts and it’s great value. Then, from his European period, you can’t go wrong with 1968’s Adieu l’ami (Farewell, Friend), co-starring the aforementioned Mr. Delon; 1970’s gloriously weird Le passager de la pluie (Rider on the Rain), 1971 winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and co-starring creepy Eva Green‘s mom (or should that be “mum”?) Marlène Jobert. And of course 1971’s Soleil rouge (Red Sun), co-starring, this time not only Delon, but none other than Toshirô Mifune!
Happy birthday, Mr. Buchinsky!
– RG
Who's Out There? 
Hogun the Grimm from the Warriors Three was at least partially inspired by Charles Bronson.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/hogun/4005-3511/
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Hi Ben! Not that it matters much, but I’m inclined to doubt it, first because Stan’s the source (he sure is emphatic with his “I made those up” and “Those three were mine”), but largely because Bronson hadn’t even grown his trademark moustache by the time the Warriors Three came along. Charlie’s ‘stache arrived almost three years later, in 1968 (if memory serves).
I do buy that Volstagg was inspired by Falstaff and that Fandral’s based on Errol Flynn, however. 😉
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Okay, that’s a valid point. I’ve also heard it suggested a few times that Hogun might have been based on Genghis Khan. That might be a bit more accurate. In any case, any time I read a story where the Warriors Three are hanging out at some Asgardian tavern I end up thinking to myself that it feels like a set-up for a joke. “Robin Hood, Flastaff and Genghis Khan walk into a bar…”
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Ha! Glad you also thought of Genghis, Ben. I was thinking of John Wayne in that infamous, misbegotten epic, The Conqueror. http://www.reellifewithjane.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/John-Wayne-Genghis-Khan.jpg
(much closer, down to the hat!)
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/19/the-conqueror-film/
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