By Rory Reynolds
Scottish funnyman Billy Connolly is set to become a comic-book character.
The Glasgow-born comedian will appear as an assassin called “Il Duce” in the series of comics to come out with the film Boondock Saints II, released later this year.
The world-famous comedian played the same character in the cult 1999 original Boondock Saints.
He said: “I like careering around shooting people and murdering people – I don’t think I would like to do it in my life, but it’s a great chance to pretend.
“I have got a much bigger part in this film and it’s great to be able to do the sequel after 10 years.
“This is streets ahead of most of the things I’ve done.”
The artwork for the comic, by the USA-based 12 Gauge Comics, features Connolly as an aggressive looking bearded figure wearing sunglasses and brandishing two large handguns.
His character, Il Duce, is the father of the two main characters, who are played in the film version by Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery.
They play vigilantes who take on Boston’s underworld in a spree of gunfights and violence.
Connolly’s character is ordered to kill his sons, but teams up with them to take on the mob.
Jason Love, a co-writer on the comic book said: “Anybody who loves the films is going to love what we’re going for in the comics.”
This comes as fellow Scot Ian Rankin is set to release his own graphic novel, dubbed “Dark Entries”.
The comic is set in the same shadowy world as the Keanu Reeves movie blockbuster “Constantine”.
And Rankin reckons that he’s found his new passion in the horror series.
He said: “Novelists have it easy – we make the reader do all the work.”
“Writing a comic script, I had to detail point-of-view, background, what characters looked like and what they were wearing.
“It’s like being director, cameraman, scriptwriter and editor all in one.”
The plot centres on a reality TV show where unlucky contestants are killed off, and Rankin added that he is fascinated by mind-numbing reality TV shows.
He added: “What do they say about us as humans and about prevailing contemporary culture?”
