[Investigation] Who inspired the character of Captain Roger/Redbeard?

[Captain Fortune]

Hello my friends,

Do you remember this thread about Captain Ironhood? We enjoyed some wonderful contributions about that ruthless and lovely character from Lego Pirates. Now, I come to you with a theory about Captain Roger/Redbeard/Fortune's origin. I must say that I could not verify it in other sources, nevertheless, it looks very plausible. Hopefully, we will have amazing contributions again, that will give us more information. 

Perhaps some of you have heard about the comics Redbeard  (French: Barbe-Rouge), which is a series of Belgian comic books, originally published in French, created by writer Jean Michel Charlier and artist Victor Hubinon in 1959:

 

If you look at him, the similarities are evident: the name, the red beard, the eye-patch, the two belts, the hat, the sabre and the structure of the coat. There are some differencies too: our Lego Captain is more elegant, he wears a black coat, and he is... clearly more crippled:

Still, if we look at a rare and very interesting design of Lego Captain Redbeard, from an alternative cover of the 1996 catalog, we see this:

Interesting, isn't it?

Obviously, I can't prove that Lego got inspired by this comics character, but it looks reasonable. And probably, Roger/Redbeard/Fortune comes from different sources and historial and fictional captains. But, in this case, the similarities are really remarkable.

I'm waiting for your opinions!

 

 

[Mister Phes]

What if Barbe-Rogue was the inspiration for both Red Beard and Ironhook?

 

[Eggyslav]

I'd say Redbeard is just based on a general, syncretic archetype of a pirate captain, an amalgamation of pirate tropes. He is stylized on infamous Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, but also has the hook hand of Captain Hook, and the pegleg of Long-John Silver, and the eponymous red beard might be a reference to Hizir Rais Barbarossa (Barbarossa means Red Beard), famous ottoman privateer and admiral.