HOW TO KILL OFF A COMIC STRIP

Regular readers will know that I was a big fan of comic books when I was a kid and I'm still fond of the old comics. Battle was a particular favourite of mine and the comics first superstar was D-Day Dawson.

There's an interesting feature in the current issue of Crikey in which Pat Mills, the characters creator, spills the beans on all things Dawson. It's a great read and I highly recommend the magazine.

Mills, who has gone on to become a legend of comics, reveals that when they initially created the character the story was intended to run for twelve issues and twelve issues only. The character had been wounded during the D-DAY landings but continued fighting on week after week, while the bullet inside him moved closer and closer to his heart. The bullet will eventually kill him and Dawson decides to go out fighting.

However British comics of the day used to have a small "VOTE FOR YOUR TOP STORY" box for readers to cut out and send in with their letters and Dawson kept getting the most votes so when the time came to kill the character off the management said NO NO NO. For Mills this was a nightmare and he and his co-creator John Wagner grew bored with the character and worse than that they found he stilted their creativity. But no matter what they did - farming the strip out to lesser writers, hiring poor artists, the strip remained in the top spot with readers.

Eventually the lack of quality did find readers turn away from the strip but the comic went from strength to strength - after all Major Easy,Rat Pack, Johnny Red and Darkie's Mob were around to replace Dawson. It was though, Mills admits, a sorry way for Dawson to go out.