J Nash

The second Subs Letter and the formula begins to formul: more photos, bits at odd angles and AP Investigates. The rubbish Scooby-Doo cut-out was cut out in under 30 seconds at the end of a lunch hour, explaining its rubbishness. I'm still working out what all the knobs on the Art Mac do. This is also why the edge of Shaggy's speech bubble leaks across the margin, despite the fact the grids are on opposite sides of the same page. Note the prediction of the next Subs Letter's contents. THE INNOCENCE. Wrongly calculating the date becomes a regular guest though.

AP43's Subs Letter gained some internal notoriety because it was censored by JD. The purpose of the comic strip was to tell Subs Letter readers how to claim the free game when renewing their sub - which was for new subscribers only, and thus deliberately excluded existing subscribers who'd shown faith in stumping up for a year's issues in the first place.

(This is a typical, mean-spirited publishers' ploy that correctly demonstrates how little they care once you've signed up.)

Thus the centrepiece speech bubble, which originally read, "But hold on. What if, instead of renewing the subscription, you let it lapse, then subscribed anew?"

In other words, the system would now see you as a new subscriber, and you'd receive the sub-up game. It's a well-known trick that's been passed on to subscribers as a courtesy by mag teams, for example a couple of months back by Stuart in one of his Ed's Letters in large print.

But JD squashed it with steely authority. Naturally I left everything else in, thus protestingly drawing attention to this treacherous act of us and themism. Just 22 months later, everyone involved was dead.

Keenly alert readers will connect Hamble's first appearance with the recent mag feature about unintentionally eerie game characters. I'd read somewhere that everyone who worked on Play School suffered genuine shivering revulsion at the Victorian pug-faced doll. This surprising fact amused me greatly, so I popped her in as an aside. It transpired that the entire population of the world felt exactly the same way, and Hamble immediately became a looked-for regular. Honestly, it's finding out what people thought of clowns all over again.