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I had a good time with this one, all parts of the endgame wrapped up fairly nicely. I am unsure who "another character" in the instructions is referring to. I thought it may be related to the dedicatee in some way, but I can't seem to find any relevance. Either way thanks for the puzzle Botox!

The “another character” is the one in the grey cells in the thematic title isn’t it?

Buzz - The creator of the dedicatee died in 2000 and so no new editions appeared in print after that date. Google the last ever edition and it appeared very shortly after his death.
This does not preclude newspapers rerunning the old stuff so I guess technically you are correct.

I know all that. I just think Listener instructions should be accurate. If they had said it was the character's swan song, or in some other manner referenced that final, unrepreprinted, appearance, I would not take issue. And I found it ironic that it appeared yesterday.

Buzzb, have you noticed how little space there is on the page already with the preamble and clues? Maybe room for ten more letters in the first sentence. Please rewrite the preamble as you think it should be, still fitting the space, and show us. Would “last originally appeared” satisfy you?

yes, 'last originally appeared' is perfect

I thought I was making a light-hearted comment...

Anyone still here?
Sore head and dented wall. I have everything solved but can't see what marks are required and what the thematic title could be. Reading in normal order, in circled cells 3, 4 and 6 I have punctuation marks. Do they occur in a title in those positions?
Is the title one that the asterisked person worked on?
I have found the title from 25 years earlier that links the two characters, but if it's that, I don't understand how it works.

The punctuation marks aren't in the title. And asterisk man wasn't involved in it either. There are two themes one a red herring.
I feel I have finished without fully understanding BTW!

The name of the puzzle cryptically defines the word common to both themes.

Oh, yes I can! Amazing how that happens