Comics artist with MS took his own life in Swiss clinic

A RESPECTED comics artist who illustrated famed characters such as Judge Dredd has ended his life at the Dignitas clinic.

John Hicklenton, who lived in Brighton, East Sussex, died at the Swiss assisted suicide clinic on 19 March aged 42 after a ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis. More than 100 Britons have now travelled there to take their own lives.

Mr Hicklenton was renowned for his grotesque figures in the cult British comic 2000AD, including interpretations of its iconic characters Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock.

Mr Hicklenton, known as Johnny, was a strident MS campaigner and was the subject of an award-winning television documentary charting his fight against the condition. In Here's Johnny, he spoke movingly of using art as an escape, saying: "Drawing is my walking now, I run with it, I fly with it. It's keeping me alive. "I can't wait to get a piece of paper with a pen because it's what I can control."

Mr Hicklenton finished his last drawing the day before going to Dignitas.