Crossword Genius

Desperate chap in comic, unfinished Hamlet, say (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dan

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'desperate chap' is the definition.
(Desperate Dan is a comic book character)

'unfinished hamlet say' is the wordplay.
'unfinished' means to remove the last letter.
'hamlet say' becomes 'dane' (Shakespeare's Hamlet is Danish).
'dane' with its final letter taken off is 'DAN'.

'in comic' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dan that I've seen before include "Grade level in judo" , "Grade of proficiency in judo" , "Skill level in judo" , "degree of proficiency in judo, say?" , "Karate expert" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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