You may follow top cleric, a comic fellow (6)
I believe the answer is:
popeye
'a comic fellow' is the definition.
(Popeye is a comic strip character)
'you may follow top cleric' is the wordplay.
'you' becomes 'ye' (historical version of 'you').
'may follow' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (some letters go after others).
'top cleric' becomes 'pope' (the pope is the most senior Catholic cleric).
'ye' after 'pope' is 'POPEYE'.
(Other definitions for popeye that I've seen before include "Bluto's rival" , "The Sailor Man" , "Spinach-eating cartoon character" , "Spinach-eating sailor" , "Spinach and Olive Oyl lover" .)