Briggs said the cartoon had become a “real industry”, with “a never-ending stream of merchandise”.

He said: “I can’t explain its popularity but I’m heartily sick of it.”

The author said he created his famous snowman as the antithesis to the “muck and slime” of his earlier work, Fungus The Bogeyman.

He never planned a happy ending for his character, who ends up melting with “his eyes and scarf lying in the slush”.

Briggs, who chose a photo of himself with a snowman for his favourite picture in this week’s S Magazine, said: “Children have to face mortality sooner or later.

“Granny and Grandpa die. Cats, dogs and gerbils die. There’s no point avoiding it.” But when Channel 4 adapted it into an animated film, they softened the ending.

Although the snowman melts, the boy finds a scarf in his pocket – proving that the whole adventure wasn’t just a dream.

Briggs said he was sceptical of the plot but pleased with the result, “not least because the artists took great care replicating the style of my original drawings”.

He introduced the original version but US distributors wanted someone better known, and chose David Bowie in 1984. Briggs, 83, said he wasn’t impressed by the late music legend.

He said: “It was the first time I’d seen a man wearing pink shoes and I was hypnotised by his different coloured eyes.

“When he said he admired my work I muttered, ‘I wish I could say the same’. I suppose I should have said ‘Me too’, but I only vaguely knew what he did. I’ve never been a pop music fan.”