Frank Hampson (21 December 1918 – 8 July 1985) was an English illustrator. He is best known as the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the boys' comic, the Eagle, to which he contributed from 1950 to 1961.

Biography

Hampson was born at 488 Audenshaw Road, Audenshaw, near to Manchester (now Tameside), and was educated at King George V School, a grammar school in Southport. His brother Eric was killed in a naval action during the Second World War. He married Dorothy Mabel Jackson in 1944 and in 1947 they had a son, Peter.

<!-- Commented out: thumb|A Frank Hampson & Don Harley panel from the 1959 Eagle Annual No. 8: Dan Dare in Operation Moss -->

In 1949, in collaboration with Anglican vicar Rev. Marcus Morris, he devised a new children's magazine, the Eagle, which Morris took to the Hulton Press. In April the following year, a revised version of the Eagle hit the bookstalls. Its most popular strip was Hampson's creation Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. He wrote and drew Dan Dare's Venus and Red Moon stories, plus a complete storyline for Operation Saturn. However, Hampson drew only part of the Saturn story and his script was altered when he passed the strip to assistants.

Like Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff in the U.S., Hampson instituted a studio system where, originally in Southport and later from his home in Epsom, Surrey, as many as four artists might work on two pages of the strip at any one time. When Hulton Press was bought up in 1959, and the Eagle moved to a new publisher, Hampson's studio system was disbanded due to its cost.

He drew The Road of Courage, a carefully researched and meticulously crafted telling of the life of Jesus, with the help of his longtime assistant, Joan Porter, which concluded at Easter 1961. Hampson then began to devise seven other strip cartoon ideas, which he intended to offer to the Eagle. Partly through his own mismanagement (he told no-one what he was doing) Longacre Press accused him of breach of contract. He was forced to resign, his new strips were impounded by the legal department, and he rarely drew for comics again. The remainder of Hampson's life was spent working as a freelance commercial artist

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Further reading

  • The Artwork of Frank Hampson The Official Frank Hampson website maintained by P & S Hampson
  • The Lost Characters of Frank Hampson
  • Biography of Frank Hampson
  • A complete history of Dan Dare and the Eagle comic at www.dan-dare.net
  • The official Science Museum print website containing a number of Dan Dare posters
  • A Tribute to Frank Hampson