author : Alastair Crompton

Fully illustrated, using original artwork, sketches from Hampson’s notebooks and studio photos

Frank Hampson was one of the most dedicated and prolific strip cartoonists the world has known. In 1975 an International Jury of his peers voted him the best post-war writer and artist of strip cartoons. Twenty-five years earlier, working on the dining table of his council flat, he created three dummies of EAGLE, Britain’s most famous paper for boys. Nothing like it had been seen before and there has been no comic to compare with it since.

This is the story of how Hampson did it. And went on to create the strip that actually sold EAGLE, Dan Dare, followed by The Road of Courage, a strip version of the life of Christ. The story begins in triumph and ends in tragedy, for when Hampson left Eagle (in 1961) he was to spend 14 years virtually in the wilderness hiding from the fans that pursued him and suffering a series of dangerous illnesses.

The story is built on interviews with Hampson and those he worked with, by author and advertising consultant, Alastair Crompton.