The Lost Characters of Frank Hampson

[Wake]

Alastair Crompton and I have just launched a website which shows a number of characters created by Frank Hampson after he finished The Road of Courage for Eagle. They were never published, and the site attempts to tell the story behind this. Also included are some of Frank's Coal Board advertisment strips "The Chalmers" and his rejected version of Modesty Blaise.

Cheers,

Wake

Link: http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Lost Characters of Frank Hampson

http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/images/peterrock_medium.jpg">

[johnnystress]

QUALITY!

[Trout]

Damn right it's quality.

Wake, that's one of the most fascinating and well-written websites I've ever read.

My best wishes for every success with it.

(Let me know if there's any way I can help. I've already passed on a link to one or two of my employer's departments. I doubt there's much help available, but you never know...)

Cheers

- Trout

[Wake]

Did you manage to reach the Attention to Detail page?

I'd like to add a couple more pages about why Frank Hampson was so good - one about his futuristic design work, and another about continuity (having a believable background viewed from different angles in different frames) but I want the images to be scanned from original artwork rather than the published comics or reprints so these will have to wait until suitable scans are available.

I don't suppose you would be able to help with finding more or better versions of The Chalmers which were published only in Scotland. According to Alastair
"The ads, seen only in Scotland, began in the Daily Record on 13th June 1963. The last one I can find ran in the Sunday Citizen on 5th January 1964. I contacted the Advertising Archives to see if any original art had survived. They had none, nor any ?fine? proofs which would have shown the strips as they deserved to be seen."

Cheers,

Wake

Link: http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/detail.html" target="_blank">AN INFINTE CAPACITY FOR TAKING PAINS

http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/images/Ep4c_medium.jpg">

[Dudley]

That's a incredible site, well done!

[Trout]

That page is astonishingly good stuff. I think you're rapidly converting a new fan here, as I'd little experience of Hampson's work.

But I must have missed that "attention to detail" section first time round. Perhaps you should make it more prominent.

On the strips in the Daily Record (side issue: said tabloid publication is affectionately known as "the Daily Retard" in the industry), I have no idea.

However, I'd suggest contacting the Scottish cartoonists' group which advertises in the back of Comics International. The names escapes me. Even if they're no help, they might have a few contacts.

Hmmm. This is no help at all, is it? Sorry.

- Trout

[LARF]

F me I'm crying!

"Matters grew desperate. Eagle bosses shunned Frank, calls were not returned and when he did get through he was mauled by office wags. One morning, dropping the receiver in the midst of a particularly demeaning call, he blundered into his bathroom, swallowed the contents of the medicine cabinet and went to bed to die"

[Mr C]

Damn, that is a shame. He was one of the founding fathers of british comics and to have been treated like that is disgusting.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

It's also known as "The Daily Rangers".

(Sorry)

[Grant Goggans]

Great work, Wake!  It's a real shame none of those characters ever took off.

--Grant

[Wake]

I've just added a Guest book, for anyone who would like to leave their comments on the site itself.

Cheers,

Wake

Link: http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/Guestbook/" target="_blank">Guestbook

[Matt Timson]

Very interesting.  I'd forgotten how much attention to detail the man paid.

[ming]

That's a fantastic site you've out together, Wake.  A very sad story, and even sadder to think that the truth of what happened may never be known in detail.  And that Monogram page really reminded me of Arthur Ranson's work on Shamballa...http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/images/monogram1_medium.gif">

[Wake]

The Frank Hampson site has been updated with two Swift covers and another lost character - Martin Mere, Knight of the North. Unfortunately Martin Mere is a black and white photocopy of a colour original so the details of Frank's linework are hard to make out.

Cheers,

Wake

Link: http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Lost Characters of Frank Hampson

http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/images/Martin1_medium.gif">

[Adrian Bamforth]

Shame about the Modesty Blaise strip since his version looks fantactic to me, he just needed to use a different model.

Not to mention that guy on the left above looks just like Sir Hubert from Dare on a young man's body.

ADE