Geoff Campion

Who was Geoff Campion?

Arthur Geoffrey Campion was a British comics artist who drew adventure strips for Amalgamated Press/IPC.

He started out as a tax inspector. As a staff officer in the East India Command in WWII he began drawing cartoons for the forces' magazine, Jambo. Returning to England, he responded to an ad from the Amalgamated Press looking for artists in 1948. He was hired by editor Leonard Matthews to draw humour strips like "Professor Bloop" in Knock-Out, and filled in on a variety of strips for AP artist Hugh McNeill, including a Thunderbolt Jaxon comic for publication in Australia in 1949.

Matthews then recruited him to draw westerns for Cowboy Comics Library - when Campion protested he couldn't draw horses, Matthews replied "Bloody well learn then!". He established himself as one of AP/Fleetway's leading adventure artists, working for titles like The Comet and Sun as well as Knock-Out. Aside from westerns, like "Strongbow the Mohawk", "Buffalo Bill" and "Billy the Kid", he drew WWII aviation strip "Battler Britton", historical strips like "Dick Turpin", a highwaywoman strip, "Black Velvet", for Poppet, and adaptations of Quo Vadis and Last of the Mohicans. He also drew "Tales of the Gold Monkey" and "The Cyclone King" for TV Comic, and for Eagle, Playhour and Look and Learn.