When I commemorated the passing of Greta Tomlinson, former assistant to Frank Hampson and model for Professor Peabody, I thought then that she was the last of those who contributed to Hampson’s studio and the incredible work they did on Dan Dare. I have now learned that I was wrong, but sadly only because another of those creators of magic has passed away. This was Joan Porter, formerly Joan Humphries, a very private person, who has died aged 96. If any still remain, I am not aware of them.
Joan Porter was one of the first assistants brought in by Hampson when first organising his studio, when Eagle and Dan Dare were still a secret not to be unveiled. Apart from a break when she got married, Joan – or ‘Humph’ as Hampson called her – stayed with the studio until it was disbanded by Odhams in 1959. She began as primarily a colourist, but rapidly became the effective studio manager, overseeing supplies, resources and reference material. She was the photographer who took the photos of Hampson and Co modelling panels from the ‘roughs’, to help produce a finished image that was wholly realistic as to light and shadow and the folds in clothing.
And she was the chief supplier of Rennie’s indigestion tablets to the perpetually overworking Hampson.
After Dan Dare, she was reunited with Hampson for the astonishing ‘The Road of Courage’, leading to him writing not just his thanks but a commitment that, whatever he did in future, he would want her to do his colouring. As we know, tragically, there was not to be anything else for her to work upon.
She kept away from Eagle fandom for the most part, refusing interviews, put off by the amount of misleading information being spread about. How she spent her life I don’t know but I hope and trust it was happy for she deserved it, as did everyone who was part of the incredible work they produced under Frank Hampson’s genius and leadership. That is one unbelievable art team they now have up there, and no need to keep the Rennies at hand.
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