He was better. He was so good, his peers voted him the best strip cartoon storyteller in the world. It happened in 1975, at an international convention celebrating the creators of strip cartoons and animated films. This same convention is held bi-annually at Lucca in Tuscany and of all of them, this is the biggie.
Lucca in 1975 was chaired by the late Hugo Pratt, Italy’s comic strip wunderkind. He invited Dennis Gifford to come to Lucca, and bring with him an artist of his choice. Gifford wanted to take Leo Baxendale (The Bash Street Kids et al) but Leo couldn’t make it. So Hampson was invited, all expenses paid, provided he took some of his original artwork and allow it to be displayed.
Hampson had to beg IPC to loan him back some of his boards, which were provided on condition they were returned (I doubt if they were). When the delegates saw his work, they were thunder-struck, and the convention committee created for him a special award, prestigioso maestro.
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He was also given a Yellow Kid, the
strip cartoon equivalent of an Oscar
and declared the best writer and
artist of comic strips since the end
of WW2.
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