That time Geoff Campion drew Spider-Man

Geoff Campion was one of Fleetway/IPC's top adventure strip artists from the 1950s to the 1970s. You'll know his work from strips such as The Spellbinder in Lion to D-Day Dawson in Battle Picture Weekly, and the numerous covers and other strips he illustrated for the company. 

Perhaps one of his most unusual assignments was to draw the cover to the Marvel Annual in 1973. Although Marvel UK were publishing the weekly Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly at the time it seems that IPC packaged the annuals for them for two years. 

The Marvel Annual was all-reprint inside, but the cover was new. Geoff Campion gave us a dynamic Spidey swinging in two tackle a bunch of crooks in a colourful image full of impact. He even managed to sign it (bottom right) as a name chalked on the wall. (Campion was the only artist who had a credit box in Lion, along with writer Frank Pepper, for the Spellbinder strip at that time.) 

It would have been interesting to see his take on a Spider-Man strip, but that never happened. It would be years before any Spidey strips were produced in the UK.

So, next time you think of artists in the UK who have drawn Spider-Man, and names such as Mike Collins, Andy Tong, and Simon Williams come to mind, add Geoff Campion to the list too!