Comic Convention

Spotlight On Portsmouth Comic Con 2019: Laurence Campbell

Published

7 years ago

March 26, 2019

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An Old School Comic Artist

♦ The second Portsmouth Comic Con takes place in just under six weeks’ time and Tripwire is proud to be a part of it once again. Here is the latest spotlight feature looking at one of its guests, artist Laurence Campbell…

A British comic artist based in Whitstable, Campbell’s first job was working on Caliber’s Negative Burn anthology but it was his work at 2000AD on strips like Breathing Space and Judge Dredd with Rob Williams, John Wagner and Si Spurrier that got him noticed.

The artist realised that he could draw from a very early age as he admitted in an interview with Multiversity back in 2013: ” I guess that would of been in the infants school around 6 years old. I remember teachers commenting about my drawings of dinosaurs. Later throughout school I used to win competitions and I guess it continued from there really.” Multiversity Laurence Campbell interview 2013

He later moved onto Marvel, working on books like Punisher, Wolverine and Moon Knight. Since 2013 he has been the regular series artist on Dark Horse’s longrunning Hellboy spinoff, BPRD.

Campbell has drawn most of BPRD in recent years but there have also been other artists who have drawn specific arcs on the book. In an interview he did with us in 2016, he said that he enjoyed seeing these other artists’ work himself, so he is obviously a fan of comic art: “I am excited about the other artists that they bring on board. When you’ve got James [Harren] there, he brings such a kinetic energy. I absolutely love seeing his work.” Tripwire Laurence Campbell interview 2016

Campbell is attracted by the anti-heroes in comics, he revealed in an interview with Wicked Horror last year: “I do seem to like characters that feel a bit more three dimensional and have an edge to them. I think people are interesting when they are broken or reveal darker sides of themselves. Whether I have consciously decided to draw these characters? I would say no, but I am happy that it seems to have gone that way.” Wicked Horror Laurence Campbell interview 2017

The artist is coming off his long run on Dark Horse’s BPRD, one of the best-regarded runs in modern comics.

Campbell has become one of the most distinctive artists working in comics today and we are proud he is back at the show for a second year. His work is also featured in Masters Of Comics by Joel Meadows along with many other exceptional comic artists, with early copies available at Portsmouth this May