Every week back in the sixties my parents would have the magazine Look and Learn delivered with the papers. I immediately sat down to read what I thought was the best feature, and more to the point my favourite British comic strip The Trigan Empire.
Originating in the short-lived Ranger "boys" magazine which lasted for just 40 issues, The Trigan Empire was obviously well liked enough to transfer to the pages of the stronger selling Look & Learn.
Originating in the short-lived Ranger "boys" magazine which lasted for just 40 issues, The Trigan Empire was obviously well liked enough to transfer to the pages of the stronger selling Look & Learn.
A mixture of barbarians, Roman Empire style adventures with science fiction elements thrown in this fantasy adventure also has some of the, if not the finest artwork in any British comic.
Drawn by the late Don Lawrence, The Trigan Empire (originally called The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire) was set on the planet Elekton. It's history becoming known to mankind when a spaceship with a long dead crew crashes on earth. The whole history of the Trigan (originally a barbarian tribe called the Vorg) is contained in it's "record books" (remember this was long before computers were used in everyday life).
I was lucky enough to come across a copy of The Tales of the Trigan Empire (Hawk Books 1989) an over sized book of reprints at my local comic shop which contained a number of stories, some of which I remembered; A Tale of Invasion & A Tale of Evil (set on Elekton's moon) plus others that I would have read but were long forgotten in the mists of time
The above illustration is a reminder of the very first story I remember reading as the Vorgs (later the Trigan Empire) are held back in their attempts to build a civilisation by Lokan aircraft of sorts.
Drawn by the late Don Lawrence, The Trigan Empire (originally called The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire) was set on the planet Elekton. It's history becoming known to mankind when a spaceship with a long dead crew crashes on earth. The whole history of the Trigan (originally a barbarian tribe called the Vorg) is contained in it's "record books" (remember this was long before computers were used in everyday life).
I was lucky enough to come across a copy of The Tales of the Trigan Empire (Hawk Books 1989) an over sized book of reprints at my local comic shop which contained a number of stories, some of which I remembered; A Tale of Invasion & A Tale of Evil (set on Elekton's moon) plus others that I would have read but were long forgotten in the mists of time
The above illustration is a reminder of the very first story I remember reading as the Vorgs (later the Trigan Empire) are held back in their attempts to build a civilisation by Lokan aircraft of sorts.
The Vorgs had a lot of problems raising themselves from the rank of barbarian (see above) but with patience and the inevitable wars that Empires are founded on became a mighty empire on the face of
their world.
The Trigan Empire lasted from it's first story in Ranger published in September 1965, moving to Look and Learn #232 (June 1966) and ran until the magazines demise in 1982, appearing in a grand total of 854 issues.
The Trigan Empire was briefly reprinted in the short lived Vulcan comic and there have been a number of collections, the main one being the 12 volume run produced by The Don Lawrence Collection a few years back. These are high quality publications and a price to show for it. Worth picking up if you can afford them.
Personally I can't recommend this story enough. A wonderful story that certainly caught this child's attention back then and still stands the test of time today.
Further reading: The Worlds of Don Lawrence
I still have two collected book stories from when I was a kid, the artwork and story remains magnificient today as it was then
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