CRUSH OF THE WEEK: RISE AND FALL OF THE TRIGAN EMPIRE (VOL. 1)

18th March 2020 (Released: 19th March 2020)

The Pitch: The first of a four-volume series reprinting The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, a landmark 1960s science fiction series which rivalled Game of Thrones in popularity and was the precursor to every mythic sci-fi adventure to come! Under the leadership of Trigo, the Vorg tribesmen band together to resist the Lokan invaders, forming a new country, The Trigan Empire. Featuring an extraordinary combination of the Roman Empire and ancient Greece, Trigo's story is told in groundbreaking fully painted artwork. Originally published in the anthology titles Ranger from the first issue in September 1965, and Look and Learn from June 1966 until April 1982, the series told the story of an alien empire on the planet Elekton that was heavily influenced by history, particularly Roman. Created by Mike Butterworth, who died in 1986, and artist Don Lawrence, who died in 2004, the series’ mix of political intrigue and Lawrence’s lush painted artwork won a host of fans worldwide and proved to be highly influential, inspiring a generation of comic book creators with its depth and beauty.

Back in the early eighties, when I was all of about nine or ten years old, I visited my Aunt's place. I forget where they lived at the time. It was a long drive from the suburb we lived in, to the suburb she lived in. I think I was sitting on the floor of her living room, possibly playing with some of my cousin's old toys since he'd grown up and got interested in cooler pursuits like girls and music. You know the deal. Or maybe I was just watching their TV as the adults talked and gossiped. It's hard to remember. What I do remember is my Aunt handing me one of my cousin’s old books – a comic book – and telling me I could keep it. He didn't want it anymore. Cooler pursuits. Anyway, we left and I remember flicking through that book, and I didn't know it then, but it was about to change my life. It wasn't like any comic book I'd seen before. First off, it was a book, it had a spine. It was heavy, too. I was used to the floppy newsprint of The Beano, The Dandy, and 2000 AD. Of course, we had the old British annuals in my house when we could afford them or when a kindly neighbour would gift them to me (we were pretty broke back then, with my mum raising seven children on benefits and every kid that was old enough to work being sent out to do just that). But those annuals were tiny in comparison to this monster. And the story inside... The art...

Fast forward. All things must pass. Sure enough, I got older. I got interested in cooler pursuits too. My success rate with those pursuits was mediocre at best, so I always kept an interest in comics. But that book my Aunt gave me eventually disappeared, probably around the late eighties or early nineties. The victim of a rigorous house clearance by my mum or even a sloppy trade-in for some Batman by me. And it stayed gone. I never saw it again. Not in comic shops, not in charity shops, not in actual bookshops. That book, in case you haven't guessed, was The Trigan Empire, written (although I didn't know it at the time) by Mike Butterworth and drawn by the incomparable Don Lawrence. I’m ashamed to admit, though that it slipped from my mind eventually, right up to a couple of years back when Liam Sharp tweeted some of his art from Brave & The Bold. It stirred up the memory of that fantastic art I'd seen years before, art that gave everyone the look of 50's cinema characters. Everyone looked like they belonged in the Kirk Douglas Spartacus movie. The technicolour look was replaced with the dark, rich colours by Romulo Fajardo, Jr. But the art style had instantly recognisable strokes. It reminded me of Don Lawrence and I said as much to Liam. He tweeted back saying thanks and informing me that he had, in fact, been a student of Lawrence. And just like that, Trigan Empire was back in my mind.

You can imagine how excited I was to find out that Rebellion was republishing the Trigan Empire across four volumes. It's hard to explain what this book means to me. It was my first real comic – that is to say, it was the first where I really got a sense of the range of emotions, action, and storytelling. It's epic in scope. Like the 50's cinema, it reminded me of, Trigan ranges across vast spaces over many years – thousands of years in fact. There is simply nothing else like it that I know in the medium. It uses brilliant devices such as having the spacecraft crash on modern-day Earth and the story be a record of history, translated from books found on the ship. It's also fascinating that the man who translates those documents slowly fades from the story. Something I don't recall seeing used since.

The tale itself is incredible, drawing on human history and preaching an ideal of unity. However it has to be pointed out that some of the book's racial politics are less enlightened than modern audiences would be comfortable with, so please bear this in mind if you decide to pick the book up. Trigan is a fusion of old and new, savagery and technology. Military craft sits alongside horseback-riding warriors. Trigan is both futuristic and nostalgic. It speaks to a golden age of science fiction comics and illustration that gave birth to the fantastic artistry you see in the works of Chris Foss and Chris Weston. Trigan is an amazing piece of world-building, standing alongside great fantasy worlds, like those of Tolkien. There's an untold history in its pages, wars, and worlds not spoken of. It's rich in incident and purpose. Without Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics imprint, this could have been lost, like the Trigans at the outset of the story. A truly staggering piece of comics. Hopefully, it'll stay on my shelf this time.