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Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Wednesday Comics: Trigan Empire

Before jumping back into the next volume of Storm, I thought it was worth mentioning another long-running comic Don Lawrence was the artist on: Trigan Empire (or originally: The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire). The strip ran in British children's educational magazines Ranger and then Look and Learn from 1965 to 1982.

It tells the story of long ago events on the planet Elekton, focusing chiefly on the foundation and travails of the Trigan Empire who are essentially Flash Gordon Romans.

I haven't read it, but Don Lawrence's art always looks cool, as does this map:


8 comments:

  1. I remember this! It was at some neighbours house or doctors office, so I only read it sporadically. It made no sense that way, of course, but it was cool as hell.

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  2. Love the winged kiaju armadillo in the North. Looks beautifully crazy.

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  3. I have a copy of it. A spaceship crashes on Earth and one man spends most of life working to decipher its secrets. A series of vignettes tell the story of the Trigons of the planet Elekton. a great book in Don Lawrence's classic style.

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  4. Funny you're mentioning "Trigan Empire" now. The stories of "Storm" you are now summarizing, with all the Azurians, were supposed to be like "Trigan Empire" by request of the staff of "Eppo" magazine. Dick Matena, who did the scenario at that time, gave in, even though he wanted to do something more sophisticated. But when the staff saw "The Battle for Earth", they suddenly said: "Whoa, but this is TOO MUCH like "Trigan Empire".

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  5. They put out a hardcover of the first few...years, maybe, when I was a kid. My dad bought it for me because he was cool. It was pretty great. The opening, with the crashed ship crewed by (dead) giants was evocative as hell. But it just ended; I didn't know at the time that there was more and I'm surprised that no one has decided to package and reprint the whole thing. I'd buy it.

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    Replies
    1. There is a complete 12-volume set, but it's pricey.

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  6. As a child in the '70s I used to read Look And Learn magazine. My parents were happy because it was "educational" and I was happy because it had The Trigan Empire in it.

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  7. wie kan mij helpen aan het geheimschrift of alfabet van Trigiƫ.
    Via internet is er niks te vinden.
    Jullie zouden mij er een heel groot plezier mee doen.
    stefvkampen@gmail.com

    Groetjes Stef

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