Romans in space, a boys own adventure (The Trigan Empire: The Invaders from Gallas - Mike Butterworth)

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	The Trigan Empire: The Invaders from Gallas - Mike Butterworth
Date:	11/08/09 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Glorious art, British comics at their best.

Disadvantages: Stories are a little simplistic by todays standards

There was a time, back when I was a little boy that a trip to the school library meant a fight to get to a certain box. This box contained the only school approved magazine of the time. This magazine was called 'Look and Learn' and it was loved by schools and parents because it was packed with articles full of facts the children could learn and presented in a way they could understand and enjoy.

Of course that wasn't why we rushed to grab the latest issue, or to reread previous ones. The only thing we all wanted to read in that august magazine was the two page comic strip that was in every single issue.
This strip was called The Trigan Empire and was something that stuck in my memory, never to be forgotten. It really did have that much of an impact on me.

The Trigan Empire, originally called 'The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire', first appeared in 1965 in a short lived magazine called Ranger before it moved over to Look and Learn 9 months later when Ranger folded, and it told the tale of a far off planet and the people who lived on it. The Trigan Empire itself is very much based on the Roman one down to the look and the nature of its society.

The Trigan Empire story ran from 1965 until 1982 when Look and Learn folded, a victim no doubt of the more action packed, violent boys comics around at that time.

The whole story had a few writers and artists but it is the long period, from the beginning until the mid 70's when it was written by Mike Butterworth and drawn, or painted would be a better description, by Don Lawrence.

Trigan Empire was a very popular strip and had a number of stories collected into two large hard cover editions released in the mid to late 70's and in 1989, where I first reacquainted myself with the series. It was also reprinted in the weekly comic Vulcan (an unusual British comic that consisted of reprints of old British strips)

Then a few years back the Don Lawrence Collection, based in Holland where his art is worshipped, began its mission to reprint every Trigan Empire story painted by Lawrence as it was originally released (the other reprints cut pages and rearranged artwork all to fit how they wanted it to) in large scale, 13¾ by 9¾ inch, top quality hardback editions.

Now all 12 of these volumes have been released, in limited numbers of 500 per volume, and the legend that was The Trigan Empire can be reread by all its old fans, and hopefully new ones as well.

The first volume of The Trigan Empire reprints, The Invaders From Gallas, brings us the original five stories in the epic tale of three brothers, their people and the creation of an empire.
Covering stories from September 1965 to September 1966 the first story, Victory for the Trigans, sets up the series as a whole. A spaceship crashes into the swamps of Florida. On board are a few dead, frozen bodies and a whole set of books, books telling the history of another civilisation far out in the deepest reaches of space.

Translating the books takes one man a lifetime to decipher, but finally he manages it and the story of the Fall and Rise of the Trigan Empire can finally be told to others.

Victory for the Trigans introduces us to three of the main characters that the story will concentrate on throughout its long life.
Trigo and Brag, two brothers who lead a tribe of Vorgs, a simple race who thrive on hunting and wandering their lands, and Peric, a scientist who becomes the brains behind the brothers power.

It tells the tale of the creation of the city of Trigo and how an empire was begun. It also tells of the first war the civilisation encounters, with the nasty and evil Lokans.

The second story, Crash in the Jungle is only 6 pages long (compared to the epic 39 page opening one).
It introduces us to two younger cast members... Brag's son, and Trigos' nephew, Janno and his soon to be best friend Keren, both in their early twenties.
The six pages also bring in a new race, the Davelis, who soon become firm friends with Trigo and the Vorgs, so much so that Keren, the chiefs son, joins up with the Trigans and becomes one of their pilots.

The next two stories are both connected, though can still be read as separate entities.
The Falling Moon sees a giant asteroid heading towards the Lokan capitol, leading to their ruler deciding to invade Trigan city to save themselves from the forthcoming cataclysm.
The Invaders From Gallas comes out of that story. The asteroid that eventually hit wasn't empty. In it were alien invaders who use guile and tactics to try and take over the planet, starting with Trigan city.
The Land of no Return is the final story in volume 1 and gives us a look into the way death is looked at by the Vorgs.
Borrowing an idea from Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series (later co-opted by Judge Dredd as well) we learn that once a Vorg considers he, or she, has lived a full life they have a jewel encrusted boat built for them and they sail off down the river Pyx to live their final days in the paradise that is Hellas.
Peric decides to take this journey in this short story, but what he finds is not what he expects.

Even 40+ years later the stories still stand up. They do sometimes lack a good ending, going instead for the quick wrap up once all the major problems have been solved. An invasion is routed in a matter of panels once Trigo has discovered the plan and formulated a way of stopping it for example, but the build up to is superb and quite detailed for its time.
A series that could be aptly described as Romans with ray guns, as interesting as that is, is still so revered to this day because of the incredible detail of the artwork, and the truly breathtaking painted style it was done in.

Don Lawrence is probably one of the greatest comic artists to come from our shores. The detail and quality of his painted art is superb and it is that that makes Trigan Empire such a legendary creation. There is a real difference to painted art that makes it almost jump off the page at you. The colours are so much more vibrant than with normal pencil and ink art.
There are really no words to justify how good the art is, it draws you into the story and makes you forget how old they are, reminding you that when something is good it is always good, no matter when it was made.

Summary: A space opera in the truest sense.