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The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire
File:Trigan2.jpg Tales From the Trigan Empire, 1989
Created by	Mike Butterworth Don Lawrence
Publication information
Publisher	Fleetway Big Balloon (Dutch) Uitgeverij Oberon (Dutch)
Schedule	Weekly
Formats	Original material for the series has been published as a strip in the comics anthology(s) Ranger and Look and Learn.
Original language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publication date	September 1965 – April 1982
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mike Butterworth Ken Roscoe
Artist(s)	Don Lawrence Oliver Frey Gerry Wood Philip Corke Ramon Sola Ron Embleton Miguel Quesada
Reprints
Collected editions
The Prisoner of Zerss	ISBN 9073508541
The Sun Worshippers	ISBN 9073508622
House of the Five Moons	ISBN 9073508649
The Curse of King Yutta	ISBN 9073508665
The Three Princes	ISBN 9073508789
The Rallu Invasion	ISBN 9073508827
The Reign of Thara	ISBN 9073508843
Revolution in Zabriz	ISBN 9073508916
The Puppet Emperor	ISBN 9073508932
The Red Death	ISBN 9073508967

The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, later retitled The Trigan Empire was a science fiction comic series that featured in British educational magazines Ranger and Look and Learn, both published by Fleetway Publications The series was written mainly by Mike Butterworth and most notably drawn by Don Lawrence. It told the story of the rise of an alien culture on a planet that contained a blend of scientifically advanced and Earth-like ancient civilizations.

Publication history

The Trigan Empire first featured in the British weekly children's educational magazine Ranger #1 (18 Sept. 1965), and appeared on two pages of every issue of the title, which ended with the 40th un-numbered issue(18 June 1966) soon after the fourth story began. The series was immediately transferred to another Fleetway title, Look and Learn, from issue #232 (25 June 1966) when "Ranger" was amalgamated with that title. Both publications were weekly educational magazines designed for young people; although mainly filled with articles on life, history, science and technology, both contained a comic strip section in each issue - the "Look and Learn" section, taking up the centre of the magazine and originally titled 'Ranger supplement', held the two-page "Trigan Empire" centre-spread.

The series ran continuously in Look and Learn until that title ceased publication with issue 1049 (17 April 1982), a total of 854 issues and 89 stories, plus one text story, between the two magazines, although some of these were reprints of earlier tales. Most stories took up to pages a week, although some of the earlier Look and Learn issues were only 1 1/2 pages long, the rest of the space being taken up by advertisements. Most early tales varied between 5 and 13 issues in length, but with the 31 issue extended story "The Three Princes" (story 14) longer tales became ...

Background

The Trigan Empire dealt with the long-past events of the titular empire on the distant planet of Elekton, and its interactions with other civilisations on the planet and its surrounding moons. These civilisations ranged from primitive tribesmen to near-space travelling city-states, all of whom speak a common language and live in a mixture of high-technology and low-technology societies, reflected by the apparent modelling of the Trigan Empire on the Roman empire, with many of the populace dressed in Toga-like garments or, in the case of the military, in Roman-style armour; the Hericonian peoples on elements of the Byzantine empire, and the Persian Empire and others such as the Daveli bearing visual and social similarities to African tribal societies and desert warriors in Arab costume. However, the Trigans, Hericonians, and the green-skinned warmongering people of the Lokan Empire also exhibited science-fiction technological advances such as heat rays, ray-guns, hover-tanks, atmosphere craft and fighter planes constructed like spaceships (but restricted to the atmosphere of the planet of Elekton), and later build a rocketship in months to fly to one of Elekton's moons.

Fictional history

The story begins with a 'cosmo-craft' hurtling 'out of control - as it had been for 8 billion miles' crashing into a swamp in Florida in front of a man and his son fishing, with 'a dead hand on the Astro-Helm' and a 'crew that had been frozen to death' . The spaceship is retreived and turned into the central attraction of an American World Fair, while the 'many volumes and charts' written in an unknown language found on board are studied by 'professors and learned men from across the world' . Eventually Peter Richard Haddon, a scientist who had been studying the books since he was a young man designs a computer program to decrypt the language, revealing the history of the Trigan Empire.

The writings reveal that the spaceship comes from Elekton, a planet orbiting Yarna, a star a billion miles from Earth Elekton has eight comtinents, the largest, Victis having five countries, the smallest of which, Vorg, populated by 'wandering but highly civilised tribes' and dinosaur-like creatures, some of which they have domesticated. One of these Vorg tribes is initially under the leadership of three brothers, Trigo, Brag and Klud. Trigo persuades his brothers that, in the face of centuries of military ambition of the neighbouring Lokan Empire, a 'highly mechanised' 'nation of merciless warriors' that had long been working to one end - the conquest of the planet, they must leave behind their nomadic existence. Trigo has a vision of forming a settled civilization 'The Fabulous City of Trigan' on five hills with a river running between. The tribe is attacked by a Lokan atmosphere scout ship and Brag's son is killed; but Trigo persuades his tribe 'to build our city ... learn the ways of our enemies ... and nurse our vengeance in our hearts till we are ready to strike' , and the fledgling Trigan nation is established under Trigo's leadership.

When Trigo's initial plans to build a city on the plains of Vorg fail - the protective wall around the five hills falls down due to amateur construction - there is a fateful meeting with refugees from the nation of Tharv, which has been destroyed by the Lokans. Among these refugees is the renowned architect, engineer and scientist Peric and his daughter Salvia. Peric agrees to help Trigo with his city plans as long as his people are allowed to remain with the Vorgs; and the Vorgs fatefully toss a coin to decide whether to invade Vorg or Cato next, choosing Cato. Cato's resistance is strong, and their famed 'single-seater battle-scouts' defeat the Lokan airforce, while their deliberate breaching of their great dam gives Cato total victory over the Lokan land forces, buying the Trigans time to build their city defenses under Peric.

Although his brother Brag was willing to give up his claim to leadership to allow Trigo to become sole ruler of his people, Trigo's other brother Klud tries to assassinate him, and is captured by the Lokans while fleeing after he fails (although he has poisoned Trigo). The Lokans attack the Trigan peoples with what remains of their air force, but are tricked by Trigans dressed as Lokan soldiers, the traitor Klud is killed in the fighting and the Lokan flying craft are seized by Trigo, who uses them to destroy the Lokan army attacking Cato.

Stories 02 - 10

In the following years the Trigans form an alliance with the jungle civilisation of Daveli after Peric's daughter saves the life of the chief's son, Keren, with her advanced medical knowledge and allies with the desert races of The Citadel when he (who???) rescues them from attack after the Lokans take over Trigan City by deception and Trigo is enslaved in the desert after escaping.

Main characters

Trigo - Trigo is the founder of the Empire.

Brag - Trigo's brother. While some consider him slow and perhaps a bit stupid, Brag is well-meaning and ever faithful to his brother. Despite living in relative luxury with all the benefits of technological civilisation, there are times that Brag wishes he could return to his life as a simple Vorg huntsman. He keeps himself in good physical shape despite growing older.

Peric - Chief architect of the destroyed nation of Tharv. Peric is of advanced years but remains fairly healthy. He is regarded as the greatest living architect on Elekton and an accomplished engineer and scientist. He is often behind many of the great accomplishments of the Empire.

Salvia - Peric's daughter and a skilled user of advanced medicines.

Janno - Janno is the son of Brag and nephew to Emperor Trigo. A courageous individual, he has a natural aptitude as an atmosphere craft pilot. He is friends with Keren, the son of Chief Imbala of Daveli and Roffa from the City State of Ellul.

Keren - Son of Imbala, ruler of the jungle kingdom of Daveli. Janno's best friend and skilled atmosphere craft pilot.<Ref=story2 />

King Kassar of Hericon ally to Trigo and brother of Trigo's wife, Lady Ursa. He is killed in rioting in Trigan City (The FOur Princes)

Lady Ursa sister of King Kassar of Hericon, marries Trigo.

Prince Argo, Prince Nikko and Prince Rilla - Trigo's sons. Rilla and NIkko are given to Nord travellers, Argo becomes Prince, but falls under the power of an alien and takes the throne. Rilla is assassinated the day after taking power by a merchant who thinks he is the deposed Argo

Thara niece of Trigo who takes over the empire to become first Empress, then works with Peric's daughter as a doctor.

Roffa boffin from Ellu who flies a quatro-plane. Becomes an officer in the Air Fleet.

Writers

• Mike Butterworth
• Ken Roscoe

Artists

can't find references to which issues the other artists did, and not familiar enough with work

• Don Lawrence Ranger #1-40 Look and Learn #232-382 #391-752
• Oliver Frey #753 - 853?
• Gerry Wood #854 -
• Philip Corke
• Ramon Sola
• Ron Embleton #383-390
• Miguel Quesada

Stories

Note that although there were never any official titles for the stories, these are the names being used in the reprints from the Don Lawrence collection. (note on stories actually being titled - not always the same - in different places)?

Tales written by Mike Butterworth

(some of the stuff here is just my notes - ignore). May be able to remove this if story references in main text are complete - desirable?/new page? Different authors work overview can be worked into publication history

needs work - early issue numbering needs correcting - stories out of sequence in pile, but need to synchronise with Rob Riley stories on back to check chronology

table?

• Victory for the Trigans 1# Ranger/Hamlyn (xxx issues: #1- xxx)
• Crash In The Jungle 2# Ranger/Hamlyn (xxx issues: #xxx - xxx)
• Elekton In Danger 3# Ranger/Hamlyn (xxx issues: #xxx - xxx)
• Invaders from Gallas 4# Ranger/Look and Learn, not in Hamlyn (Ranger- xxx issues: xxx-xxx; Look and Learn- xxx issues xxx-xxx)
• The Land of No Return 5# Look and Learn/Hamlyn (xxx issues: xxx - xxx)
• The Lokan Conspiracy 6# Look and Learn, not in Hamlyn (13 issues: xxx - xxxx)
• War With Hericon 7# Look and Learn/Hamlyn (9 issues: #283?-291?) Hamlyn is complete, though reworded in places
• Revolution in Zabriz 8# Look and Learn/Hamlyn (9 issues: #258-266) Hamlyn is complete, though reworded in places
• The Lokan Invasion 9# Look and Learn, not in Hamlyn (5 issues: #267-271)
• The Revenge of Darak 10# Look and Learn, not in Hamlyn (11 issues: #272-282)
• The Three Aliens 11# Look and Learn, not in Hamlyn (7 issues: #292-297)
• The Reign of Thara 12# Look and Learn/Hamlyn (19 issues: #298-316)
• Voyage to the Moon Bolus 13# Look and Learn/Hamlyn (15 issues: #317-331) ends Hamlyn book
• The Three Princes 14# (Look and Learn only from here (31 issues: #332-362)
• Poison From Outer Space 15 (8 issues: #363-370)
• The Lost City 16 (11 issues: #372-382)
• The Terror of Mount Spyx 17 (8 issues: #383-390)
• The Invisible Ray 18 (7 issues: #391-397)
• False Accusation 19
• The Deadly Formula 20 (5 issues: #398-402) with 3 panel introduction in #397
• The Tyrant 21 (13 issues: #403-415)
• The Red Death 22 (9 issues: #416-424)
• The Puppet Emperor 23
• Trigo's Five Tasks 24
• The Menace From The Sea
• The Giant Rallus
• The City of the Jewels
• The Imposter
• The Duplication Machine
• The Masked Raiders
• The Prisoner of Zerss
• The Miniature Killers of Zelph
• The Hypnotist
• The Wish Fulfiller
• The Fiendish Experiment
• The Curse of King Yutta
• The Lost Years
• Journey to Orcadia
• The Secret of Castle Doum
• The House of the Five Moons
• A National Emergency
• The Palace of Peril
• Evil from Outer Space
• The Curse of the Sun Worshippers
• The Zootha Vorgs
• The Sea Creatures
• The Youth Serum
• The Assassin
• The Deadly Seeds
• Emperor Z
• The Heat Controller
• The Time Traveller
• The Rocketeer
• The Convicts
• The Gambler
• The Ultimate Collection
• The Dryaks
• The Nobes
• Atomic Fallout
• Vengeance!
• The Zallus
• The Street Sweeper
• The Time Machine
• The Frozen People
• Abdication
• Dr. Mazaratto's Elixir
• The Digger
• The Stolen Plans
• The Curse of Zonn

Tales written by Ken Roscoe

• The Killer
• The Rival
• The Trigonium Thieves
• Chase For A Traitor
• The Voyage of the Perici
• The Flowers of Forgetfulness
• Rebellion in Daveli
• A Tragic Misunderstanding
• The Zabriz Conspiracy
• Trigan's Deadly Peril
• The Skorpiads
• The Zolt Exodus
• Terror Of The Skorpiads
• Search Mission
• Alien Mission
• Mercy Mission

Other tales can the authors be identified from anywhere?

• The Wise Man of Vorg
• The Brief Reign of Sennos the First
• They Came From out of the Night
• Battle for Survival

Reprints and collected editions

English reprints

The stories have been collected into volumes a number of times. The Hamlyn Publishing volume was printed in Italy for United Kingdom and United States distribution by Chartwell Publishing. Both the Hamlyn Publishing and Hawk books have panels and sometimes whole scenes cut, and sometimes panels have been re-arranged from the original stories. In both cases, many text boxes have been re-written to replace weekly synopses and the editorial cuts. The Hawk book in particular sometimes has entire pages excised.

• The Look and Learn Book of the Trigan Empire (70 pages, Fleetway Publications, 1973)
• The Trigan Empire (192 pages, Hamlyn, October 1978, ISBN 0600387887 ISBN 089009254)
• Tales from the Trigan Empire (160 pages, Hawk Books, 1996, ISBN 0948248955)

Vulcan, a color reprint anthology comic distributed by Look and Learn publishers Fleetway in Scotland for 30 un-numbered issues (01 Mar. 1975 - 20 Sept. 1975) and then nationally in the United Kingdom for a further 28 un-numbered issues (27 Sept. 1975 - 03 April 1976) reprinted Trigan Empire stories from xxxx to xxxx. Vulcan Annual 1977 reprinted story #27, The City of the Jewels from xxxx, with a Don Lawrence cover adapted from another story (am I going to go mad trying to find it in one of the early stories even though its very distinctive?). check the run and whether any of these were I.P.C. instead of Fleetway. From 24 Jan the reprints were Embleton's

In recent years, the Don Lawrence drawn Trigan Empire stories have been reprinted by the Don Lawrence Collection in luxury hardback limited editions. These editions have the stories as originally published, not the versions with missing, resized and re-ordered frames of the other reprints. They are not direct copies of the Look and Learn prints, but in many cases are taken from the original artwork and use revised fonts to make them easier to read.

to be filled in from the individual volume details on Don Lawrence website - titles seem to indicate not published in order, is this likely?

• The Trigan Empire (The Don Lawrence Collection, hardcover):
  • The Prisoner of Zerss (98 pages, March 2004, ISBN 9073508541) stories xxxxx
  • The Sun Worshippers (106 pages, October 2004, ISBN 9073508622) stories xxxxx
  • House of the Five Moons (94 pages, March 2005, ISBN 9073508649) stories xxxxx
  • The Curse of King Yutta (98 pages, October 2005, ISBN 9073508665) stories xxxxx
  • The Three Princes (98 pages, March 2006, ISBN 9073508789) stories xxxxx
  • The Rallu Invasion (96 pages, August 2006, ISBN 9073508827) stories xxxxx
  • The Reign of Thara (98 pages, November 2006, ISBN 9073508843) stories xxxxx
  • Revolution in Zabriz (122 pages, March 2007, ISBN 9073508916) stories xxxxx
  • The Puppet Emperor (114 pages, December 2007, ISBN 9073508932) stories xxxxx
  • The Red Death (114 pages, April 2008, ISBN 9073508967) stories xxxxx

Other language reprints

Details of Dutch/German (Polish?) etc editions

External links

• Trigan Empire.co.uk
• Don Lawrence.co.uk