Trigan Empire

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Tales From the Trigan Empire, 1989

The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, later called simply The Trigan Empire was a science fiction comic book series written mainly by Mike Butterworth and most notably drawn by Don Lawrence.

It ran from 1965 to 1982, dealing with the long-past events of an empire on the distant planet of Elekton. Heavily influenced by mythological tale, a number of the societies seemed to be based on ancient cultures that had existed in history. Chief among these was the Trigan Empire, apparently modelled on the Roman empire. This similarity even extended to Trigan City, the capital being built on five hills, in a similar fashion to the seven hills of Rome. The Trigans flew atmosphere craft. These vessels were like spaceships, but restricted to the atmosphere of the planet of Elekton. The Trigans' clothing was similar to that of the Romans, with many of the populace dressed in toga-like garments, or in the case of the soldiery, in Roman-style armour.

A similar likeness could be drawn with Hericon, the chief rival in power to the Trigans, whose appearance seemed to mirror that of elements of the Byzantine empire, and the Persian Empire.

The series was a strange mix of low and high tech. The Trigans began as a nomadic tribe called the Vorgs, with no technology. Initially under the leadership of three brothers, Trigo, Brag and Klud, Trigo persuades his more conservative brothers that in the face of changing events, namely the ambitions of the Lokan Empire that they must settle. The fledgling Trigan nation is established under the leadership of Trigo, with the trappings of a Romanesque civilization with swords, lances and Roman-style clothing, but with high tech ray guns, atmosphere crafts and high-tech navy. In a later story, they create a rocketship in months to fly to one of Elekton's moons. Several of the other civilizations are the same mix of low tech and high tech.

The strip first appeared in the British magazine Ranger and later in the British Look and Learn magazine for teenagers. There were a number of early reprints. Hamlyn Publishing printed one book called simply, "The Trigan Empire". This edition featured early stories. A later book was printed by Hawk Publishing in 1989 as Tales of the Trigan Empire in hardback form. Both the Hamlyn and Hawk books have parts cut from some of the original stories, most notably in the Hawk book there are sometimes entire pages that have been taken out.

There never were fixed titles established for the stories, and therefore the same story can be reprinted in different books under different names.

Within the last couple of years, the parts of the Trigan Empire that were drawn by Don Lawrence have been reprinted by the Don Lawrence Collection in luxury hardback limited editions in their original form with no editing.