Early Review: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TRIGAN EMPIRE Vol.1

I've never met anyone who bought Look and Learn just for the articles. Yes, those features were superbly illustrated, and they certainly taught us a few things about everything from geology to Medieval life, from the nocturnal habits of bats to the story of space flight, but they were but a bonus to the main attraction. Everyone I've met who read Look and Learn bought it for The Trigan Empire. 

The Rise and Fall of The Trigan Empire (to give it its full title) actually started out in Ranger in 1965, a companion magazine to Look and Learn but one that had more comic strips. Then, as kids' publications often did, the two titles merged, bringing The Trigan Empire to Look and Learn in 1966. The strip was created by Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence and told the story of a distant planet called Elekton and its strange culture that seemed like a mash up of Ancient Rome, futuristic technology and a good dollop of fantasy thrown in for good measure. 

The stories were intriguing but it was Don Lawrence's photo-realistic artwork and stunning use of colour that made it compelling. Most kids' publications of the 1960s were printed on newsprint, which meant basic flat colours with few variations. Ranger, and Look and Learn, were of the few that had the luxury of Photogravure printing, and Don Lawrence certainly made the best of it. 

The Trigan Empire ran in Look and Learn until its final issue in 1982. By that time other artists had replaced Lawrence, who had left the strip in 1976. Now, Rebellion are to publish a huge chunky 300 page volume reprinting the series from the start in what is hoped will be an ongoing series of books. The Rise and Fall of The Trigan Empire Vol.1 will be published in March 2020 and having seen a preview of the whole book I think it'll be a winner.

I can only show a few pages from the start of the book so here's the first four pages of the saga...

Yes, the early Trigan Empire stories have been reprinted before, but it was many years ago or in an expensive format. The new collection will be affordable and superb value for money. Another bonus is that, like the deluxe expensive editions of several years ago, Rebellion's version replaces the dull typeface dialogue of the originals with a comic book style font that's easier on the eye. This is, quite frankly, the best Trigan Empire collection there's been. 

• CREATIVE TEAM: Mike Butterworth (w) Don Lawrence (a)
• RELEASE DATE: 17 March 2020 (US) 19 March 2020 (UK)
• PAPERBACK, 304 pages
• PRICE: £19.99 (UK) $24.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781087558
• DIAMOND: TBC

Under the leadership of Trigo the Vorg tribesmen band together to resist the Lokan Empire, forming an empire of their own: The Trigan Empire. And this is the story of its rise and fall. Originally published in the educational Ranger magazine in 1965, and continuing in the similarly themed Look and Learn. The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire uses elements of the Roman Empire and ancient Greece to tell a fascinating sci-fi story. The first in a series of books collecting all the stories beautifully painted by Don Lawrence in their originally published order.
Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and UK comic book stores.

Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

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Memories of ACTION, 40 years on

Continuing my celebration of the controversial Action weekly comic which was launched 40 years ago on Saturday 7th February 1976, here's a selection of its most dynamic covers. 

For me, Action arrived at just the right time. I was 16 and had naturally outgrown the standard British humour comics such as The Beano and Whizzer and Chips. The British adventure comics of the time were too juvenile for me then too, except for Battle Picture Weekly and possibly Warlord, but I was never into war comics. I'd left school the previous summer, was working in the office of a mining tools company, and had abandoned any ambitions to work in comics. I still liked comics though, and bought the ones for older readers such as the Marvel horror comics (Tales of the Zombie etc) and some superhero titles, and I'd enjoyed the short-lived Atlas Comics until they went bust. However, as far as the UK market went, there seemed little to interest me outside of the Marvel UK reprints.

Art: Geoff Campion

Then along came Action, full of attitude, tightly written, dramatically illustrated, and very much of the moment. Although I was perhaps slightly older than its intended audience I was hooked by Hook Jaw and the rest of its robust content. Sadly it wasn't to last. The establishment got its knickers in a twist over the violent tone of the comic, dubbed it "The sevenpenny nightmare" and called for it to be banned. IPC had little choice. After 36 issues they suspended Action for a few months, then relaunched it in a neutered form. I didn't buy many of those issues. It had lost its energy. 

I'd have probably given up on British comics altogether at that stage if it hadn't been for 2000AD launching in 1977. Action was still around in its deflated form but 2000AD had the spirit and guts that Action had lost. Even more so in fact. I discovered comics fandom around that time too and by 1980 I'd quit my dead-end job, reignited my ambition to work in comics, and started buying British comics again to look at them from a more creative viewpoint. I turned pro in 1983 and haven't looked back, thanks to Action being one of the few comics that kept my interest in the form alive way back when. 

Anyway, on with more covers. Click each one to see it much larger.

Art: Don Lawrence

Art: Don Lawrence

The issue above was the last to be printed by Carlisle Web Offset. The following week, Action went to a cheaper newsprint format which meant fully painted colour wouldn't reproduce well so they had to make do with flat colour overlays. However the energetic nature of the covers remained which was the main thing...

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

All the above are scanned from my collection but the following two are from elsewhere on the 'net. Here's Action's most controversial cover, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. Critics thought it was a policeman cowering in the foreground due to the clothes being mistakenly coloured blue like the helmet...

Here's the final issue of the pre-ban run, which never went into general circulation and only had a very small print run. This issue fetched over £1,300 on eBay last year...

Not only were the contents of that rare issue censored and re-used in the relaunched issues, so was the cover. This is the second post-ban issue of Action from December 1976... 

If you're interested in the history of this memorable comic, I recommend hunting down Action: The Story of a Violent Comic by Martin Barker. Not only does it contain background information on the comic it also reprints many selected episodes including the banned unseen ones and compares them to the published censored versions. A fascinating read!  

ZIP (1958)

Zip is a comic that seems quite rare. I'd heard of it but had never seen a copy until this issue turned up on eBay last week for a reasonable price. It was a tabloid sized weekly published by Odhams and ran for 92 issues from 1958 to 1959 before merging into Swift. Apparently Zip was a replacement for Mickey Mouse Weekly after Odhams lost the rights to the Disney strips. (Source: http://ukcomics.wikia.com/wiki/Zip )

The tone of the comic is quite young and seems pitched as a bridge between nursery comics and traditional humour and adventure weeklies. The cover strip is Skippy, The Boy Who Lives in a Barrel by Robert McGillivray. (I'm pretty sure he was the artist who drew The Mighty Smiths and Fairs Please for Tiger in 1969/70.)

The plot of Skippy isn't clear, but he seems to be on the run from the authorities. In which case, perhaps having a postal address to his hideout (and his name above the door) might not have been his wisest decision.

A strip that I'm sure will interest most UK comic fans is Strongbow the Mighty, illustrated by the great Ron Embleton (who gets to sign his art).

Over the page, the humour short The Pond People. There's something familiar about the art style but I can't place who drew it.

On the facing page, another adventure strip that should be of interest; Wells Fargo by Don Lawrence, several years before he'd illustrate The Trigan Empire.

The centrespread of Zip followed the old British comics tradition of being a sort of patchwork quilt design of short strips.

Kiki the Boy Clown wasn't anywhere near as scary as he appeared on the free Kiki mask given away with that issue.

The Brainy B's seems very much in the style of the Famous Five books and the Children's Film Foundation movies of the time. Art by Redvers Blake. 

This issue also featured a competition, with the prize being a flight to Scotland. It didn't explain how readers who lived North of the border could benefit, but perhaps another issue gave them the opportunity to fly to London? (Or was Zip only sold in England?)

Billy Brave, the almost obligatory school strip, was nicely illustrated by Tony Weare...

On the back page, another boy living in a tree house; Robin Alone. Artist unknown.

Zip seems quite a gentle comic but with good art and plenty of variety to its content. I hope you've enjoyed this brief look through one issue.      

This week in 1965...

I haven't done one of these for a while, where I look back at several comics from years ago that were published in the same week. Above is my photo of how a newsagents counter may have looked this week exactly 50 years ago when all of these issues were on sale! Half a Century ago! Blimey!

Let's start off with the issue of Valiant that went on sale Saturday 20th February 1965. Cover by Mike Western which looked back on other events of this week in times past...

Inside, the dark, tense artwork of Solano Lopez with the latest Kelly's Eye chapter. These old strips certainly knew how to deliver a great cliffhanger!

As the topline on the cover promised, this issue saw the start of a new adventure with The Wild Wonders, drawn by Mike Western...

A good horror/mystery serial in Valiant at that time was Jack O'Justice, drawn by Tom Kerr... 

That issue also carried a half page ad for that week's Buster and The Big One which featured a free gift...

Monday 22nd February 1965 saw the publication of The Dandy No.1214 with a very amusing Korky the Cat strip drawn by Charlie Grigg...

Inside, Dudley D. Watkins proved what a master comic artist he was with a Desperate Dan strip with 17 panels on one page...

The Smasher was up to mischief as usual, drawn by Hugh Morren. Note the advert at the foot of the page, heralding the start of Greedy Pigg the following week! (Greedy Pigg would replace George Martin's Sunny Boy which ended that week.)

The Dandy carried a regular feature page back then called My Home Town. Humour illustrations by Frank McDiarmid, with the 'straight' artwork by Thomson staff artist Alan Gibson. (Thanks to Ray Moore for correcting me on that.) Note the ads for that week's Bimbo and Diana at the bottom of the page...

The same day saw the publication of Wham! No.37, with a cover by Graham Allen doing his best to 'ghost' Leo Baxendale's style...

This issue of Wham! saw the debut of two new strips. In actuality they were both reprints from Swift. Western serial Johnny Straight by Don Lawrence was a re-lettered reprint of Wells Fargo...

...whilst The Bouncers by Peter Maddocks was also reprinted from Swift.

The rest of Wham! was still all-new though, and worth every penny. Especially with Leo Baxendale's glorious centre-spread strip Eagle Eye: Doomsday School...

This week in 1965 saw the publication of TV21 No.6. (Apologies for my copy having a bit missing from the cover.)

An important issue as it saw Mike Noble's arrival to TV21, taking over the art duties on Fireball XL5...

On the back page, The Daleks were proving to be more devious and cunning than they'd be portrayed in some of their TV appearances. Artwork by Richard Jennings...

Sparky was also on issue No.6 that week. Cover by Ron Spencer. My apologies if anyone is offended by the strip. Presented as it was in different times. Thankfully things have moved on since.

The centre pages featured another adventure with Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora with artwork by George Ramsbottom. (Thanks to Ray Moore for that info.) One of the weirdest things about this strip was that every week the sleepy siblings shared the same dream! 

On the back page, another nice Moonsters strip by Bill Ritchie...

Just a few examples of the wide variety of strips from the many British comics that were available 50 years ago. It was a great time to be a child!