The Trigan Empire August 8, 2015
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture.trackback
For those who remember it fondly, here’s original artwork from the Trigan Empire, mainstay of Look and Learn magazine in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It’s been mentioned here before, and I’ve noted that I loved the artwork at the time – the stories, well, reading some again there was perhaps a reactionary streak – see below for more – running through them (a typical story idea was someone for criminal, power or other reasons deciding to undermine the Empire and overthrow the Emperor Trigo… leaving the royal family and assorted hangers on including Janno, Peric et al to try to thwart them – female characters were marginal). But the glimpse into another extremely futuristic world of helijets and rockets and what appeared to be fairly major international conflicts on the planet Elekton every other week was the main thing. Don Lawrence’s artwork was perhaps unsurpassed, but I have to admit Oliver Frey’s paintings ran him a very close second, or actually equal, in my mind (Frey, by the way, has had a fascinating career including being a renowned exponent of gay erotic art).
Look and Learn folded in the early 1980s, pushed aside by television, I suppose, and with it went the Trigan Empire.
Anyhow, for those as is interested you can buy this, a Lawrence page will set you back a cool couple of grand. Frey, not quite as much – trust me, it’s a steal. Gerry Woods (who had his moments, particularly on his illustrations for Speed & Power) likewise.
Here’s Lawrence (who died in 2003) at work…
He is asked about whether the way the Trigan Empire was written essentially meant that it was fascist… and he does point to some of the uniforms. And here we have a further expansion on that idea. It’s certainly true to say it was positioned very very neatly within an imperialist discourse – the clue is in the name, albeit with some nods to a sort of modernity (the main protagonist Janno, has two sidekicks, one of whom Keren is ‘the son of Chief Imbala of Daveli’ and who winds up in the Trigan air force with Janno). Not good but of its time.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
My parents had an old copy of “Look and Learn” in our holiday home
and I thought TTE was quite amazing to look at. David A. Kyle cited
TTE as being influenced by the Alex Raymond “Flash Gordon” – both stories have an alien planet with a mix of ancient and futuristic tech (swordplay with rockets). I’ve also read of a FG influence in two
other UK comic strips, “Garth”, and “Jeff Hawke”.
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I’m another old fan of the Trigan Empire but I’m no longer sure whether my current fascination is due to its nostalgic evocation of my childhood or the merits of the artwork – still think the latter has its charms despite the politics. When I was a child I also used to read the Victor comic and Commando comics.
A few years ago I bought myself the Trigan Empire book and a few months later a Commando comic. Had a look at both and put them away without reading, although maybe I’ll get back to the when I’m younger (in the head). In the meantime the last book I read was ‘War and Revolution’ by Domenico Losurdo – about revisionist historians’ blind spot for imperialism and colonialist slaughter.
It’s a long way from this to juvenile comics. I’m not sure if a weakness for this type of stuff is a male thing or not.
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We may well be of a similar age. I think you’re right re nostalgia, but… the artwork was good too.
Just on the male thing, Look and Learn – to its credit – was very broad based in its contents and aimed at both females and males. Speed&Power which I also got back in the day was much more clearly male.
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“. When I was a child I also used to read the Victor comic and Commando comics.”
An awful lot of children’s comics revolve about glorifying the
military.
Look at American adventure strips about heroes
who were either loyal soldiers or nostalgic ex-soliders: “Terry and the Pirates”, “Rip Kirby”, “Johnny Hazard”, “Steve Canyon”, “Buz Sawyer”, “Don Winslow of the Navy” …. even the comics’ Buck Rogers was a former soldier and member of the American Legion.
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