BUILDING AN EMPIRE...

Copyright REBELLION

I bought the above book in the early '80s ('81 or '82) from John Menzies in Glasgow's Buchanan Street.  Published in '78, I'd seen it over the years at various times in different places, but it'd never previously called out to me to purchase it.

Not sure why as it's a handsome tome, so I guess I wasn't much of a fan of The Trigan Empire, despite the impressive art of Don Lawrence.  Or maybe it was because I'd already read the initial strips when they'd been reprinted in Vulcan around the mid-'70s and didn't feel compelled to own them again.  What changed my thinking that day I don't know; perhaps I just had money to spend and the book was in the right place at the right time - and at the right price.  I say that because, although I couldn't swear to it, it may've been reduced.

Some time later an acquaintance said he was a fan of the strip and when I mentioned the book, he offered to buy it.  Unusually for me I agreed, and we arranged for me to visit him on the coming Sunday and pass the volume into his hands for a paltry sum, probably less than I'd paid for it.  On the appointed day I chapped his door and was met with no response despite repeated attempts, so I took the book home and have had it ever since.  When I eventually ran into him some time later, he said he'd been in but hadn't heard me knocking.  Tough luck I thought, too late.  (And he'd need to have been dead not to hear me knocking.)

Anyway, fairly recently I learned there'd been an earlier incarnation of the book in the form of The Look and Learn Book of The Trigan Empire, published by IPC in 1973 (for '74), and I managed to track one down a few days ago, which arrived at Castel Crivens yesterday (Friday).  It has only the first two stories of the Hamlyn edition's seven, though the latter has used the same proofs or negs as the former in regard to those two particular adventures.  I bought it mainly for the cover, which I think is better than its later counterpart.  Which one do you prefer?

I now have five editions of Trigan Empire reprints, the two already mentioned, a tabloid-sized hardback by Hawk Books, two Rebellion volumes, plus a 48 issue part-work of Look and Learn which reprinted the strip exactly as it had first appeared in Ranger Magazine.  I believe there are two more volumes due from Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics imprint, and you can be sure I'll be adding them to my collection when they appear in the not too distant future.

Y'know, being able to read stories I didn't see as a kid is like returning to the '60s and catching up with what I missed at the time; like hitting a rewind button and reliving my early years and experiencing what I could've and should've but somehow didn't - expanding my childhood as it were.  It's difficult to put into words, but I'm sure you're all clever enough to catch what I'm trying to say.

However, forgive my self-indulgent nonsense -  I'm sure you've twigged it's just an excuse to show you my new acquisition and remind you that, whether you've read these tales before or not, you too can have these classic British strips from the '60s adorning your bookshelves, to dip into whenever the fancy takes you.

     

Below is the very first Trigan tale as it appeared in Ranger, and reprinted in a 'new' Look and Learn part-work series a few years ago.  Below that is the cover of the tabloid-sized volume published by Hawk Books in 1989. 

Posted in: Cartoons