One of a series of posts covering events in the Look and Learn timeline and/or changes to the twofold Trigan Empire pages within . . .
And then . . . it happened! Weekly magazine Speed & Power merged with Look and Learn and so, to coincide with this, issue #724 of Look and Learn (29 November 1975) was a relaunch. The magazine was now Look and Learn plus Speed & Power—with an extra 8 pages of action-packed fact and fiction.
A relaunch—but not much of a redesign. The Look and Learn logo remained the same but gone was the red border surround around the cover. There was space for a byline (optional) above the new combined masthead.
Meanwhile, inside the relaunched magazine—the Trigan Empire got a new title banner! (The old title banner is pictured below it.)
In preparation for the relaunch, most of the series running over several weeks—including the other comic strip Agent of the Queen—were wrapped up in Look and Learn issue #723 (22 November 1975) ready for the relaunch issue #724.
Look and Learn became Look and Learn plus Speed & Power—now with 48 pages of action-packed fact and fiction. The separately numbered 8 pages of the Speed & Power supplement in the centre accounted for the new pages. Overall, there were still the same number of full-colour pages, the extra pages were black and white. To accommodate the extra pages, the magazine’s two Trigan Empire pages moved from pages 30 & 31 to pages 28 & 29. The cover price stayed the same—15 pence (35 cents in NZ).
Also in issue #723, Butterworth wrapped up Episode 54 of the Trigan Empire. The Gambler’s Gift was was only 6 instalments, somewhat shorter than usual. Is it credible that Butterworth’s original tale was somewhat longer and was abridged so as to finish in time for the relaunch? I expect that we shall never know.
But clearly Butterworth had been advised of the relaunch. Most appropriately for the first issue of Look and Learn plus Speed & Power, the first panels of Episode 55 feature “the Ultimate Aircraft”—“the fastest craft that will ever fly in the atmosphere.”
The Speed & Power logo remained in the masthead on the cover of Look and Learn for more than a couple more years—until issue #843 (11 March 1978)—but the Speed & Power supplement inside the magazine lasted only a couple more weeks. Subsequently, with issue #727 the two Trigan Empire pages moved back to pages 30 & 31. The byline “48 Pages of Action-Packed Fact and Fiction” was dropped from Look and Learn‘s cover. (Later it returned—sporadically—as “40 Pages of Action-Packed Fact and Fiction”.)
Now, a word about that picture of the train (“look—no rails!”) on the cover of issue #724. Let’s just say that the illustration is fanciful—that’s not what a “maglev” train looks like at all—and, furthermore, the “Trains of Tomorrow” feature inside isn’t about a “maglev” train either . . . it’s about a proposal for a train of the future that would run on rails. But down the track the “Futura” was never more than a design plan that never went ahead.
Railway of the Future by Don Lawrence (1989). This poster was commissioned by Nederlandse Spoorwegen to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first railway line in the Netherlands which ran between Amsterdam and Haarlem.
Here’s something that should interest avid fans.
According to Look and Learn the two images below both were painted by Wilf Hardy. Indeed, the image on the right was painted by Wilf Hardy. His distinctive signature is visible in the bottom-left corner.
But the image on the left—the cover of Look and Learn #724—was painted by Gerry Wood. His distinctive signature is visible in the bottom-right corner.
Gerry Wood, of course, took over as illustrator of the Trigan Empire at the next relaunch of Look and Learn a couple of years or so later.
Here’s one more train of the future that never arrived—a hover train—from Look and Learn #400. Art by Wilf Hardy (probably).
