Episode 39 of The Trigan Empire
The House of the Five Moons
aka In de greep van het kwaad / De dubbelganger (Dutch title)
Gripped by Evil / The Look-alike (Dutch title, translated)
Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence
The House of the Five Moons was originally published in 9 instalments in issues 597 (23 June 1973) to 605 (18 August 1973) of Look and Learn magazine.
It is reprinted in Volume 10 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).
It is reprinted in Volume 4 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).
Plot summary
After the celebrations held in honour of the founding of Trigan City, Trigo goes to sleep utterly exhausted. When he wakes up the next day, his face has completely changed. He is even arrested because no one believes he is Trigo. The actor Russ, who always plays Trigo on stage, is asked to take over the role of the emperor. Trigo is taken by boat to the prison on Stark Island. On the way, the ship is attacked and Trigo is kidnapped. He is taken to the dark inn “The House of the Five Moons.” The kidnappers, led by a masked man, have the technology to change people’s faces. They had also changed Trigo’s face while he slept and given Russ Trigo’s face.
The entire war fleet of Cato appears before Trigan City. They want to take advantage of Trigo’s disappearance. Brag doesn’t know what to do, but the fake Trigo shows up. He decides to negotiate personally with the commander-in-chief of Cato’s fleet, but the fake Trigo receives thought-waves sent by Trigo. He orders Brag to destroy the fleet. The commander is so shocked by this that he decides to make peace.
Now everyone thinks the fake Trigo is the real one, but in the evening Janno sees the fake Trigo go to the inn. He witnesses them transferring Trigo’s mind to the fake Trigo. He also overhears that they plan to arrest him and his father. He tells his father, but his father thinks he dreamed it. Janno and his father go zargot hunting, and while they are fighting two zargots, a police helicraft flies overhead announcing that they are under arrest. A zargot jumps onto the helicraft, and the two manage to escape. They seek help from Vorg hunters and head for the inn. They overpower the group of men, and the masked man turns out to be Zith, Brag’s servant. However, they take Trigo to Peric, who is able, with the recovered equipment, to restore his face.
Links
Comicweb (Dutch)
