A World within a World – The Trigan Empire

A World within a World
aka Atomic Disaster!
Journey to Orcadia (The Collection)
De microscopische wereld (Dutch title)
The Microscopic World (Dutch title, translated)
Die Mikrowelt (German title)
The Micro World (German title, translated)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

A World within a World was originally published in 9 instalments in issues 579 (17 February 1973) to 587 (14 April 1973) of Look and Learn magazine.

It is reprinted in Volume 9 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).

My greatest problem is to protect him from predatory bacteria.

Plot summary

A revolution is underway in the vassal state of Tharv. Trigo wants to go there and sort matters out. Just as he is about to board his atmosphere craft at the Trigan City Air Terminal, a transporter craft carrying atomic waste crashes on take-off. Trigo himself leads the rescuers. But when he’s on the plane, it explodes. Severely injured, they take him away.

Days later, Janno is summoned by his father, the Emperor’s brother Brag, to the Imperial Palace. He tells them the grave news. Due to the nature of the radioactivity Trigo absorbed he is now shrinking rapidly. He is already only barely the size of a hand.

Revolution also breaks out in the capital and the people storm the palace. They destroy Peric’s lab, but the diminutive Trigo survives the attack. Peric locates him and places him for safe-keeping under his microscope. But the tiny Trigo gets smaller and smaller. He survives an attack by predatory bacteria, but breaks his arm. Peric tells Janno that his Trigo won’t survive in the microscopic world on his own for much longer.

Peric doesn’t know how to restore Trigo to normal size, but he knows how to make others small. He is able to shrink Janno small so that he can help his uncle. It so happens that a revolutionary, who had entered the palace, sees this and tells his mates.

Trigo and Janno shrink down to subatomic size. They land on an unknown planet. They are welcomed by men who call the planet Orcadia, and they are taken to their leader. He says that his planet is smaller than an atom in the normal world. The rebels come to the palace again and seize Peric’s microscope, they destroy the microscope slide. Peric has now lost Trigo. In the subatomic world, the leader of Orcadia shows Trigo and Janno what is happening on their planet. He asks Trigo if he wants to be his successor, but Trigo refuses, saying he wants to go back to his own planet. The leader of Orcadia has the technology to re-embiggerate them.

In the meantime, purges are taking place in Trigan and Peric and Brag are arrested. They are sentenced to death and will be beheaded. Trigo and Janno are growing again and survive the process by fighting bacteria and small critters again. When they return to their normal size, they quickly head to Peric and Brag’s execution. The sudden appearance of Trigo spells the end of the revolution and Peric and Brag are saved.