It’s been a long wait since Rebellion first announced that the Trigan Empire is set to rise again with first new stories for more than 40 years—longer still since the original run of the series ended with the demise of its parent magazine Look and Learn in 1982—and even longer since Mike Butterworth’s departure from the strip in 1977.
Has it been worth the wait? Absolutely—YES!
We owe a debt of gratitude to Rebellion’s Head of Publishing Ben Smith and Rebellion’s Senior Graphic Novels Editor Oliver Pickles—without whom New Adventures from the Trigan Empire might never have happened. They gave the go-ahead—and, what’s more, they chose the right creative team—for this continuation.
The story-telling by Michael Carroll is astounding. The tale—The Treaty of Eritza—is superbly well-structured. The dialogue—it’s all dialogue—is sheer delight.
The painted artwork by Tom Foster is magnificent and strangely compelling. There are some forgivable flaws. Let’s acknowledge that—but also acknowledge that his work here already grants him top-tier status among artists of the Trigan Empire.
To understand the background to the making of the new tale, I suggest reading this recent interview with the four aforementioned parties, on The Beat website—INTERVIEW: Creators and editors discuss the magisterial return of THE TRIGAN EMPIRE and its continued appeal.
To understand the background to the tale itself, I suggest reading my not-so-recent but somewhat-prescient previous blog post—The Rise of the Trigan Empire.
Please take time to read through the above—and then we can proceed!
[Continued . . .]
Michael Carroll and Tom Foster have had ample time to mentally prepare themselves—and us—for the inevitable fact that their newly published co-creation was not going to be well-received by certain people. Indeed, in the previously mentioned interview on The Beat website, Michael Carroll says—
It was definitely a daunting task . . . the original series is so well loved that any attempt at a continuation is bound to be met with scepticism, if not outright scorn. I’m sure that there are die-hard fans who are going to hate what we’ve done because it’s not the same. But then it shouldn’t be the same: there’s no point in revisiting an established series if it’s not going to venture into new territory and/or shine a different light onto the past.
Also—and this is very important—we’re potentially battling nostalgia, which can be a hugely powerful and intractable foe! With . . . the Trigan Empire the fans sometimes love it not for what it really was, but for what it meant to them as ten-year-olds.
I count myself doubly fortunate. I loved the Trigan Empire as a ten-year-old and now, in late middle-age, I love it even more for what it really was—and still is! Back in the day, I hated the way Mike Butterworth kept repeating himself. The Red Death—now available in Green! And Janno’s Five Tasks—obviously just a rehash of the earlier Trigo’s Five Tasks. This bothered me a lot until later, much later, I read the entry on the Trigan Empire on TV Tropes—”the all devouring pop-culture wiki” website—and suddenly it all made sense. Plagiarising himself in the purplish possible prose was Mike Butterworth’s superpower! I gained a new-found appreciation of the Butterworth canon.
I identify as a member of the Butterworth-only school of die-hard fans. But an author doesn’t have to be Butterworth, or even write like Butterworth to be Butterworthy—worthy of Butterworth. Which Carroll here most certainly is. His writing style is very different from Butterworth’s. There is no purple prose. There are no narrative captions! Nevertheless, when I started reading I was instantly transported back to a very familiar place—the one and only planet Elekton—one and the very same.
But what about the Lawrence-only school of die-hard fans? They’re going to hate this continuation. Utterly. Dare I suggest that, perhaps, they need to get over themselves?
[To be continued . . .]