Trigo’s Five Tasks – The Trigan Empire

Trigo’s Five Tasks
aka The Five Labours of Trigo (The Collection)
De vijf opdrachten van Trigo (Dutch title)
Trigo’s Five Missions (Dutch title, translated)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

Trigo’s Five Tasks was originally published in 23 instalments in issues 439 (13 June 1970) to 461 (14 November 1970) of Look and Learn magazine.

It is reprinted in Volume 6 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).

It is reprinted in Volume 2 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).

Plot summary

In the eightieth year of Neva, a war rages between the Lokans and Trigans. The Trigans win the war, but Emperor Trigo is seriously wounded. It seems as though he will remain disabled. In the council chamber, the councillors advise Emperor Trigo to abdicate. Trigo asks what he must do to prove that he is still a good emperor. The council decides to give Trigo five difficult tasks. If he can complete them, he may remain emperor. Trigo asks for a delay to recover a little first. He is given three Lunar months.

Half-lame, Trigo sets out alone on a kreed into the wild plains of Vorg. Left to nature, he trains hard and recovers well. Just before the three months expire, he rides into the council chamber on his kreed and receives his first task: to capture the Mormonth of Morv. He flies to the jungle of Morv and sets traps for the mormonth. The next day, when he wakes up, his plane has been destroyed and he is attacked by the mormonth. He shoots it, wounding it, but is knocked out by Zukka.

Zukka controls the mormonth. He was once a scholar in Tharv. In a tavern, he quarreled with his friend Peric, knocked him down, and thinking he had killed him, fled into the jungle of Morv. There he found the monster wounded, and because he healed it, it obeyed him. Trigo says he knows Peric and that Peric is not dead. Zukka and the monster go with Trigo to Trigan City. Zukka meets Peric, the mormonth returns to the jungle, and Trigo has completed his first task.

His second task is to search the desert for the last army that disappeared there ten Lunar years ago. Many air patrols have tried to find the army but failed. Trigo decides to ride a kreed into the desert to Fort Vorg. There he finds the forty men of the army, but they are under the influence of a mysterious substance. He is captured by the men, who are led by Zucca. Zucca uses the soldiers as workers in his diamond mine, drugging them so they obey. Just as Zucca is about to kill Trigo, Trigo overpowers him and ensures the soldiers stop drinking the drugged water. They return to their senses and march with Trigo back to Trigan City.

For his third task, Trigo must travel once around the planet Elekton in thirty days without using mechanical means. Without a real plan, he sets off on a kreed. After one day, he is captured by the Yulas, who want to sacrifice him to their god, but he is freed by the Tarantas, pirates in the Gulf of Vorg. They give him a sailboat, to which he adds wheels so it can cross the desert. On the way, he is run down by a herd of beasts, but he continues riding on their backs. Following a river, he reaches a group of primitive natives. Having cured one of them of illness, they guide him through the jungle. Using a glider, he crosses a huge swamp, but crashes at the end and falls unconscious.

He wakes up with an old man on the beach. He has been unconscious for ten days and thinks he will not make it in time. The old man has a solution: hang a plank behind an Orfin. The creatures will cross the ocean to Vorg tomorrow. Trigo does this and is back in Vorg after ten days. There, he catches a kreed and arrives just in time at the council chamber.

For his fourth task, he must swim in one stretch from the Gulf of Tibor to the Gulf of Jansen—halfway around the continent of Victris. This is impossible, but Peric has the answer: dig a canal from Tibor to Jansen, which is much faster. They plan to create the canal by dropping atomic bombs in the wilderness of the isthmus. When they fly there, they find a people living there—the Yooths, a nomadic warrior tribe from East Victris. Upon landing, they are immediately captured, and the leader’s son challenges Trigo to a duel. Trigo wins and sends the people away. The leader is angry with his soothsayer, who predicted water would come. Trigo says the prophecy is true and asks the people to dig his canal. They agree.

That night, the leader’s son tries to take revenge on Trigo by releasing a poisonous ranta into his quarters. Janno sees this, captures the son, but the spider has already bitten Trigo. The canal is ready, but Trigo is still unconscious. The last dam must be blown up to fill it with water, but the leader’s son is standing in the canal and will die. Just before the explosion, Trigo wakes and spares the son’s life. The canal fills with water, and Trigo immediately swims it from end to end. With his last strength, he succeeds. Trigo welcomes the people into the Trigan Empire.

Now he returns for his final task: to bring a new people into the Trigan Empire. Fortunately, he has just done so, and thus he is restored to honour and remains Emperor of Trigan.