Voyage to the Moon Bolus

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Episode 13 of The Trigan Empire

Voyage to the Moon Bolus
aka The Invasion of Bolus (The Collection)
De waanzinnige geleerde / Duel met de dood (Dutch title)
The Mad Scientist / Duel with Death (Dutch title, translated)
A Tale of Evil (Hawk reprint)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

Voyage to the Moon Bolus was originally published in 15 instalments in issues 317 (10 February 1968) to 331 (18 May 1968) of Look and Learn magazine.

It was reprinted in 1975 in 4 issues (27 September 1975—18 October 1975) of Vulcan comic.

It was reprinted in 1978 in The Trigan Empire (Hamlyn/Chartwell).

It was reprinted in 1989 as A Tale of Evil in Tales from the Trigan Empire (Hawk).

It is reprinted in Volume 3 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).

It is reprinted in Volume 1 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).

Plot summary

Janno, Keren, Roffa, and the entire crew of a ship are captured by the army of Thulla, who calls himself the greatest scientist of Elekton. He needs them to conquer Bolus, the larger of Elekton’s two moons. Janno wants to warn Trigo, and the only way is to throw a message in a bottle into the sea. They all fly in a rocket to Bolus. During landing, the rocket is destroyed, leaving them stranded on Bolus. They are attacked by two large monsters: a green octopus and a giant ape. Only Keren and Janno are captured.

A highly civilised people live on Bolus. The monsters were robots they had built. They are attacked by Thulla’s army. Thulla crowns himself master of Bolus. He now wants to destroy Elekton and builds a ray destroyer with which he can destroy anything on Elekton. Meanwhile, someone finds Janno’s message and delivers it to Trigo. He now knows what is happening, and Peric builds a rocket to go to Bolus.

Janno and Keren want to destroy the ray destroyer, but they are caught and thrown into a bottomless chasm. Thanks to the high water in this ravine, they survive the fall. Thulla begins destroying Elekton. Trigo spreads his people across the continent to minimise casualties. On Bolus, Janno and Keren take control of the two robot monsters. With them, they destroy the ray destroyer and kill Thulla. They are rescued by Peric’s rocket.