[Kracalactaka]

@Scrounge

ahhh...  The Trigan Empire hardcover, a formative event for a young Krac

[paw broon]

Krac, that's interesting, Apart from being a classic work by Don Lawrence, the book you're showing is the Hamlyn publication, the British reprint vol.  I thought it was printed by Chartwell in the USA.  How did you get the British version? Can't remember when the Hamlyn book was published.

[Kracalactaka]

I'm sure mine is Chartwell, this was just a pic I grabbed from the net real quick, not a photo of my actual copy

[crashryan]

I wish I still had my copy (it died with much of my collection in a storage-unit flood years ago). I bought the Chartwell book from a Seattle bookstore and it was like a bolt out of the blue. I had never heard of the series, or of Don Lawrence. I was blown away by the art. I never quite bought. the way the story mixed super-science with barbarians. Interesting how in those pre-Internet days books like The Trigan Empire or the Losfeld graphic novels would appear from nowhere without any context. Owning one was like being initiated into a secret club.

[Kracalactaka]

I checked, my copy is Chartwell (Printed in Italy)

But my current copy is not my childhood one, that disappeared sometime in the 80s (Mom prob got rid of it after I joined the Marines)

The one I have now, I picked up from Lonestar back in 2009-2010

"Billions of miles from our world is the star of Yarna and circling it is the planet Elekton. It was upon this planet that the mighty Trigan Empire rose. Long did it reign, unbeknownst to the residents of planet Earth. That is until the fateful day a spacecraft crash-landed here bringing with it a long dead crew and ancient records of this once mighty civilization. This tomb bears the only records of the once great Trigan Empire!"

[SuperScrounge]

That Trigan Empire opening was a bit odd. The implication is that these are the records of a now dead race. Uhhhh... yeahhhh... 

The other thing I found interesting was them showing the aliens to be bigger than humans, not that that had any bearing on the stories that were told.
"Well, you've established they were giants, now what?"
"Nothing. All the animals and plants on their world is proportionally giant size too, so it's just like they were normal humans!"

[narfstar]

They Move and Tinkle as you Pull. Gotta giggle as you think about the current meaning of tinkle. We had some of these as a kid. I remember a dog at least and I know there were others. They must not have cost much f we had them.

[narfstar]

Should have pointed out I was talking about the animals at the bottom of the page. And they made more of a rasping sound.

[Captain Audio]

That Trigan Empire opening was a bit odd. The implication is that these are the records of a now dead race. Uhhhh... yeahhhh... 

The other thing I found interesting was them showing the aliens to be bigger than humans, not that that had any bearing on the stories that were told.
"Well, you've established they were giants, now what?"
"Nothing. All the animals and plants on their world is proportionally giant size too, so it's just like they were normal humans!"

Sounds like its assumed from the age of the space craft and the immense distances that any civilization that many light years distant would have become extinct before the craft reached Earth.

The twelve foot tall aliens remind me of the film "Gods of Egypt".
Giant humanoids are found in many of our myths, so the possiblity of these being visiting aliens has been explored in many stories and films like "Prometheus".

Perhaps they would have gotten round to humans making contact with survivors of the Trigon. The frozen alien crew might be revived somehow. Plenty of open ends to tie up.
If the 2009 film project were revived they'd likely have found some way for humans to get into the picture.

In any case it sounds like an interesting series.

[Robb_K]

Anybody have any idea who the artist was? Not bad. For some wild reason it reminded me of the Walt Kelly Christmas stuff from years past...I know it's probably not, but...even without knowing who did it, this was the damndest thing I read all week. It kept me reading until the end, I'll say that much, but I couldn't for the life of me see a rhyme or reason...even Fellini or Salvador Dali would probably have said; "Now, wait a minute.." Right up there with SANTA CLAUS (1959) from Mexico, or America's own SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS. The ads were great, and that makes sense...they were the point of this...even remembered some of the toys...think I had at least one of the gun holster sets...Kids would have gone nuts for this comic, I bet...

When I first saw the inking strokes on the first page splash-panel, I thought to myself, "This has got to be Al Hubbard!  The Humans don't look like his usual style, but the pelican, and the inking style looks very much like him.  The clouds are not at all like his usual style.  And there is no heavy-detailed shading that he normally used.  But, I think the editor told him to keep everything "clean and simple".  Upon a second, more thorough look, I've come to the conclusion that this is rather the work of long-time Western publishing artist, Dan Gormley, who drew most of Dell's "Howdy Doody" comics from 1952-56, and many, if not most of Dell's "Woody Woodpecker" lead and subordinate stories in "Woody Woodpecker" and "Water Lantz New Funnies" from 1948-53.  I know that Woolworth and other major department store associations' giveaway production work was contracted for with Western Publishing, which is why many of the department store giveaways were drawn by ex-Disney animators.

[Robb_K]

Well, we can see why Mark picked this one, seeing he's an ad fan. Some great toys that I'd have loved to have recieved on Christmas morning. But here it was an orange, a selection box, a junior smokers kit, an annual - usually The Broons or Oor Wullie depending what year it was, or one of the piles of others that came out every year - and, if you were really lucky, a 10 bob note from your granny.
As for the story, that never happened in The Snowman, or Rupert.  While there were talking animals in Rupert, it was much more fairytale, and all the better for that.  I felt that having warships and jets in the story was a real letdown and I'm sure children would have dreamt up some fantastic allies, other than the military. Still, it's a nice, not bad wee story.
It's the ads that make this for me as an adult and I fondly remember the Woolworths in the town where I grew up.  It was like an Aladdin's cave.  Anyone remember those awful cover versions of hits on those never heard of before or since record labels?  Our Woolies also sold comics, British comics.  Not mainstream Beano or Dandy or the like, but the American look-a-like versions
Thanks for a look at this curiosity.

For me, Woolworth's was ONLY about their close-out record sales.  Every 6 months or so (including around Christmas) they had incredible bargain sales of 10 cents a piece 7-inch 45 RPM single records, and LPs for 50 cents (which I jumped on wholeheartedly, first in Canada, then in Chicago (and Detroit), and Los Angeles, after moving there. I bought thousands of 45s and hundreds of their LPs (mostly rare cutouts, after finding all the radio-played songs I had liked).

[gregjh]

Which Woolworth's are we talking about here? Woolworths in the UK was a great store that sold great sweets (candy) and stocked many items. It formed some nice childhood memories for me. I understand there is also a Woolworth's in Australia and the USA.

[paw broon]

The Woolworths I remember was the British one and there was a branch in both Airdrie and Coatbridge (about 20 miles from Glasgow where there was a giant Woolies - well, giant for Scotland)
But my memories are from the late '50's - mid '60's.  They certainly did do sweets, so I always associated Woolies with comics, 45s on unheard of labels by acts you'd never heard of and sweets.