trigan
empire
40 year
In the swamps of Florida a UFO
crashed somewhere in the late
thirties. The spaceship resisted
the impact en onboard men
found the dead crew and a collection of books with inside
the chronicles of the Trigan
Empire. Scientists from all
over the world tried to
encrypt the books and after
many years one of them found
the way to translate the
books. Thanks to this man the
whole world gets to know the
history of the rise and fall of
the Trigan Empire.
With this introduction in the magazine
Ranger The Rise and Fall of the
Trigan Empire was introduced to the
readers of ‘the magazine for boys’.
It was a prestigious project, for
which the editor had hired two top
talents. Michael Butterworth wrote
the scenarios for this space-opera
and Don Lawrence drew the artwork.
A great combination, because thanks
to their talents, the Trigan Empire
became one of British most popular
comic strips.
This exhibition is a tribute to this
milestone in British comic-history
and the wonderful art of Don
Lawrence.
first designs for the costumes of the citizens of the trigan empire,
made by don lawrence in 1965.
first designs for the costumes of the citizens of the trigan empire,
made by don lawrence in 1965.
On september 18 1965 the first issue of the magazine for boys
'ranger' was released. In this first issue the first pages of The
rise and fall of the trigan empire were published.
First dutch softcover book of the trigan empire. published in 1973
by uitgeverij amsterdam boek.
the famous magazine vulcan re-published the trigan empire in the
uk between 1975 en 1976. for the annual of 1976 don lawrence
illustrated the story the underworld of vuldar. it became his last
project drawn for a british publisher.
for the dutch magazine eppo, in which the trigan empire (trigie) was
published don lawrence drew two cover illustrations.
THE
THE TR
TRIGAN
IGAN EMPIR
EMPIRE
E
PORTFOLIO
PORTFOLIO
limited edition Portfolio containing 4 cover illustrations by don
lawrence. These were made for the second trigan series published
in holland by uitgeverij Big Balloon between 1992 and 1998.
the making of a Trigan
-the collection- book
Sorting out the
material
the basic material for
the series are the original paintings by don
lawrence. the caps are
filled by the original
printing films, colour
slides and earlier
publications.
scanning of the
artwork
the original
paintings of don
lawrence are scanned
on a Heidelberg A3+
high-end
scanner after which the
files are
stored on the
local network.
digital
restoration
the scans are digitally
cleaned up and restored.
placing the balloons
when the images are
ready they are placed in
the document.
the images
are adjusted to the
right size and the
balloons are placed.
editorial
information
each volume has a
dossier about the planet
electon plus a lot of
background information
on the stories in the
book.
the first printout
when the files are ready
the first printout is
made, which gives us
a first impression of
how the book will be.
proofreading
the printout is checked
by our editors in the UK
(Steve Holland, Mike
o'doherty and chris
weston).
when all typos and
other mistakes are
changed the files are
of to the printers.
the books
it takes about 4 weeks
before the books arrive
back from the printers.
opening the first box of
books is always a
special moment!
digital restoration an example.
above) the original painting of don lawrence, with the english
balloons glued onto the board.
below) the image of the fighter after digital restoration.
for volume 4 we needed the image without the balloons. Dick heins,
who does all restoration of the trigan pages, removed the balloon on
screen and filled the gap with using the surrounded material. this
took about five hours, but the final result is great!