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dogfood's review against another edition
1.0
Die Rezension betrifft nicht nur Volume 1, sondern alle drei Bände, 860 Seiten insgesamt.
Wie soll ich es bewerten? Aus einer Sicht wie jeder andere Comic-Leser, kann es dafür maximal einen von fünf Sternen geben. Über die Zeichnungen kann man noch diskutieren, aber die Stories, die zwischen 1965 und 1982 geschrieben wurden, sind einfältig und haben einen üblen reaktionären Grundton. Alles Übel der Welt kommt von draußen und der zweitgrößte Feind sitzt im eigenen Hause. Die Stories sind Varianten der gleichen 3–4 Grundmuster. Die Chance über 20 Jahre ein Kaiserreich sich verändern zu lassen, wurde nicht genutzt – abgesehen von zunehmend grauen Schlägen Trigos und dem Einzug von 70er-Jahre Brutalismus-Architektur im vormals römisch geprägten Kaiserreich.
Aber da gibt es noch meine persönliche Ebene – die des Jungen, der die Stories als Achtjähriger Mitte der 70er Jahre zum ersten Mal las und der sich an den spektakulären Bildern ergötzte, an der prächtigen Kolorierung und den etwas abseitigen Farben. An dieser irren Mischung aus römischen Reich mit Schwertern, Monstern, Flugzeugen, Strahlengewehren und Außerirdischen.
Wie sehr sich einige Panels bei mir eingebrannt hatten, merkte ich erst, als ich diese Bilder nach über vierzig Jahren jetzt wieder sah. Don Lawrence hatte eine ganz eigene Mischung aus Farben, Formen und Mimiken. Er brachte Dinge zu Papier, die nicht zu beschreiben waren.
Aber das kannst du nur mit den Augen eines Achtjährigen Mitte der 70er Jahre sehen und nicht als jemand, für den eine solche Kolorierung im Zeitalter der Computer-Kolorierung Mindeststandard ist und der im Fernsehen alle drei Wochen einen neuen Marvel-Film vorgesetzt bekommt.
Aber das ist nur mein persönliches Ding. Für alle anderen, die sich die Comics jetzt kaufen werden, dürften die Zeichnungen altbacken und textlastig vorkommen. Und wie oben geschrieben: über die üble Grundtonalität der Serie lässt sich heute, knapp 60 Jahre nach Entstehen, nicht mehr hinwegsehen.
Wie soll ich es bewerten? Aus einer Sicht wie jeder andere Comic-Leser, kann es dafür maximal einen von fünf Sternen geben. Über die Zeichnungen kann man noch diskutieren, aber die Stories, die zwischen 1965 und 1982 geschrieben wurden, sind einfältig und haben einen üblen reaktionären Grundton. Alles Übel der Welt kommt von draußen und der zweitgrößte Feind sitzt im eigenen Hause. Die Stories sind Varianten der gleichen 3–4 Grundmuster. Die Chance über 20 Jahre ein Kaiserreich sich verändern zu lassen, wurde nicht genutzt – abgesehen von zunehmend grauen Schlägen Trigos und dem Einzug von 70er-Jahre Brutalismus-Architektur im vormals römisch geprägten Kaiserreich.
Aber da gibt es noch meine persönliche Ebene – die des Jungen, der die Stories als Achtjähriger Mitte der 70er Jahre zum ersten Mal las und der sich an den spektakulären Bildern ergötzte, an der prächtigen Kolorierung und den etwas abseitigen Farben. An dieser irren Mischung aus römischen Reich mit Schwertern, Monstern, Flugzeugen, Strahlengewehren und Außerirdischen.
Wie sehr sich einige Panels bei mir eingebrannt hatten, merkte ich erst, als ich diese Bilder nach über vierzig Jahren jetzt wieder sah. Don Lawrence hatte eine ganz eigene Mischung aus Farben, Formen und Mimiken. Er brachte Dinge zu Papier, die nicht zu beschreiben waren.
Aber das kannst du nur mit den Augen eines Achtjährigen Mitte der 70er Jahre sehen und nicht als jemand, für den eine solche Kolorierung im Zeitalter der Computer-Kolorierung Mindeststandard ist und der im Fernsehen alle drei Wochen einen neuen Marvel-Film vorgesetzt bekommt.
Aber das ist nur mein persönliches Ding. Für alle anderen, die sich die Comics jetzt kaufen werden, dürften die Zeichnungen altbacken und textlastig vorkommen. Und wie oben geschrieben: über die üble Grundtonalität der Serie lässt sich heute, knapp 60 Jahre nach Entstehen, nicht mehr hinwegsehen.
thecommonswings's review against another edition
4.0
Most middle class British kids of the seventies - mostly male, let’s be honest - either bought Look and Learn, were given an annual at Christmas or inherited some from a friend at some point. It was very much the inheritor of the worthier elements of Eagle, a slightly passive but admirable attempt to teach children stuff through beautiful art and simple writing. I suspect it was always quite worthy (my issues were inherited) and the sort of thing relatives felt children should be reading, in the same way that uncles and aunts would give you a book on science or history at Christmas. Anyway. Nestled among the beautiful dullness were usually two comic strips: one was adaptations of classics or lives of historical characters; and the other was Look and Learn’s own Dan Dare... but in an attempt to be progressive and educational the Trigan Empire tempered the SF larks with a heady dose of Roman/ Greek history so that the plots, although heavy on green skinned baddies with ray guns, at least had some sort of historical resonance
The weird thing about the Rebellion reprint is that for the first time I get to read the whole thing unedited (the Hamlyn edition cherry picked a lot, the luxury reprints out of my price range) and as such it’s a very different beast than I remember from childhood. Because my stack were inherited, it was - as all inherited comics tend to be - full of missing issues so the story zipped about a great deal so I now realise I filled in a LOT of gaps with my own imagination. Plus those issues tended to be towards the end of Lawrence’s run and into the final artists (who were still very good and I hope get their own volume) so all of this is new to me and paints a very different version of Trigan
Firstly there’s the framing story, which I had no idea about. It has very little to do with the plot but does nicely justify the existence of the strip in an educational setting as they are stories translated by an Earth historian from a spaceship (plus who knew Trigans were all twelve foot?!). I guess, if you squint, it could also explain something of the fatigue of reading YET ANOTHER invasion or rebellion story hot on the heels of another one. It feels like Trigan never stops being attacked but that’s possibly because these are meant to be historical papers. It does struggle a bit from one sitting though because as opposed to week on week episodes it just feels like it’s another - admittedly pretty inventive - excuse for Trigan to suffer a bit and then rebuild constantly. Judge Dredd has learned from this and tends to keep the focus low and leave the bit cataclysms to once a decade. You can definitely imagine Wagner reading this story of world building and taking note
It’s also a beautiful book. For my money better than Dan Dare. Even though they’re a very sixties looking bunch of space Romans, with their quiffs and sideburns, the art is phenomenal. Lawrence also manages to temper his initial decision to make the bastarding Lorkans green skinned Asians by making them look more alien has he goes along so it does seem - for the most part (there are still some wince inducing “savages”) - like Lawrence is trying to make Elekton a little more genetically rich than it could have been in the hands of a lesser artist
It’s also full of very vivid characters - Trigo is a bit of a bore (but it looks like the stories in the next book, if the preview is anything to go on) but has a temper on him. Similarly his dull nephew is a bit... like every flipping sixties boys comic hero of the time in U.K. comics, but his friendships make him a lot more interesting. Peric feels a lot more interesting as an adult and I’m very glad his daughter starts getting more to do so feels less like a random token female with immaculate hair. Trigo’s wife does fuck all but then again the marriage does seem to be diplomatic rather than based on love which seems an interesting detail
Because it has none of the comic relief of Dan Dare, it can feel a bit dry but comic relief would absolutely sink the epic tone it almost always achieves. And as far as world building goes it’s pretty spectacular- the other races seem believable and mostly not stereotypes. And because it doesn’t have the Mekon popping up all the time you have a far more believable series of would be tyrants trying their chances. Much as ANOTHER sodding Lokan invasion can get a bit dull, those driving it do feel believably driven by vengeance and anger
So yeah. A strange one in terms of it living up to my memory of it but still spectacular as a work of comic art. I can’t wait to read the rest and really hope 1. we get the other writers and artists covered in the books and 2. maybe a companion book explaining a bit more of the creation and context in detail
The weird thing about the Rebellion reprint is that for the first time I get to read the whole thing unedited (the Hamlyn edition cherry picked a lot, the luxury reprints out of my price range) and as such it’s a very different beast than I remember from childhood. Because my stack were inherited, it was - as all inherited comics tend to be - full of missing issues so the story zipped about a great deal so I now realise I filled in a LOT of gaps with my own imagination. Plus those issues tended to be towards the end of Lawrence’s run and into the final artists (who were still very good and I hope get their own volume) so all of this is new to me and paints a very different version of Trigan
Firstly there’s the framing story, which I had no idea about. It has very little to do with the plot but does nicely justify the existence of the strip in an educational setting as they are stories translated by an Earth historian from a spaceship (plus who knew Trigans were all twelve foot?!). I guess, if you squint, it could also explain something of the fatigue of reading YET ANOTHER invasion or rebellion story hot on the heels of another one. It feels like Trigan never stops being attacked but that’s possibly because these are meant to be historical papers. It does struggle a bit from one sitting though because as opposed to week on week episodes it just feels like it’s another - admittedly pretty inventive - excuse for Trigan to suffer a bit and then rebuild constantly. Judge Dredd has learned from this and tends to keep the focus low and leave the bit cataclysms to once a decade. You can definitely imagine Wagner reading this story of world building and taking note
It’s also a beautiful book. For my money better than Dan Dare. Even though they’re a very sixties looking bunch of space Romans, with their quiffs and sideburns, the art is phenomenal. Lawrence also manages to temper his initial decision to make the bastarding Lorkans green skinned Asians by making them look more alien has he goes along so it does seem - for the most part (there are still some wince inducing “savages”) - like Lawrence is trying to make Elekton a little more genetically rich than it could have been in the hands of a lesser artist
It’s also full of very vivid characters - Trigo is a bit of a bore (but it looks like the stories in the next book, if the preview is anything to go on) but has a temper on him. Similarly his dull nephew is a bit... like every flipping sixties boys comic hero of the time in U.K. comics, but his friendships make him a lot more interesting. Peric feels a lot more interesting as an adult and I’m very glad his daughter starts getting more to do so feels less like a random token female with immaculate hair. Trigo’s wife does fuck all but then again the marriage does seem to be diplomatic rather than based on love which seems an interesting detail
Because it has none of the comic relief of Dan Dare, it can feel a bit dry but comic relief would absolutely sink the epic tone it almost always achieves. And as far as world building goes it’s pretty spectacular- the other races seem believable and mostly not stereotypes. And because it doesn’t have the Mekon popping up all the time you have a far more believable series of would be tyrants trying their chances. Much as ANOTHER sodding Lokan invasion can get a bit dull, those driving it do feel believably driven by vengeance and anger
So yeah. A strange one in terms of it living up to my memory of it but still spectacular as a work of comic art. I can’t wait to read the rest and really hope 1. we get the other writers and artists covered in the books and 2. maybe a companion book explaining a bit more of the creation and context in detail
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