trigan

empire

40 year

In the swamps of Florida a UFOcrashed somewhere in the latethirties. The spaceship resistedthe impact en onboard menfound the dead crew and a col-lection of books with insidethe chronicles of the TriganEmpire. Scientists from allover the world tried toencrypt the books and aftermany years one of them foundthe way to translate thebooks. Thanks to this man thewhole world gets to know thehistory of the rise and fall ofthe Trigan Empire.

With this introduction in the magazineRanger The Rise and Fall of theTrigan Empire was introduced to thereaders of ‘the magazine for boys’.It was a prestigious project, forwhich the editor had hired two toptalents. Michael Butterworth wrotethe scenarios for this space-operaand Don Lawrence drew the artwork.A great combination, because thanksto their talents, the Trigan Empirebecame one of British most popularcomic strips.

This exhibition is a tribute to thismilestone in British comic-historyand the wonderful art of DonLawrence.

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 Therise and fall of the trigan empire were published.

First dutch softcover book of the trigan empire. published in 1973by 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 lawrenceillustrated the story the underworld of vuldar. it became his lastproject drawn for a british publisher.

for the dutch magazine eppo, in which the trigan empire (trigie) waspublished don lawrence drew two cover illustrations.

limited edition Portfolio containing 4 cover illustrations by donlawrence. These were made for the second trigan series publishedin holland by uitgeverij Big Balloon between 1992 and 1998.

PORTFOLIO

THE TRIGAN EMPIRETHE TRIGAN EMPIREPORTFOLIO

the making of a Trigan

-the collection- book

Sorting out the

material

the basic material forthe series are the origi-nal paintings by donlawrence. the caps arefilled by the originalprinting films, colourslides and earlierpublications.

scanning of the

artwork

the originalpaintings of don

lawrence are scannedon a Heidelberg A3+

high-endscanner after which the

files arestored on the

local network.

digital

restoration

the scans are digitallycleaned up and resto-red.

placing the bal-

loons

when the images areready they are placed in

the document. the images

are adjusted to theright size and the

balloons are placed.

editorial

information

each volume has a dossier about the planetelecton plus a lot ofbackground informationon the stories in thebook.

the first printout

when the files are readythe first printout is

made, which gives usa first impression of

how the book will be.

proofreading

the printout is checkedby our editors in the UK(Steve Holland, Mikeo'doherty and chrisweston).when all typos andother mistakes arechanged the files areof to the printers.

the books

it takes about 4 weeksbefore the books arriveback from the printers.

opening the first box ofbooks is always a

special moment!

digital restoration an example.

above) the original painting of don lawrence, with the englishballoons 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 onscreen and filled the gap with using the surrounded material. thistook about five hours, but the final result is great!