When I was a wee lad my parents said they would pay for me to get two comics a week (one fun one, and one adventure one) as long as I also got an educational one of their choosing. The one they chose was “Look & Learn.” - What they didn’t realize was L&L was the home of the greatest historical science-fiction epic ever told in British comics - The Trigan Empire.

I have an earlier hardback volume that includes selected chapters, but in 2020 Rebellion Comics set out to reprint the entire saga over multiple volumes - a treatment it fully deserves.

Trigan Empire uses the framework of the Roman Empire, mixed in with tropes from other Earth empires such as the Greeks, Aztecs, Arabian, Egyptian and other contemporary cultures then adds in supersonic aircraft, hovercraft, spaceships, strange alien fauna and flora, to tell a generation tale of the intrigues of a star-spanning empire born on a distant world. - All sumptuously told through the astounding painted artwork of Don Lawrence, a master illustrator and story teller.

When I first read these in the mid-sixties I understood what comics could be. Now I’m in my own personal sixties I still regard this as a masterpiece of the medium that puts most modern comics art to shame. ( )