Review by Luke Williams
The Book: For the first time in forty years, the Trigan Empire rises once again! Michael Carroll (Dreadnoughts), and Tom Foster (Judge Dredd), bring you New Adventures from the Trigan Empire, continuing the classic, groundbreaking comics story originally told by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence.
Decades have passed since we were last visitors to The Trigan Empire, and an ageing Emperor Trigo has started to think about who his successor may be. His right-hand man and nephew, Janno, has already taken on many of his duties – but Trigo’s estranged son, Nikko, has inherited his mother’s mantle as ruler of the powerful nation of Hericon…
• EXCLUSIVE Read our Trigan Empire Sneak Peek: Michael Carroll teases Rebellion’s new graphic novel – out on 21st May 2026
The Review: Yours scribe is a relative newbie to the Trigan Empire, a science fiction strip with strong greco-roman themes, telling the tale of the dynasty of the titular empire, headed by Trigo and his family based on the planet Elekton, as they gradually increase their sphere of influence. The strip has a long and distinguished history: it’s spoken of in hush tones within UK fandom, a point of reference for many people of a certain age, and has been the subject of many reprints over the years, most recently by current owners, Rebellion.
Created by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence it first appeared in Ranger comic before it was “matched and dispatched” into the educational magazine Look and Learn. The strip was published in brief, two page episodes, and is most notable for the exquisite fully painted art of Storm creator Lawrence, mentor to modern comic greats Chris Weston and Liam Sharp. Toward the end of the run, other distinguished artists took over the strip from Lawrence, including Oliver Frey and Ron Embleton, and scripts were handled by Ken Roscoe.
Clearly still popular, Rebellion have commissioned a trilogy of 60 page one shots (or graphic novels, if you must) focussing on the scions of the brothers of the original run. Sensibly, they have kept the themes and tone of the original strip, but minimised the baggage of 20 plus years of continuity.
It’s an interesting creative team for the book. Michael Carroll is one of the more underrated writers to come to prominence over the last 20 years, creating distinctive series for 2000AD such as the hard sci f of “Proteus Vex” and the alien invasion saga currently running in the Prog’, “Silver”, and a respected run on “Judge Dredd”; however this is a very different proposition to those strips.
It would be easy to dismiss The Trigan Empire as Greek and Romans in space, but it’s not too far from the truth, but the dynastic struggle and the odd anachronistic mixture of technology keeps the reader’s interest. Using a neat framing sequence to help ease newbies into the strip, The New Adventures from The Trigan Empire Book I goes all Game of Thrones, with trade-offs forced marriages, and betrayalswithin the family. Carroll has an excellent ear for dialogue and as he has proven he can plot political machinations with the best of them.
This is rising star Tom Foster’s first painted art (in strip form anyway). He’s already built a reputation of being of the school of Bolland / Cliff Robinson style of art clean, finely detailed and beautifully inked pages. Foster’s painted work is redolent of Glenn Fabry in style; still highly detailed but with more relief in musculature and facial expression. It’s beautiful work, but Foster doesn’t really get to much of a chance to show off as much as Lawrence et al. The pages are pretty panel heavy, which is oddly perverse as the nature of the story is epic, so you’d expect the odd splash page or double page spread.
However, scepticism of another revival by Rebellion has been replaced by optimism, due to a compelling story and a quality creative team.
But I still haven’t worked out if it’s pronounced “Tree gan” or “Try gan”.
Luke Williams
• Preorder New Adventures from the Trigan Empire – Book One from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) – out on 21st May 2026
• EXCLUSIVE Trigan Empire Sneak Peek: Michael Carroll teases Rebellion’s new graphic novel!
• The Rise and Fall of The Trigan Empire collections are available to order from all good bookshops, AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link) | Treasury of British Comics Webshop
• Michael Carroll is online at michaelowencarroll.com | Follow his blog about British Comics and more, Rusty Staples
• Follow Tom Foster on BlueSky | Instagram
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Brought up on a diet of Commando, British Boys Annuals and Asterix, Lucas Williams’s day job limits his reading time. Luckily for everyone else this also restricts his writing time.
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