EXTRACTS: The Art of the Trigan Empire © 2013 Book Palace (76 PAGES in Full edition)

the art of the trigan empire 3 the artists Don Lawrence pages 30 to 53 Don(ald Southam) Lawrence (1928-2003). Born in East Sheen, London, on 17 November 1928, Don Lawrence used his gratuity from National Service to attend Borough Polytechnic to study art. He became a regular contributor to the superheroic adventures of ‘Marvelman’ in 1954 before producing the Western strips ‘Wells Fargo’ and ‘Pony Express’ for Zip and Swift . He found work with Fleetway, drawing another Western, ‘Billy the Kid’, before finding his niche drawing historical strips ‘Karl the Viking’ and ‘Maroc the Mighty’. Memorable as these strips were, it is for his colour work that Lawrence is now famous. After 11 years on ‘the Trigan Empire’, Lawrence helped create ‘Storm’, the story of a man catapulted into the distant future, for the Dutch weekly comic Eppo . Lawrence painted 22 volumes of Storm’s adventures between 1976 and 1995. That year, Lawrence lost the sight in one eye and a final volume was completed with the assistance of Liam McCormack- Sharp in 2001. Lawrence was widely respected in continental Europe (he was made a Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of Holland) and won many awards. He died on 29 December 2003, aged 75. Ron Embleton pages 6 to 29 Ron(ald Sydney) Embleton (1930-1988). Born in London on 6 October 1930, Embleton began drawing as a young boy, submitting a cartoon to the News of the World at the age of 9 and, at 12, winning a national poster competition. At 17 he earned himself a place in a commercial studio but soon left to work freelance, drawing comic strips for many of the small publishers who sprang up shortly after the war. He was soon drawing for the major publishers. His most fondly remembered strips include ‘Strongbow the Mighty’ in Mickey Mouse Weekly , ‘Wulf the Briton’ in Express Weekly , ‘Wrath of the Gods’ in Boys’ World , ‘Johnny Frog’ in Eagle and ‘Stingray’ in TV Century 21 . Embleton also provided the illustrations that appeared in the title credits for the Captain Scarlet TV series, and dozens of paintings for prints and newspaper strips. A meticulous artist, his illustrations appeared in Look and Learn for many years, amongst them the historical series ‘Roger’s Rangers’. Embleton died on 13 February 1988 at the age of 57. Miguel Quesada pages 54 to 56 A Spanish artist, born Miguel Quesada Cerdán in 1933. In late 1945, he began assisting Manuel Gago, a family acquaintance, on his strip ‘La Pandilla de los 7’. Later he collaborated with his brother Pedro on a number of strips for Valenciana and Bruguera publishing houses. For the publisher Maga he created ‘Pacho Dinamite’ and ‘Tony y Anita’ as well as briefly taking over the popular ‘Pentera Negra’ strip. He worked with Luis Bermejo through whom he began working for British comics. He was a regular contributor to Air Ace Picture Library and Commando as well as producing occasional weekly strips, including a run of stories featuring ‘The Iron Man’ for Eagle . In later years Quesada concentrated on illustration. Philip Corke pages 56 to 58 A British artist who worked on the Trigan Empire for a year in 1974-75. Previously he had illustrated a number of books for North Cheap publishers’ Young World Productions. Following this brief sojourn into comics, he returned to illustrating books and posters, mostly historical subjects , also penning titles for the Longman ‘Butterfly Books’ series. Oliver Frey pages 58 to 66 A Swiss-born artist resident in the UK for many years, Frey was a fan of Eagle and Look and Learn as a boy. He studied film at the London School of Film Technique and began drawing comic strips to support himself, working for Fleetway’s picture libraries. After briefly running a film company in Switzerland, Frey returned to the UK and worked as a full-time comic strip artist and illustrator, working on two of his favourite boyhood comic strips, ‘The Trigan Empire’ (1976-77) and ‘Dan Dare’ (1982-83). With his brother, Franco, he was a co-founder of Newsfield Publications, providing hundreds of covers and illustrations for their many computer and horror magazines. He later co-founded Thalamus Publishing. Gerry Wood pages 67 to 71 A British artist thought to have started working for Fleetway Publications in the early 1960s, drawing for Battle Picture Library . He contributed heavily to Look and Learn and Speed & Power in the 1970s, drawing mostly historical, military and transport subjects. He took over the artwork for the Trigan Empire in 1977 and continued the adventures until both it and Look and Learn came to an end in 1982. He subsequently illustrated a number of books.