Butterworth, who had recently turned freelance, worked with Leonard Matthews-head of the juvenile publications department-to create a range of strips for the new paper.

The story was written by Mike Butterworth, a thirteen-year veteran of comic scriptwriting and long-time editor at Fleetway Publications, the publishers of Ranger. Ranger was absorbed into the educational magazine L ook and Learn after only 40 weeks, but the adventures of the Trigan Empire were to continue until 1982, a run of 17 years. One man, Richard Peter Haddon, spends seventy years on the task before he is finally able to translate the first of these records, the first book that related the founding of the Trigan Empire. The craft and its dead pilots are studied intensely, as are a collection of records written in a wholly alien language. A spacecraft of alien design crashes in the Florida EvergladesвЂ¦ the inhabitants are humanoid but twice the height of the average human. On 18 September, in the debut issue of Ranger, readers were introduced to вЂThe Rise and Fall of the Trigan EmpireвЂ™ in one of the most bizarre openings of any comic strip. In 1965, one of the finest of all British comic strips began with a bangвЂ¦ or, rather, a crash.

Death or Glory: The Best of Battle Picture Library.

Unleash Hell: The Best of War Picture Library.

Against All Odds: War Picture Library Vol.

Frank Bellamy's King Arthur and His Knights.Let 'Em Have It: Battle Picture Library Vol.Sci-Fi Art: A Graphic History, with others.Up And At 'Em! War Picture Library Vol.Aces High: Air Ace Picture Library Vol 1.Frank Bellamy's Complete Swift Stories (limited edition).Frank Bellamy's The Story of World War 1.Essential Cult Books, with Gina McKinnon.Gwyn Evans: The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet.Peter Jackson's London Is Stranger Than Fiction.The Men Behind the Flying Saucer Review.The story of Harry Bensley's 'Walking Round the World' Hoax The Complete Eagles Over the Western Front.Hurricane and Champion: The Companion Papers to Valiant (new edition).

Trigan empire online