More examples like this Trigan Empire plot, please (any medium)

HareBrain

HareBrain

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As a kid, I read Look & Learn Magazine, which at one point reprinted the 1969 Trigan Empire story "The Lost City". I was amazed by it at the time, and even in my more sophisticated years, I've always thought of it as having a very satisfying plot. Here's a PDF reproduction, which I think is well worth a read if you like classic SFF adventure.


I have a feeling that this type of plot must have been used elsewhere, possibly many times. But if I've encountered them, I can't bring them to mind. Here's a run-down of the basic elements.

Two competing factions get to hear of a lost city (or similar) that guards a fabulous secret/wealth. One sends a peaceful scientific expedition, the other a military one. En route the two encounter each other and fight, with the military faction being victorious. At the city, the military faction sets out to conquer/loot it. The scientific one teams up with the city's inhabitants to thwart them. After the military faction is defeated, the scientific expedition decides that the city's secret shouldn't be known by the outside world after all, and resolves not to tell. (The Trigan Empire example has various other elements, but those aren't central.)

I guess some of this isn't dissimilar to early Indiana Jones films, but can anyone think of other examples, or ones that are closer?
 
How is it that the military faction doesn't remember about the city and try again in the future?
 
Treasure Island.
Flint's ex crew, led by Long John Silver, head to Skeleton Island. A group of toffs accompanied by Jim Hawkins also sets out (with the added advantage of possessing the treasure map). The two groups have various run-ins before the toffs prevail.
 
I remember reading a Trigan Empire book at school and being captivated by it.

I suppose there are parallels with V between those wanting peaveful co-existence with Humans, and those wanting to eat us.
 
Maybe Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Although in that, the military and scientific groups are factions of the same expedition, and only break up later on, when the opportunity to loot the place arises.

I wonder if the Avatar/Dinosaur Planet/Word For World Is Forest plot of "thugs and intellectuals fight over a new Eden" derives from this.
 
Toby Frost said:
Maybe Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Although in that, the military and scientific groups are factions of the same expedition, and only break up later on, when the opportunity to loot the place arises.
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I've never watched it, but it put something else on the tip of my tongue. Is there some very well known late-Victorian adventure story all these are rooted in, that we're forgetting?
 
HareBrain said:
I've never watched it, but it put something else on the tip of my tongue. Is there some very well known late-Victorian adventure story all these are rooted in, that we're forgetting?
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The whole thing was very Roman-esque to me, from the building of the Empire to its look and feel.

Maybe the stories are based on early Roman events?
 
Blast from the past!
IIRC it was Look and Learn incorporating Ranger
I was enthralled from the very first episode, when the Trigan ship crash landed and the young scientist spent his entire life trying to translate their language .... And thus began the "First book of Trigo"
 
Danny McG said:
IIRC it was Look and Learn incorporating Ranger
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By my day it had changed to "incorporating Speed and Power".

I was just at the end of the (Trigan Empire artist) Don Lawrence era. After a few adventures it switched to Oliver Frey, whose work looked more modern. They did later repeat some of the Lawrence stuff (like the Lost City) and I came to appreciate his art more.

It was a great kids' magazine. I still have all my copies.

Danny McG said:
I was enthralled from the very first episode, when the Trigan ship crash landed and the young scientist spent his entire life trying to translate their language .... And thus began the "First book of Trigo"
Click to expand...
I've got a hardback collection of the earliest stuff, so I've read that story.
 
HareBrain said:
You mean the "found" tomes within the story? I think I started about 1976/7 and there was no mention of them then.
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I was an 'original' who read issue one in Ranger.
There were 12 alien books that some obsessive guy spent his lonely life translating.
Every couple of years we'd get 'thus ended the first book of Trigo" and " thus ended the second book of Trigo" etc.
The next week we'd see a new story arc with a wizened old hand opening a new volume.
I've always wondered how far through the 12 books the comic got before they ceased publication, I know you can now buy all the stories as graphic books, but I heard somewhere that the last few were a rush job by people who never appreciated the 1960s awesomeness of the early stories
 
Danny McG said:
I've always wondered how far through the 12 books the comic got before they ceased publication
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I think they abandoned the "found tomes" idea by the time I started reading. I read Trigan Empire in L&L for years and the concept never came up. Oliver Frey also abandoned a lot of the "Romans in space" imagery and made it more clearly futuristic sci-fi.
 
HareBrain said:
You mean the "found" tomes within the story? I think I started about 1976/7 and there was no mention of them then.
Click to expand...
Last frame in this strip shows the old language professor finishing one of the "Books of Trigo" - I was enthralled by that way back in 1965!
Trigan Empire 01 - Victory for the Trigans - Ranger 1965_0041.gif
 
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