Review by Frank Plowright
The Sun Worshippers spans a greater creative period than other volumes in this deluxe oversize series, encompassing early 1974 to late 1975, during which artist Don Lawrence took a break from the strip. Rebellion’s Trigan Empire editions reprint stories drawn by Philip Corke during Lawrence’s absence in Volume IV, but be warned, it’s not a pretty sight.
The title strip represents a rare infusion of what seems to be magic into the super science of the Trigan Empire, involving a cult, unfortunately robed a little too similarly to the Ku Klax Klan. They lay a curse that everything Trigo touches will fall into ruin, and it comes to pass, with Lawrence drawing some spectacular disasters. Butterworth is never one to drag out the obvious, so while some wild turns play to Lawrence’s strengths, he pulls everything together in a tidy eight episodes, although by the end Lawrence looks a little rushed.
Even acknowledging the year’s gap between the first story and the second, it’s disappointing to note Butterworth again resorting to the disaster of a sinking ship as a visual highlight. However, as noted in other reviews, even with the quality of Lawrence’s art, Butterworth never imagined he was writing for posterity, and in 1975, 52 episodes had passed since he last used that device. The story concerns Toth Zandu, apparently able to see the future, and trusted by the Trigan ruling elite after providing information about a Lokan attack, yet readers are shown he’s not as altruistic as he seems.
One noticeable change of Lawrence’s absence is his signing post-return strips in an era when credits remained absent in British comics, and another is increased facial exaggeration. A year away drawing only the Carrie comedies where it’s ingrained shows in his first few strips back with Zandu constantly gurning. However, the designs and battle scenes are effective. A mixture of the impressive and the questionable is supplied by the sample page. Butterworth, though, comes up trumps with a neat final panel. Also good is a rare intrusion of possible real world political solutions in a strip about a daredevil given only six months to live who decides the best use of his remaining time would be to rid the planet of dangerous people. A couple of arbitrary pieces of plotting don’t detract greatly from a compelling campaign with a notable ending and some great art.
Lawrence’s talent for visual definition of personalities shines on the following story of Janno and Roffa inexplicably admitting to corruption, leading to a tense prison drama. The emergence of a still credible Uri Geller in the mid-1970s is an inspiration for final story ‘The Faith Healer’, but it’s the only tale in this collection where Butterworth doesn’t maximise the potential, seemingly uncertain of where to take the plot, and rushing to an end. However, although they come to nothing, Lawrence obviously relishes a scene with gangsters.
The received opinion on the later years of Butterworth and Lawrence on The Trigan Empire is that the stories don’t match the earlier material. Some of The Sun Worshippers disproves that easy allegation. While Butterworth’s inspirations are obvious, having to upgrade his writing to sustain the feature when working with a lesser artist means this is a collection where the adventure plots are a return to form after quality dipped for The House of Five Moons. Lawrence’s time on the series ends with The Green Smog, with those stories available alongside these in the paperpback Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire Volume V.
