HOME CONTACT ME PHOTO GALLERY NEWS      

Donald Lawrence was born on November 17, 1928 in East Sheen, London, the third child of Nellie and Herbert Lawrence. He had a sister, Pamela, two years older than him, and a brother, Raymond who was four years older. His father worked as a clerk at Lloyd's of London; his mother was a very hard woman who didn't make life easy for her husband or children.

Don didn't look back on a happy childhood. They had to move several times and he never really bonded with his older brother. In 1940 England was at war with Germany and Don moved once again to St. Pauls’, a public school where he remained for the remainder of the conflict and only came home for holidays and Christmas.

After Don decided to become a comic artist he bought a few western comics and redrew the pages. With these pages he visited a few publishers but received no offers of work. However, editor Edward (Ted) Holes of Amalgamated press referred Don to Mick Anglo of the Gower street Studio. Don then spent the next four years working for Mick Anglo on the super-hero strip, ‘Marvelman’. After a falling out with Anglo, Don returned to Ted Holmes who was astonished at the improvement in the quality of his artwork. He started right away and drew ‘Billy the Kid’ for Sun Weekly. All kinds of other series followed like ‘Wells Fargo’, ‘Pony Express’, ‘Olac the Gladiator’ and ‘Karl the Viking’. In the sixties Don's star rose as a comic artist and he was asked by his agent Temple Art Agency to draw ‘The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire’. This period of his life was one of tight deadlines, irresponsible behaviour, mistresses and too much alcohol. But, it was the sixties and Don had a lot of fun working on those Trigan pages.

Don Lawrence died on December 29 at the age of 75

Links:
Don Lawrence.co.uk
The Trigan Empire.co.uk
Tales of Trigan Empire
 
In the swamps of Florida a UFO crashed somewhere in the late thirties. The spaceship resisted the impact en onboard men found the dead crew and a collection of books with inside the chronicles of the Trigan Empire. Scientists from all over the world tried to encrypt the books and after many years one of them found the way to translate the books. Thanks to this man the whole world gets to know the history of the rise and fall of the Trigan Empire. With this introduction in the magazine Ranger The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire was introduced to the readers of ‘the magazine for boys’. It was a prestigious project, for which the editor had hired two top talents. Michael Butterworth wrote the scenarios for this space-opera and Don Lawrence drew the artwork. A great combination, because thanks to their talents, the Trigan Empire became one of British most popular comic strips. This site is a tribute to this milestone in British comic-history and the wonderful art of Don Lawrence.