ALADDIN JUNIOR

One of the non-Disneyic comics ran in Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine in the wartime era was 'Aladdin Jr.', chronicling the humorous exploits of a magic lamp genie accompanying a boy. 'Aladdin Junior' or alternatively 'Aladdin Jr' was an American import, a King Features Sunday newspaper comics written by Les Forgrave and drawn by William M. Prince. It had been syndicated in the US in 1942-43. According to Andy Madura's 'Comics and Paper Collectibles' site, "the story of the strip revolved around a young lad named Jack who was living the country life with his Aunt Belle and Uncle Pete. One day, his aunt breaks down and gives Jack a crate that his father had bequeathed to him. Inside was an arabian lamp, and when he rubbed the lamp a very mischevious Genie popped into Jack's life." The above scan is from MM no. 331 (dated March 13th, 1943) and the below ones from no. 358 (dated March 25th, 1944) and no. 371 (dated Sept. 23rd, 1944):

TURKISH-MADE PHANTOM COMICS FROM CIRCA 1944

Proabably the rarest piece in my collection of war-era Turkish comics is this issue of the bi-weekly 1001 Macera magazine which features a Turkish-made Phantom comics. Simply titled as 'Kızıl Maske [The Red Mask]' (the Phantom had come to be known under this name in Turkey), it is credited to "Ş. Ayhan E.", the joint pseudonym for penciller Şahap Ayhan and inker Ayhan Erer, for its "story and illustrations."

The story begins with a prologue stating that Diana, the Phantom's lover, had been captivated by white slavers:

The vessel of the white slavers encounter a patrol ship which they manage to evade. However the signal from the patrolmen reach mainland and eventually the Phantom. Meanwhile, the slavers have also boarded Africa:

Diana sends a message in a bottle, informing of the location they are being held. This message also eventually reaches the Phantom who storms the slavers' hideout:

In the ensuing fight, the Phantom falls into a river, from which he finds out an underwater opening to the cave where Diana and other captives are being held:

After delivering the dames in distress to safety, he blows up the slavers' hideout:

If anyone recognizes any of the images as originating from a foreign (ie. non-Turkish) source, please let us know.

In addition to this 8-pages long comics, the publication also carries 16 pages of text. The number of this issue is printed as "14-1". I cannot see any date in the tattered copy I have, but it carries ads for other publications known to be published in 1944. It has been published by Kemal Özcan Kitabevi [Kemal Özcan Bookhouse] "established by" Kemal Özcan and directed by Melih Yener. Kemal Özcan may be the same person as Kemal Uzcan who published a long-running comics magazine titled 1001 Özel in the 1950s as the adresses for the offices of 1001 Macera and 1001 Özel are same.

The collaborative works of Şahap Ayhan (1926-2005) and Ayhan Erer (1929-1998) would begin to appear in the children's weekly magazine Çocuk Haftası in 1946 with the highly-acclaimed historical epic comics 'Gültekin'. The duo would work together for a few more comics in the coming years and then part ways with only Ayhan pursuing a career in comics.

ADDENDA ON OCT. 31ST: A post-war Turkish-made Phantom comics is the 8-pages long 'Arizona Soyguncuları [The Robbers of Arizona]' by Ferdi Sayışman published in no. 134 (dated March, 1955) of 1001 Özel weekly comics magazine. It tells the story of Phantom in the wild west where he has traveled to help Diana's sister against robbers.

RADIO FUN

Radio Fun was a British weekly magazine featuring comics based on popular radio shows and/or radio personalities. It was published between 1938-61 by Amalgated Press. Above scan is of the cover of no. 291 (dated May 6th, 1944). The "Big-Hearted Arthur" of the comics on the cover is Arthur Askey, a popular British radio comedian (who also had a subsequent film career). On the other hand, I couldn't find out what this interesting comics on the back cover was derived from:

Note the text beneath the first row of panels where the black character abases himself by saying "No fish will understand Coon Language." This comics is the work of leading British comics artist Roy Wilson (1900-1965), best remembered for the 'Chimpo's Circus' published on the covers of the short-lived Happy Days comics weekly from 1938-39:

note: above image of no.1 of Happy Days is scanned from Denis Gifford's The Complete Catalogue of British Comics (1985).

TURKISH AD FOR MANDRAKE SERIAL

Above scan from no. 303 (dated Sept. 6th, 1940) of Turkish children's magazine Çocuk Sesi Afacan is an ad for the upcoming Sept. 12 release of Mandrake the Magician (1939) film serial in Istanbul's Alkazar cinema. The ad includes the tagline "30 parts altogether", indicating that the whole serial will be shown with each screening, a common practice for serial screenings in Turkey.

TARZAN COMICS IN TURKEY IN THE WARTIME ERA (AND BEYOND)

The serialization of Tarzan comics in b&w in Ülkü's children's weekly magazine Afacan, where comics of E.R.Burrough's jungle hero had made their Turkish debut in 1935, had ceased in 1939. Meanwhile, rival publisher Tahsin Demiray's Türkiye Yayınevi had began to publish the weekly 1001 Roman which allocated the majority of its pages to comics. With no. 78 (dated Dec. 30th, 1940), 'Tarzan' began to be serialized in color on the covers of this magazine, marking the color debut of Tarzan comics in Turkey. 1001 Roman started its run of Tarzan with an adventure where Tarzan encounters a Chinese colony which had been serialized as a Sunday newspaper continuity by Burne Hogarth in 1938-39 in the US. In addition, one issue of the monthly 'special issue' series of 1001 Roman also featured a Tarzan comics credited to the Turkish artist Ekrem Dülek (covered in the below post in this blog from Sept. 26). 'Tarzan' continued to be serialized on the covers of the weekly edition of 1001Roman without any breaks until the magazine folded in 1946.
Post-script - Brief overview of Tarzan comics in Turkey after the war:
In the post-war era, poorly traced Tarzan comics appeared in several Turkish magazines, an early example being 'Tarzan' serialized in Çocuk Alemi in 1948. The proper reprints of US Tarzan Sunday newspaper comics were ran in the supplement of Vatan newspaper in 1951.
The first Turkish comics magazine headlining Burrough's jungle hero would be the short-lived Tarzan published by Nihat Özcan in 1951. However, the longer-running Tarzan comics magazine from the late 1960s as well as its follow-up Süper Tarzan from the 1970s and 1980s would actually feature the Italian Tarzan-clone comics Akim! In similar vein, the 'Tarzan' photo-strip serialized in Yeni 1001 Roman in the late 1960s is actually Italian Tarzan clone photo-strip Antar. Meanwhile, the 'real' Tarzan comics would be serialized in children's magazines Doğan Kardeş with occasional breaks between 1967-77 and in Milliyet Çocuk in the 1980s.
It should also be noted that two parody-comics of Tarzan would be made in Turkey as well: 'Tarzan Eski Dünyalarda' [Tarzan In Ancient Worlds] scripted by Bülent Oran and illustrated by Suat Yalaz, serialized in satire/humour magazine Dolmuş in 1957 and the hugely popular 'Tarzan', later retitled as 'Tarzan ve Arap Kadri' [Tarzan and Kadri the Arab], serialized in Fırt from 1976 onwards.

TARZAN COMICS IN TURKEY IN THE PRE-WAR ERA - PART II: ILLUSTRATED STORY BOOKS BASED ON COMICS

While the US daily newspaper strip continuity 'Tarzan and Leopard Men' was being serialized in the Turkish weekly children's magazine Afacan in 1939 as 'Pars Adamlar', the same publisher, Ülkü, put out a series of illustrated story books featuring Tarzan in August of the same year. The first of these pocket-sized, 32-pages long Tarzan books was titled simply as Tarzan and came out on Aug. 2nd. It is actually no. 7 of Ülkü's Çocuk Romanları [Children's Novels] series, most of the earlier titles in the series being Turkish editions of Whitman's Snow White & Seven Dwarfs books.
Tarzan is an illustrated text story version of a Sunday newspaper comics continuity by Hal Foster which had started in late 1934 in the US where Tarzan faces Dester Molu, an evil and fake White God of the natives. The illustrations in the book are select panels from the comics. Three more Tarzan titles followed in quick succession: #8: Tarzan ile Uçakçı Kız [Tarzan and the Aviatrix Girl], #9: Tarzan Yine Galip [Tarzan Triumphs Again] and #10: Tarzan Yeni Maceralarda [Tarzan In New Adventures]. I don't have these three books , but the title of #8 suggests that it must have been indeed derived from the next Sunday continuity where Tarzan meets a female aviatrix prior to encountering a Viking colony after the Dester Molu episode. These form the bulk of the Sunday continuities which the editors of Afacan had skipped while running 'Tarzan' in that magazine in the earlier years.
#11 of Ülkü's 'Children's Novels' series was a Dopey (of The Seven Dwarfs) title and its back cover announced the next in the series to be yet another Tarzan book, but I couldn't find out what the precise title of that book turned out be.

TARZAN COMICS IN TURKEY IN THE PRE-WAR ERA - PART I: AFACAN

Tarzan comics, which were being serialized in the US newspapers since 1929, made their Turkish debut in b&w in the children's weekly magazine Afacan in 1935. Tarzan was first announced in the editor's page of no.9 as their upcoming new "sinema romanı" [cinema novel], a term frequently used in the era to denote comics which hadn't yet a fixed term to describe this new medium, and kicked off with no. 13 (dated Feb. 14th, 1935). Afacan alloted two full pages to Tarzan, the largest space given to any single comics in Turkey at the time (for instance, Jungle Jim, also being serialized there, had one full page). The first one-and-a-half pages of the first installement provided a quick summary background for Tarzan and then an adventure about elephants' graveyard began. This adventure is from US Sunday newspaper comics from 1932, at a time when Hal Foster had taken over the Sundays. However, the source material for the Turkish edition seems to be of French origin as Tarzan's friend in distress is named as "Jan Kursiye", rather than Erich von Harben as in the original US edition. It should also be noted that the b&w art is very 'clean', making one think that either b&w originals or b&w redrawings were used. Nevertheless, the Turkish serialization followed the US run, featuring the subsequent 'Egyptian saga' following the elephants' graveyard adventure, covering the whole run of Sundays from mid-1932 to early 1934.

After the Egyptian saga ended, a new adventure started at no. 80., unfortunately with decreased, somewhat muddy-looking print quality as if b&w reproduction was struck directly from a color source. This new adventure is originally from US Sundays starting in early 1936, the last Tarzan adventure Foster had a hand in. In other words, the editors of Afacan had skipped (or had to skip, depending on material they had access to at the time) approximately two-years run of Sundays (the bulk of those adventures would later be presented to Turkish readers in a different format, as will be covered later in this blog).

No further Tarzan comics would be published in Afacan until 1939. In the meantime, a sparsely illustrated text story titled 'Tarzan Kaçıyor [Tarzan Flees]' was serialized between no.'s 151-185. This was a Turkish translation of E.R.Burroughs novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928). The illustrations are not from the daily strip adaptation serialized in US newspapers in 1930, but from a source I cannot identify.

Tarzan comics returned to Afacan at no. 222 (dated Feb 16th, 1939) with the start of the serialization of 'Pars Adamlar [Leopard Men]' which ended at no. 257 (dated Oct. 20, 1939). This is indeed the daily strip adventure with the same title by Rex Maxon which had started in the US newspapers at the tail end of 1935. This would be the last Tarzan comics published in Afacan, which, despite already merging with the same publisher's Çocuk Sesi magazine at no. 251 and hence being retitled as Çocuk Sesi Afacan, would cease publication in 1940.

Coming soon in this blog: Tarzan In Turkey In The Pre-war Era - Part II: Illustrated Tarzan story books based on comics

TURKISH-MADE 'SON OF TARZAN' COMICS FROM 1945

Starting from no. 133 (dated July 14th, 1945), a comics titled 'Tarzanın Oğlu [Son of Tarzan]' and credited to Turkish artist Mehmet Tekdal was serialized in the Turkish children's weekly magazine Çocuk Haftası for 12 issues. The comics starts with the introductory caption that "Tarzan, with his wife, had gone to America and left his son as protector of his jungles."
The plot kicks off with the appearance of a small and hostile expedition in the jungle:

It turns out that the baddies are intent on stealing "Tarzan's treasure" hidden under a waterfall:

The whites dispose of the their native servant once he brings forward the treasure..

..and then set out to dispose of each other!:

Finally, it is upto Numa the lion to dispose of the surviving baddie:

Like Ekrem Dülek's 'Tarzan ve Numa' (see the post from last month), I suspect Tekdal's 'Tarzanın Oğlu' to be redrawn from some foreign materials. Again, if anyone has a hint, please let us know.

Tekdal, whose birth date is unconfirmed, was probably in his early twenties when his first works appeared on the back covers of a puzzle magazine in 1944 (*). He would turn out to be the most prolific of the young Turkish comics artists working in Çocuk Haftası. Most of his output are historical or mythical epics, including several adaptations of Dede Korkut tales. In 1955, he had a short-lived stint as publisher with Roket, Turkey's first comics magazine in 3-D. His works continued to appear in Turkish children's magazines till the early 1970s. At some point, he migrated to Germany to continue his career abroad and settled there (**).

(*) Hakan Alpin, Çizgiroman Ansiklopedisi (Istanbul: İnkilap, 2006)

(**) Levent Cantek, Çizgili Hayat Kılavuzu (Istanbul:İletişim, 2nd ed. 2002)

Coming soon in this blog: Historical Overview of Tarzan comics in Turkey

EKREM DÜLEK'S PUBLISHED SKETCHES FROM 1940

While looking through my collection of the war-time issues of Turkish children's magazine Afacan, I've come across this 'how to draw easily' instructions from the 'For Your Free Time' section of no. 284 (dated Apr. 26th, 1940). The instructions note that the sketches were sent by "Ekrem Dülek, our friend from Zeyrek Highschool." This little item is interesting not only because it marks the earliest published 'work' of Dülek, the name behind the two 1940s comics covered in the two below posts in this blog, but also because it gives a hint, however vague it maybe, on the biographical background of this obscure Turkish artist: the reference to the highschool suggests he might have been a teacher, perhaps an art teacher, if not an eager student.
The only other credits of Dülek I've come across are as illustrator of two childre's books from 1944.

UPDATE FROM 2014: Turkish comics researcher Yener Çakmak has said in a facebook correspondance that a historical heroics comics by Dülek titled 'Alpago' had been published in Çocuk; that weekly children's magazine has been published between 1936-47.

TARZAN AND NUMA: TURKISH-MADE TARZAN COMICS FROM 1943

In the below post on this blog, I had covered Turkish artist Ekrem Dülek's 'Boğaç Han' comics serialized in Çocuk Haftası in 1943-44. Dülek is also credited as the artist for an odd Tarzan comics published in the no. 43 (dated Sept. 3rd, 1943) of the monthly "special issue" series of 1001 Roman from the same publisher, Tahsin Demiray. Titled as 'Tarzan ve Numa' [Tarzan and Numa], this is the only instance I am aware of where a comics credited to a Turkish artist had been published in 1001 Roman.
'Tarzan ve Numa' appears to be partially based on the 'Lion' story in E.R. Burrough's Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1919). The first 8 pages of the comics where Tarzan sets out to save a gorilla snatched by Numa the lion is a fairly faithful adaptation of the introductory section of this story.

Afterwards, the plot of the comics digresses from that of the original story. Tarzan sees natives carrying the carcass of a lion, but finds out that it is not Numa:

Just when Numa appears on the scene, the natives come back to assault Tarzan and his apes..

.. but Numa joins in the fight against the natives and hence Tarzan befriends the lion in the end:

I suspect Dülek might have created this comics by tracing from and/or redrawing one or more foreign source. If anyone recognizes any one or set of images from elsewhere, please let us know. For example, a possible source might be the French Tarzan et le lion (1937) album from Hachette, which I haven't (yet) seen.

Source for Jungle Tales of Tarzan plot summary: http://www.erblist.com/erblist/jtalessummary.html

Coming soon in this blog: Turkish-made Son of Tarzan comics serial from 1945!!..

TURKISH SWASHBUCKLER COMICS FROM 1943-44

Above scan is of the back cover of no. 42 (dated Oct. 16, 1943) of Turkish children's weekly magazine Çocuk Haftası [Children's Week], featuring the first installement of the comics serial 'Boğaç Han' by Turkish artist Ekrem Dülek. The first Turkish comics artist (who received printed credit for his work) was Orhan Tolon who had worked extensively in the 1930s, creating several series of humorous juvenile adventure strips, most of which had utilized speech balloons. However, when he made his first realistic non-humorous comics, the historical epic 'Deniz Kurtları' which preceeded 'Boğaç Han' in Çocuk Haftası in the earlier issues of this magazine, he had curiously resorted back to the format of extra-panel text captions, omitting the use of speech balloons and captions inside panels. 'Boğaç Han' became the first non-humorous Turkish adventure comics utilizing speech balloons (actually, speech 'rectangles', as can be seen in the above scan) and captions within the panels without resorting to extra-panel text captions.
'Boğaç Han' is based on a medieval Turkish folktale. It starts with the public humiliation of a Turkish nobleman during a royal feast because he has no children. The nobleman returns home to scoff at his wife, he urges him to do good deeds and expect heavenly reward for these in the form of a child. He takes upon his wife's advice who soon begots him with a male child. The child grows up and shows extraordinary bravery and strength by overcoming a bull at a royal feast years after his father's earlier humiliation; the nameless child is thus publicly named as 'Boğaç', meaning "like a bull" in Turkish (no. 46):

Later, in an episode not included in the versions of the folktale which I am aware of and hence marking the only digression of the comics from its original source, Boğaç snatches another nobleman's daughter as his bride (no. 53):

Meanwhile, some subordinates of his father has become jealous of Boğaç and persuade the nobleman that his son is keen on ousting him and urge him to assassinate Boğaç, which he does; however, unknown to the plotters, Boğaç actually survivess the assassination and is secretly nursed back into health by his mother (no. 55):

When the plotters become aware that Boğaç is alive, they decide to kidnap his father and deliver him to the nobleman whose daughter Boğaç had forcibly taken as his wife. Nevertheless, Boğaç rescues his father (no.'s 61 and 62):

It all ends happily with the reconciliation of the father and son (no. 63):

The bearded person in the last panels as well as in the right side of the logo is a depiction of Dede Korkut, the wise old man who comments on the developments -the compiler and narrator of these mediveal tales collectively known as 'Dede Korkut Hikayeleri [Dede Korkut Tales]'.

Subsequent issues of Çocuk Haftası, which lasted till 1950, included several other comics, some of which were based on other Dede Korkut tales, by new Turkish artists such as Sururi Gümen, Mehmet Tekdal and Şahap Ayhan besides foreign material such Felix the Cat, Prince Valiant and some Yugoslavian comics. Çocuk Haftası was published by Turkish print media mogul Tahsin Demiray (see post on Oct. 25, 2009 for info on Demiray) and edited by Rakım Çalapala.

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' MARMADUKE STRIP

Above scan is from no. 157 (Feb. 4th, 1939) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, marking the debut of British comics artist Basil Reynolds' Marmaduke strip. Marmaduke had initially appeared as a frequent background character in Reynolds' 'Adventures of Skit And Skat' comics in the same magazine. The strip would be renamed as 'The Adventures of Marmaduke' in the following issue.

DINOSAUR TERRORS FROM 'THE BUCCANEERS' (1939)

Above scan (the series' logo and summary panel couldn't fit my scanner) is of the third installement of the swashbucler comics 'The Buccaneers' serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly between no.'s 194 (Oct. 21st, 1939) - 205 (Jan. 6th, 1940). The hero is a captain who, after a mutiny, is put on a boat together with his loyal men and left on open seas. They land on an island with dinosaurs, but the main plot is about the captain's fight against pirates. It all ends with a volcanic eruption, of course..
'The Buccaneers' had replaced 'King of the Royal Mounted' in the magazine's color central pages and I am not sure if it is another imported comics or a British production.

SK1 AMONG THE DINOSAURS (1935)

Above scan (taken from outducks archive) is of the cover of no. 154 (dated Dec. 8th, 1935) of Italy's Topolino comics weekly, featuring the fourth installement of 'S.K.1.' by Italian artist Guido Moroni Celsi (1885-1962). 'S.K.1' lasted till (including) no. 184 (dated July 5th, 1936).

SPADGER'S ISLE

Above scan is of the cover of no. 991 (dated Feb. 7th, 1942) of British children's weekly The Wizard, featuring the humorous comics known as Spadger's Isle by British artist Chick [Charles] Gordon (c.1890-1952). As can be seen in the above example, Spadger's Isle depicted African natives of an island ran by two Brits in 'funny' situations. The above example is also noteworthy for integrating World War 2 context. Spadger's Isle was reportedly very popular and published on the covers of The Wizard throughout the 1940s. The Wizard itself was a very long-lasting magazine, running from 1922 to 1963. It was published by D.C.Thompson, a major British publisher who had also put out the influential comics magazines Dandy and Beano. The Wizard, however, featured mostly illustrated stories rather than comics.

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' PINKY GREEN (1940)

Above scan is from no. 217 (dated Mar. 30th, 1940) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, featuring the debut of Basil Reynolds' Pinky Green half-page strip.