DEBUT OF 'PRINCE VALIANT' IN TURKEY

I am not a big fan of Hal Foster's famous Sunday newspaper comics 'Prince Valiant', largely because I am not a fan of swashbuckling type of comics in general unless they feature a large dose of fantastic elements and partly because of its lack of speech balloons, but I, of course, admire its high quality art and acknowledge its sway over a large body of comics readers. In addition, 'Prince Valiant' was apparently very influential on young and aspiring Turkish comics artists in the 1940s. For all these reasons, I feel obliged to record its early publication history in Turkey.

'Prince Valiant' debuted in Turkey with a five-years delay in the last page (back cover) of the first issue, dated July 30th, 1942, of the 3rd series of the weekly children's magazine Afacan as 'Aslan Prens [Lion Prince]'. Afacan had largely skipped the first-ever three 'Prince Valiant' Sundays chronicling the arrival of Valiant's clan to Britain and started its run with the fourth Sunday from March 6th, 1937 in which Valiant's first adventure really kicks in. Three panels from this Sunday were also omitted and replaced with three panels from the earlier Sundays, including the first-ever panel where Valiant had made a solo appearance, to provide an introduction. The next installment in the subsequent issue however presented the next Sunday in its entirety:

Afacan would cease publication in 1943 due to war-time economic hardships, including shortage of paper. Prince Valiant's reappearance in a Turkish publication would come up next year, but re-titled as 'Aslan Tekin' and presented as a Turkish character, "son of the khan of the Seljuks", in the Turkish translation! Below is the scan of the first installment of this new edition in the back cover of the no.89, dated Sept. 9th, 1944, in the weekly children's magazine Çocuk Haftası: 

CLIP FROM TURKISH MANDRAKE MOVIE

Late this summer, I had posted on this blog about an obscure Turkish movie from the late 1960s featuring Mandrake. Recently, I had been alerted by an old friend, David White from the US, that a short clip of scenes from this movie had been uploaded to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGNdlixSs0
Enjoy..

EARLY WAR-TIME FRENCH WAR COMICS

Above scan is of a panel from the 8th installement of 'Vatan İçin [For the Homeland]' from the back cover o no. 36 (dated Mar. 11th, 1940) of Turkey's 1001 Roman weekly comics magazine. 'Vatan İçin', serialized between no.'s 29-54 of 1001 Roman, is the Turkish edition of 'Jean-Jacques Ardent à la Guerre ['Jean-Jacques Ardent at the War]' serialized in the French magazine Junior in 1939-40. Ardent was originally an athlete character created by René Pellos in 1938; Pellos (1900-1998) is better known for his 'Futuropolis', the first non-juvenile French sci-fi comics saga. 'Vatan İçin' was the only comics series published in 1001 Roman credited to its original source, with the tag "Fransızca Junior gazetesinden alınmıştır [taken from the French Junior gazette]" in its title caption. This was probably due to an intent to show sympathy for France in the newly erupted 2nd World War (Turkey had officially signed an alliance with Britain and France soon after the war had erupted, even though this alliance would in effect remain only on paper). Ironically, the German invasion of France would be initiated a few months after 'Vatan İçin' began to serialized in 1001 Roman and France would surrender before the serialization ended. The Turkish edition ends with Ardent being shot and falling down from a bridge which he had planted explosives, and sinking down into the waters below, with his last words as "Oh.! I am happy!.. I am dying for the sake of the independence of my homeland":
UPDATE: I've updated my below posts on Sept. 5th, Sept. 9th and Sept. 10th with the identifications of the original sources of the covered comics. However, comics covered in the posts on Sept. 8th and Sept. 11th still remain unidentified.

ATTACK OF THE GIANT INSECTS

Above scan of a panel from 'Dünya Düşmanı [Enemy of the World]', an obscure science fiction comics of French origin serialized in the back covers of the first 28 issues of Turkey's 1001 Roman is from the no. 3 (dated July 24th, 1939) of this weekly comics magazine. The original title of 'Dünya Düşmanı' was 'L'Ennemi du monde' and it had originally commenced in  L'Epatant, the leading French comics magazine of the pre-war era, but continued in L'As when the former magazine folded in 1939; the artist was Pierre Duteurtre (1911-1989).
The plot of 'Dünya Düşmanı' kicks off with an attack of giant insects on colonial Africa accompanied with a wireless ultimatum coming from a mysterious voice calling for total submission of world nations. Lieutenant Nelson volunteers on a rescue mission to a camp on the outskirts of Mount Kilimanjaro which has been raided by the giant insects. The camp is also being threatened by over-size lions, as seen in the below scan from no. 4:

Upon arriving at the camp, Nelson and his compatriots detain a suspicious young woman who is soon set free by over-size natives which then empower Nelson and co. (scan from no. 17):
Nelson and co. are taken to the hideout of the main villain (scan from no. 20):
They learn that the culprit is a scientist named Bravona who has developed a serum which he calls "serum B.K." that causes abnormal growth in the size of living beings. Meanwhile, airforce attacks the hideout of the mad scientist, but meets devastating defence by the giant insects (scan from no. 23):

The comics ends with Nelson shutting down an electric shield, allowing for missiles to hit the hideout.
I think this is a very interesting comics because it is probably the earliest manifestation of giant insects in the comics medium, predating the giant insect boom of the 1950s by more than a decade. The idea of a scientifically developed chemical substance causing abormal size growth of living beings might have been inspired by H.G. Wells' novel Food of the Gods (1905), but utilizing that idea within the context of a mad scientist bent on conquering the world is pretty original for the pre-war era as far as I am aware.
Artist Duteurtre's post-war credits include the second volume of the sci-fi saga 'Guerre a la Terre' and the long running series 'Sitting Bull', both from Coq Hardi.

SHARK SCENE IN PRE-WAR COMICS

Above scan is from the no.1 (dated July 10th, 1939) of Turkey's 1001 Roman, featuring a shark scene from the first installement of 'Korkusuz Adam [The Fearless Man]', serialized in the first 22 issues of this weekly comics magazine. 'Korkusuz Adam' is the Turkish edition of 'Metropoli Distrutta' by the Italian artist Ferdinando Vichi (1901-1944), originally serialized in the Italian comics weekly L'Avventuroso in 1938. The original Italian version is said to be anti-communisy and fascistic (*), but these sentiments are not as evident in the Turkish edition. During the course of the Turkish translation, the protagonist has been given a Turkish name and nationality. He is an "engineer" (=inventor?) who has made a valuable invention and hence is being sought after by a band of "international spies", seen in the below scan from no. 3:
In order to evade capture by the spies, the hero seeks shelter in an exotic island inhabited by "savages". Towards the finale, an elderly white man who commands apes appears, as seen in this scan from no. 18:

(*) Claudio Carabba, Il fasciso a fumetti, p. 273.

FANTASTIC GIANT OCTOPUS ATTACK SCENE IN PRE-WAR COLONIALIST COMICS

Above scans are from the no. 19 (dated Nov. 13th, 1939) of Turkey's 1001 Roman, featuring an installement of 'Gizli Ülke [Secret Country]' serialized in the first 22 issues of this comics weekly magazine on a two half pages per issue basis. This marvelous episode turns out to be part of a series of nightmarish hallucinations induced on a pair of adventurous American millionaires who were kidnapped and drugged by independence-seeking rebels of India.
'Gizli Ülke' is the Turkish edition of 'La Regina d'Atalanta', originally serialized in the Italian weekly comics magazine L'Avventuroso in 1936. While the art by Giove Toppi is highly imaginative, the underbelly of the script by Paolo Lorenzini, the director of L'Avventuroso, is shamelessly colonialist; for instance, the Indian rebels are aided by a Chinese villain!.. Below panel depicts the resistance of the rebels against the colonial troops who raid the temple where the Americans are being kept, the ringleader exclaiming "We shall not be captives."

You can view some sample pages from the original color edition of 'La Regina d'Atalanta' here (scroll down a little bit to reach 'La Regina d'Atalanta' scans): http://annitrenta.blogspot.com/2011/02/lavventuroso-11-1936-quarta-parte.html

ANOTHER OCTOPUS ATTACK SCENE

Above scan is from the no. 100 (dated June 2nd, 1941) of Turkey's comics weekly 1001 Roman, featuring the 13th installement of an obscure comics titled 'Denizlerin Dibinde [At the Depths of the Seas]' serialized between no.'s 88-119. The plot is about the search in a sunken ship for some lost documents involving a military invention. I believe it is an early war-time Italian product as the protagonists are Italian (the hero is named "Kolombo") and the antagonists are French (the illain is named "Jan"). Below is a scan of the signature of the artist that I spotted in one of the panels:

As always, any help in identifying the artist's name, the original title and source would be much welcome.

GIANT OCTOPUS ATTACK SCENE IN PRE-WAR COMICS

Above scans are from the 13th and 14th installements of 'Denizaltı Tüneli [Undersea Tunnel]', an pre-war comics serialized in the Turkish comics weekly 1001 Roman, beginning with no. 23 (dated Dec. 11th, 1939) and lasting for 27 issues. 'Denizaltı Tüneli' is the Turkish edition of 'Il tunnel sottomariono', adapted from Luigi Motta's 1912 novel with the same title by comics artist Ferdinando Vichi and originally serialized in the Italian comics weekly Giungla in 1938 and published as an album in 1939. The plot concerns the building of an undersea tunnel across the atlantic from America to Ireland. Admittedly, it is a rather dull comics with the only exciting episode being this encounter with the giant octopus.

TURKISH MANDRAKE MOVIE

The first adaptation of Mandrake the Magician to cinema was in the form of a serial in 1940. The first -and so far, only- Mandrake feature film would come from the low-budget exploitation cinema of Turkey in the late 1960s: Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde (Mandrake the King of the Magicians After Kiling). Made in 1967 or 1968, this very obscure movie pits Mandrake and Lothar against Killing, a photo-comics anti-hero of Italian origin which was very popular in Turkey at the time. The craze for the skeleton-costumed Killing was so high that Turkish filmmakers had made 10 movies featuring Killing (with variant spellings of the name) in 1967-68 and Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was one of them, so this movie owes its existence as much to Killing as to Mandrake. On the above poster, Killing is depicted in the upper left, over Lothar's shoulders.
Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was scripted and directed by Oksal Pekmezoğlu (b. 1938), an illustrator by training and by early profession who had picked up a career as movie director after entering the Turkish film industry initially as a credits sequence artist. His prolific post-Mandrake filmography includes movies from a variety of genres from mainstream musical melodramas to adult-oriented sex-comedies. Top-billed Güven Erte, who presumably plays Mandrake, is a little-known actor credited in supporting roles in several Turkish movies from the second half of the the 1960s, the Mandrake vs Killing movie being his only starring role.
Several sources name this movie as "Mandrake Killing'e Karşı [Mandrake vs Killing]", but that may only have been an unofficial promotional reference during the production or pre-production phases; both the official censorship documents and the movie's own release poster give the title as Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde. There is also an uncertainity as to dating the movie. Türk Filmleri Sözlüğü 1914-1973 compiled by Agah Özgüç and published by Turkish Filmmakers Union include this title, listed shortly as "Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde", under the year 1967 and hence all subsequent sources date it from that year. However, the censorship document of the movie, kindly made available to me by my friend Dilek Kaya, is dated August 28th, 1968. Perhaps the project for this production was announced in 1967, but the movie appears to have been made or at least completed in 1968. As for its release, I can not find any listing for it in Istanbul. The movie appeared as part of a double-bill in the Çelik cinema of the south-eastern city of Adana on May 24th, 1969. Of course, the fact that I couldn't find any Istanbul release info does not necessarily rule out the possibility of an unreported release in Istanbul, but I had been told earlier by another researcher friend of mine, Metin Demirhan, that Turkish Z-grade masked/super/anti-hero movies of the late 1960s were said to be especially popular among audiences in Adana and some of these movies were rumoured to have been made primarily or even exclusively for this market; Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was perhaps one such movie.
The censorship document list the original running time as 75 minutes and the the censorhip commission has ordered the cutting of two "sex scenes" and one flogging scene! The brief synopsis on TFS 1914-1973 refers to the plot as "the adventure of an Indian princess who has come to İzmir on vacation," so the movie appears to be set in the Turkish western coastal city of İzmir, probably also shot there, at least partially. The second-billed name in the cast credits list on the poster is actress Mine Mutlu who might have played the "Indian princess".
Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde has never been shown in Turkish televisions nor had been available during the video boom of the 1980s, so it was believed to have been a lost movie. However, Demirhan had once told me, about ten years ago, that he had heard that a 16 mm copy was present in the private collection of a collector. Indeed, a Turkish blog reported in 2009 that a battered 16 mm copy of Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was leased from a private collector in Ankara, repaired as best as possible in Istanbul and a transfer was made onto Betacam tape which was then sent to Greece-based Onar Film, a fan-driven label which had been releasing obscure Turkish Z-movies on dvd. Unfortunately, the owner&manager of Onar would become critically ill in 2010 before he could release on dvd the recently-discovered Killing movie he had hinted in his blog. Onar has sadly been inactive since then.
I conclude this post with the below mega-rare photo still from Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde:

TRACED REPRINT MANDRAKE COMICS IN TURKEY - PART 2 (1960S)

When Bilge Şakrak took over the publication of Red Kit, the traced Turkish editions of Lucky Luke, from Bilgi Yayınları (owned by apparently a relative, Adnan Şakrak) and began a new weekly series under the same title but with new enumeration in 1965, s/he initiated the practice of devoting 24 pages of each issue of 32 pages to secondary, filler comics. This was apparently a necessity to prolong the publication as new original adventures of Lucky Luke were not arriving fast enough to supply the weekly. The material s/he utilized for this end were mostly traced editions of pre-war comics earlier published in 1001 Roman, Mandrake the Magician included. Once, Mandrake was also co-featured on the cover as well, see the above scan of the cover of no. 4 (dated Aug. 31st, 1965). Mandrake adventures serialized in the 1965 series of Red Kit are 'Dar Geçit [The Narrow Pass]', the 3rd Mandrake daily strip adventure in terms of the sequence of the strip's original run in the US newspapers, in no.'s 1-6, 'Prensesin Sırrı [The Mystery of the Princess]', the 2nd daily strip adventure, in no.'s 7-12, 'Ölüm Şatosu [The Castle of Death], the 15th daily strip adventure, in no.'s 12-17, and 'Perili Çiflik [The Haunted Farm]', a post-war daily strip adventure. All but the last were traced from the war-time issues of 1001 Roman while the last and relatively more recent one from Haftalık Albüm, the 1950s successor of 1001Roman.
Early in 1968, Şakrak would reprint these traced reprints in a comics weekly under the Güneş heading , somewhat in the format of special issues of Güneş, a former comics weekly earlier published by Şakrak. I don't know the contents of the first three issues of this series, but no'.s 4-6 were Mandrake issues and their contents are as such: 'Prensesin Sırrı' in no.'s 4-5, 'Ölüm Şatosu' in no.'s 5-6 and 'Canlı Mumya [The Walking Mummy]' in no. 6, the last one being a post-war daily strip adventure traced from Haftalık Albüm. Later, the Mandrake issues were collected together in a volume 2 of Güneş whose cover scan is below:
The cover of weekly no. 5 is missing from the copy I have, but the cover of volume no. 2 (above)utilizes the illustration of the cover of weekly no. 6 and the cover of weekly no. 7 is below:
The cover illustrations are by Ferdi Sayışman (1926- ), a chemical engineer by training who made a successful career in comics lettering for several decades till mid-2000s. Earlier in this career, he had also done tracing jobs for low-budget publishers such as, but not limited to, Şakrak. During his employment for Şakrak, he would actually sign the last panels of comics he had traced/lettered, as he has done for 'Canlı Mumya' in Güneş no. 6. It should be added Sayışman had also made an indigeous 8 pages-long Phantom comics titled 'Arizona Soyguncuları [The Robbers of Arizona]' published in no. 134 (dated March, 1955) of 1001 Özel weekly comics magazine. His son Şevki Sayışman has also taken up his father's craft and is currently working as a letterer in Turkish satire/humor magazines.
Back to Güneş, the contents of no.'s 7-9 feature traced reprints of pre-war Phantom adventures. Some years later, the Phantom and Mandrake issues of Güneş were collected together without their individual covers and re-ordered with the later Phantom issues taking precedence over the earlier Mandrake issues and published as one single album under the title Kızıl Maske [Red Mask, the Turkish name for Phantom]. This odd album carries no official publisher info, but it may be the work of Nil Yayınevi as some books from that publishing house are advertised on the back cover.

POST-SCRIPT: POST-WAR MANDRAKE COMICS IN TURKEY
The second, and regular-sized, series of 1001 Roman (1946-47) had carried minimal amount of comics and Mandrake was not one of them. However, the third series, this time whose title was spelled as Binbir Roman, which kicked off in 1948 was back in the format of large-size European comics weeklies and Mandrake was back in its repertoire as well. The first Mandrake adventure serialized in this new series was actually a pre-war adventure, the first subplot of the 10th daily strip continuity where Mandrake is on the US (the second subplot of this continuity had earlier been published in 1001 Roman). Unfortunately, the untitled Turkish edition in Binbir Roman misses the beginning and the true end of the first subplot, ending prematurely. The following two Mandrake adventures serialized in Binbir Roman were post-war daily strip continuities and the subsequent ones post-war Sunday continuities. Binbir Roman continued till 1952. As replacement, Türkiye Yayınevi began to publish the weekly Haftalık Albüm in the format of former 1001 Roman's special issues. Mandrake was featured in several issues of this series in Turkish editions of post-war daily strip adventures. The covers of Haftalık Albüm, which lasted for about a year, were illustrated by Tan Oral. In 1956, Mandrake appeared in the short-lived comics weekly Arkadaş from Nebioğlu Yayınevi and in 1962, Ceylan Yayınları, Turkey's largest comics publisher of those years, published a weekly Mandrake comics which lasted only two issues.
The high time of Mandrake comics in Turkey would be the 1970s when Tay Yayınları,Turkey's leading comics publisher of the decade, would pick them up with license from Opera Mundi. Tay's Mandrake would begin its weekly run in 1974. The magazine began with strips from a few years back, but as it naturally caught up with the American run of the strip quickly, the backlog of daily and Sunday continuities stretching back to the previous decades were also used. Part of the credit for the success enjoyed by Tay's publications must be given to covers by Turkish illustrators, most notably Aslan Şükür who illustrated some of Mandrake covers as well. In the 1970s, when the Turkish market was flooded with comics of Italian origin (such as Zagor, Tex, Mister No and the like), Mandrake, together with Kızılmaske, also from Tay, were arguably the only American-origin comics that managed to take a foothold in Turkey. Mandrake lasted until 1979 in the weekly format. Tay repackaged back issues in fours or threes as 'albums'. After the weekly run of the magazine ceased, the albums continued their run with reprints and occasional brand new adventures (including a few short adventures of Italian origin) for several additional years. The weekly format would be revived briefly in the mid-1980s, which would again give way to an 'album' series, this time called as 'super albums'.
Tay would close its shop in the 1990s and Mandrake would not be seen in Turkey until 2009 when five daily strip adventures from 1999-2000, including the last one written by creator Lee Falk, were published in one album titled Sihirbaz Mandrake ve Abdullah as no. 2 of 'Çizgi Roman Arşiv Dizisi [Comics Archive Series]' from the Horoz Şekeri label, with license from King Features. In 2011, Demirbaş Yayıncılık, a venture set up by an owner of a second-hand comics shop in Istanbul, began a twin album series, one titled as Yeni Mandrake and the other as Yeni Mandrake - Süper Maceralar, which despite the word "yeni [new]" in the titles, actually reprint, without an apparent license, adventures previously published by Tay.

MANDRAKE IN AFACAN (1942-43)

While Mandrake the Magician was already being serialized in Türkiye Yayınevi's 1001 Roman during the war-time era, it also appeared simultanously for about a year in another comics weekly from a different publisher. The weekly in question was Afacan published by Ömer Lütfi Tarhan in 1942-43. The fact that two different publishers carried Mandrake simultanously indicates that neither of them had officially licensed it. Mandrake, billed here as "Büyücüler Kralı [King of the Wizards]", a slight variation on 1001 Roman's "Sihirbazlar Kralı [King of the Magicians]" tagline, began to be featured on the cover pages of Afacan from its first issue (dated July 30th, 1942) onwards. The adventures reprinted in color in the covers originated from adventures originally serialized in the color Sunday newspapers in the US: 'Altın Şehirde [In the Golden City]', a Sunday adventure originally from 1939, in no.'s 1-21, 'Fuarda', a Sunday gag-continuity from 1938, in no.'s 22-25, and an untitled (whose origin I couldn't yet identify) gag in no. 26.
Beginning with no. 27, Mandrake was shifted onto the b&w interior pages of Afacan. The first adventure to be serialized there was titled as 'Hırsızlar Peşinde [Following the Thieves]', which was the Turkish edition of Mandrake's fourth daily strip adventure in terms of the sequence of the strip's original run in the US newspapers. Ateş, 1001 Roman's precessor from 1937-38, had curiously skipped this adventure from 1935, where Mandrake meets the soon-to-be-recurrent villain Clay Camel for the first time, when it had serialized the earliest strips. Unfortunately, the Turkish edition in Afacan is incomplete as well as censored. Afacan began to serialize it half way through the original continuity (from strip originally dated 9-16 onwards) and left out the final four daily strips as well, hence actually leaving Narda with Clay Camel disguised as Mandrake! In addition, two kissing sequences are completely deleted from the Turkish edition. See below the second instance from an Italian reprint (from 1991) and its Turkish counterpart from Afacan:
Also note that the scantily-clad Narda's bare belly has been painted over to make her appear dressed more modestly..
After 'Hırsızlar Peşinde' ended rather prematurely, an untitled Mandrake adventure began on no. 33. This was the 'werewolf' adventure, the 5th daily strip continuity which had previously been serialized in Ateş in 1938. By this time, the dire economic situation of the war-time era was apparently taking its toll on Afacan as paper and printing quality began to detoriate. Mandrake would be missing in no. 37 and when it resumed in the next issue, the image quality was at an all-time low. With no. 39, Afacan began to print Mandrake in a traced form. And that would not last long either as the werewolf adventure was left incomplete on no. 40 (*). Afacan, without Mandrake, survived for two more issues only.
(*) Actually, I am not sure if the werewolf adventure had been carried to its conclusion in Ateş either as the last few issues of that publication are missing in my collection.

OBSCURE MANDRAKE PUBLICATIONS FROM TURKEY (1940-51)

In 1939, a fad of publishing "sinema romanları [cinema novels]", novelizations of movies, emerged among low-budget publishers of Turkey. It should be noted that the name 'novel' might be misleading, these were usually 16 pages-long booklets issued often in weekly periods. One of the leading figures of this fad was Güven Basımevi [Güven Printinghouse] which put out close to 50 such titles in a few years. One of the titles in Güven Basımevi's list is Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı (1940), which is probably a novelization of the film serial Mandrake the Magician (1939) which was released in Turkey in 1940. The book reportedly carries the credit "recounted by" Selami Münir Yurdatap, one of the most prolific authors of cheap popular fiction in Turkey. Yurdatap is also the author of the indigenous Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake İstanbulda [Mandrake the King of the Magicans in Istanbul] from 1943. Unfortunately, I have never come across any of these two early Mandrake books by Yurdatap myself, but I was lucky to get a fair-condition copy of his bizarre Tarzan ve Mandrake Mücadelesi [The Struggle Between Tarzan and Mandrake] from 1951. This 16 pages long booklet actually features four different stories by different authors, with the top-billed Tarzan vs Mandrake story by Yurdatap being the longest at six pages. Here is the plot summary: Mandrake and Lothar are visiting Africa, Dakar to be more precise. Lothar tells his master about a plant called Katopi which makes those who eat it invincible. This plant is to be found only in the 'jungle of the lions' where Tarzan happens to reside. Off to this jungle, Mandrake uses his powers to have a lion and a snake to attack Tarzan, but the lord of the jungle manages to kill the beasts. Impressed by this display of bravery and strength, Mandrake gives up his intention to fetch the magic plant which Tarzan guards. The two heros befriend and Mandrake leaves the jungle empty-handed, assured that the friendship of Tarzan is more valueable than any magic plant. Tarzan ve Mandrake Mücadelesi is from a series called 'Bizim Hikayeler [Our Stories]', but oddly there is no publisher info printed anywhere, only an adress of a distributor. The cover illustration is by Turkish artist Mehmet Tekdal.
In addition to Yurdatap's Mandrake books, the records of the Turkish National Library in Ankara lists two Mandrake titles from 1001 Macera series of circa 1944: 'İki Mandrake Karşı Karşıya [Two Mandrakes Against Each Other]' and 'Deli Kral [The Crazy King]'. These are probably comics (see this post on a Phantom comics from 1001 Macera), but I can not say whether they are by Turkish comics artists or Turkish editions of American strips.
Finally, I should add that Hakan Alpin's Çizgi Roman Ansiklopedisi (İnkilap Kitabevi, 2006:Istanbul) notes that the weekly comics Baytekin ile Bayçetin published by Mustafa Kızıltan featured (perhaps as secondary, filler material?, it's not clear from Alpin's wording) the strip 'Bay Tekin ve Mandraki Ankaraya Gidiyor [Mr Tekin and Mandraki Goes to Ankara]' by the then-young Turkish comics artist Şahap Ayhan; Baytekin was the name usually given to Flash Gordon in pre-war and war-time Turkish editions. Alpin fails to give a precise date for Baytekin ile Bayçetin, but records of the National Library clearly list it as being from 1944.

MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN SPECIAL ISSUES (1940-46)

Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi published monthly "special issues" of 1001 Roman alongside the weekly comics magazine of the same title. Unlike the tabloid-format weekly magazine, these issues were smaller in size and each issue headlined a complete adventure of one comics character. Mandrake was featured in eight of these monthly issues, beginning with no. 1 (Jan. 1940). The Mandrake adventure in no. 1 is called 'Hindistanda [In India]' and was originally serialized in American Sunday newspapers in 1935 (it was the 2nd Mandrake adventure ran in the Sunday comics format), but the Turkish edition is slightly abridged.
The first three issues of the "special issue" series included a shorter, second comics story of a different character alonside the main featured character and Mandrake was featured in this way in no. 2 (Feb. 1940), which was a Lone Ranger issue, as well. Titled as 'Haydutlar kralına karşı [Against the King of the Bandits]', this filler comics is the first-ever Mandrake adventure originally ran in the Sunday newspapers, but the mere five-pages long Turkish edition reprints its conclusion only (thanks to Marko Davidovic for leading me to this blog post for comparison).
Below is a list of the remaining Mandrake issues from the 1001 Roman special issues:
#10 (Oct. 1940): 'Tekinsiz Evin Esrarı [The Mystery of the Uncanny House]', originally daily strip continuity #13 (1938); slightly abridged
#16 (Apr. 1941): 'Merihli İnsanlar [Martian People]', originally daily strip continuity #16 (1938); slightly abridged

#23 (Nov. 1941 [on-print date: Nov. "1940", a typo): 'Zehirli Kılıç [The Poisened Sword]', originally daily strip continuity #14 (1938); slightly abridged
#29 (May. 1942): 'Sudan Şahı [The Shah of Sudan]', originally daily strip continuity #7 (1936); starts half-way through the original adventure and the rest still slightly abridged
#69 (Sept. 1945): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #8 (1938); starts half-way through the original adventure

#75 (Mar. 1946*): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #13 (1940)
* last issue of the series

MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN (1939-46)

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the 2nd World War, Tahsin Demiray's Türkiye Yayınevi, one of the leading pulishers of popular magazines in Turkey, launched the weekly 1001 Roman, Turkey's first comics magazine modeled on the European comics format (see this earlier post on a general coverage of this magazine). Mandrake the Magician soon joined the roster of comic strips serialized in this hugely popular magazine, beginning with no. 18 (dated Nov. 6th, 1939), as 'Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı [Mandrake - The King of the Magicians]', a byline which would stuck with the character so much in Turkey that when, decades later, a weekly Mandrake comics would be launched in 1974, the logo on the first pages would once again utilize it.
The first two Mandrake adventures serialized in 1001 Roman were from American Sunday newspaper serials, reprinted in b&w here, but most of the subsequent adventures originated from daily strips. Between no.'s 87-108, Mandrake was published in the back covers and hence in color. With no. 197, after the end of the adventure where Mandrake faces his arch-nemesis Cobra for the second time (in terms of the strip's original run in US newspapers), 1001 Roman started re-running earlier adventures previously serialized in Ateş, beginning with Mandrake's first-ever adventure where he meets Cobra for the first time. So, the readers of 1001 Roman were presented with Mandrake's first encounter with Cobra after they were presented with the second encounter... It should also be noted that 1001 Roman, in the same manner as Ateş had done six years ago, presented Mandrake's first-ever adventure in an abridged form, omitting several panels, but the panels omitted in 1001 Roman were not same as those in Ateş, so 1001 Roman had not simply reprinted Ateş's edition; in anycase, the Turkish translation and the lettering were also different:
1001 Roman halted serializing Mandrake in 1945 after re-running three of the four adventures previously serialized in Ateş. After about a year of hiatus, one more Mandrake adventure was serialized in 1946, ending with the cessation of the publication of the weekly with no. 350. The final Mandrake adventure serialized in 1001 Roman was a daily strip continuity, originally run in US newspapers in 1938, where Mandrake visits Hollywood, but the Turkish editors began to serialize this continuity half-way through its first sub-plot and ended half-way through its second sub-plot at a convenient point when Mandrake teaches a spoiled child star some manners, before the kid gets kidnapped which was actually the main plot point of the narrative.
Here is a complete list of Mandrake adventures serialized in this Turkish comics weekly with the no.'s in 1001 Roman (and the years these issues were published), Turkish title [and translation], the conventional code referring to the sequence of American Sunday/daily strips (and the years they were originally ran in the US newspapers):
#18-36 (1939-40) Cüceler Ülkesinde [In the Land of the Midgets] s3 (1935-36)
#37-54 (1940) Gelecekte Bir Seyahat [A Voyage in the Future] s5 (1936-37)
#55-75 (1940) untitled d21 (1940)
#76-95 (1940-41) Sirkte Yangın [Fire at the Circus] s4 (1936)
#96-110 (1941) "Atmaca" Yarış Atı ["Hawk" the Race Horse] d10/2nd subplot (1937-38)
#111-132 (1941-1942) untitled d15 (1938)
#133-166 (1942) Meçhul Dünyalarda [In Unknown Worlds] d8 (1936-37)
#167-196 (1942-43) Kobra'ya Karşı [Against the Cobra] d9 (1937)
#197-246 (1943-44) Esrarengiz Adam [The Mysterious Man] d1 (1934)
#247-274 (1944) Dar Geçit [The Narrow Pass] d3 (1935)
#275-296 (1944-45) Gizli Oyun Yeri [The Secret Game Place] d2 (1934-35)
#342-350 (1946) untitled d11/only from 3-22 to 4-20 (1938)
Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi also published monthly 1001 Roman "special issues", and Mandrake were featured in several of them, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog.

MANDRAKE IN ATEŞ (1937-38)

In an earlier post in this blog, I had covered the debut of Mandrake the Magician strips in Turkey in 1935 in an actuality magazine for grown-ups. This post will cover Mandrake's second appearance in Turkey which marks its first appearance in a Turkish publication designed for children. The publication in question was the weekly Ateş [Fire] published by Türkiye Yayınevi, a leading publisher of popular magazines in Turkey in the pre-war era. Mandrake the Magician began to be serialized as 'Mandrake - Şimşek Adam [Mandrake - The Lighting Man]' in two pages each issue format in Ateş with no. 14 (dated Feb. 2nd, 1937), joining two other comics series:The Mandrake adventure serialized in this first series of Ateş was his first-ever daily strip continuity originally from 1934, where he meets his arch-nemesis Cobra, which had already been serialized in Turkey in Büyük Gazete in 1935. However, while the former publication had began its Mandrake series with a perfect reprint (I don't have all the issues of BG with Mandrake, so I can not confirm if it continued that way to the end), Ateş presented it in an abridged form, omitting several panels, even entire strips.
Mandrake also appeared in the cover of no. 36, the first-ever appearance of the character on the cover of a Turkish publication:
The cover art is by Ercümend Kalmuk (1909-1971), a staff illustrator for Türkiye Yayınları.
Mandrake's first adventure ended in no. 52 which was also the last issue of the first series of Ateş. The magazine enlarged its size and started new enumeration soon afterwards. Mandrake was the only comics in this new series of Ateş and it was serialized on the back covers. The Mandrake adventures serialized in the second series of Ateş are 'Gizli Oyun Yeri [The Secret Game Place]', the 2nd daily strip continuity from its original run, where Mandrake meets his future-lover Narda, 'Kızıl Geçitteki Dev [The Giant At The Red Pass]', the 3rd daily strip continuity, and 'Kurtadam [The Werewolf]', the 5th daily strip continuity. For some reason, Ateş had skipped the 4th daily strip continuity where Mandrake meets the Clay Camel, who would be one of the recurrant villains, and is also temporarily re-united with Narda.
Following Ateş, Mandrake's next appearance in Turkey would be in Türkiye Yayınevi's full-fledged comics weekly 1001 Roman, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog.

FIRST COLOR EDITION OF FELIX THE CAT IN TURKEY (1938)

'Felix the Cat', the biggest star of early American animation, had been adopted to the newspaper comics medium in 1923. Felix comics debutted in Turkey in the weekly children's magazine Yarutürk in 1936, retitled as 'Kara Kedi [the Black Cat]'. Published in monochrome on either the reverse of the back cover or on the back cover itself, the earliest Turkish editions of 'Kara Kedi' were reformatted with speech balloons deleted and text material added beneath the panels (scan of a sample from this period was earlier posted in this blog). 'Kara Kedi' appeared in this format in Yavrutürk till no. 125. When it resumed at the reverse of the back cover of no. 135 (dated Nov. 26th, 1938) with a new continuity titled 'Kara Kedi Gemici [Black Cat the Sailor]', it was not only in proper comics format with speech balloons and no text outside the panels, but also in color (see above scan), marking the first time a comics was published as such in Yavrutürk. Actually, I think this was the first time ever any comics was published both in color and in proper format in Turkey (there had been comics published in ull color since 1935, but they had extra-panel texts; and comics in proper format had been published since the same year, but they were in monochrome).
The first installement of 'Kara Kedi Gemici' had clearly been intended to be printed on the back cover itself, but shifted to the reverse side due to an editorial decision at the last moment to allocate the front cover to a photo of the cascet of the recently deceased Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, and shift the original front cover to the back cover. With the subsequent issue, 'Kara Kedi Gemici' took its place on the back cover:

Nevertheless, the series was shifted to interior pages with no. 143 and began to be printed in b&w, although still in proper comics format. Unfortunately, while earlier 'Kara Kedi' continuities often entailed fantasy elements and hence had very imaginative narratives, 'Kara Kedi Gemici' was a fun, but more routine affair, as exemplifed in the below cannibal sequence from no. 159:
'Kara Kedi Gemici' ended in no. 165 (dated June 24th, 1939). The subsequent four issues of Yavrutürk featured 'Kara Kedi' once again in the outmoded reformat of extra-panel texts to compansate for deleted speech balloons. Afterwards, no 'Kara Kedi' comics were published in Yavrutürk for more than two years. 'Kara Kedi' returned to Yavrutürk when the magazine started its vol. 12 with new enumeration on Oct. 25th, 1941 (previous 11 volumes had consequitive enumeration). Proper format with speech balloons and no extra-panel text was resumed with no. 28 (dated July 18th, 1942). When Yavrutürk was replaced with Çocuk Haftası from the same pulisher at the beginning of 1943, 'Kara Kedi' continued in this new childre's magazine.

OBSCURE TINTIN-LOOKALIKE COMICS

In 1940, an obscure adventure comics titled as 'Bücür Görünmeyen Şehirde [Shorty in the Invisible City]' was serialized in the Turkish children's weekly magazine Yavrutürk no.'s 198-208. The plot starts with a white kid who looks somewhat like Tintin, named as Bücür in this Turkish edition, befriending a native kid called Duda in Africa. The two kids come across a city in the desert where they are imprisoned for attempting to buy some food with money; for transactions with money has been forbidden in this city where everyone is obliged to give any money they find to the city's ruler. Bücür manages to escape and take a leading part in a revolt against the ruler. In the end, when he wants to embrace Duda, his friend disappears as a mirage! So does the city! In a twist, it all turns out to be a feverish dream...
If anyone knows anythig about the original source of this weird comics, PLEASE let us know..