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.

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

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!!..