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.

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' SKIT AND SKAT (1936)

Above scan is of the debut of British comics artist Basil Reynolds' 'Adventures of Skit and Skat' in no. 1 (dated Feb 8th, 1936) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. Born in 1916, the talented Reynolds, who had already done strip work for several newspapers, was only 20 years of age when he was given the full 3rd page of MMW, the flagship British Disney publication with more than half a million circulation. In his memoirs (reprinted in http://www.mouseplanet.com/), Reynolds has noted that he was recruited into the staff of MMW at the magazine's founding with the endorsement of his draft of 'Skit and Skat' by British Disney artist Wilfred Haughton.

The mouse which appears in the second panel of this first installement is the prototype of Marmaduke who would soon make semi-regular appearances in 'Skit and Skat' and eventually have his own strip.

Below is the scan of the 'Skit and Skat' page from no. 2 of MMW:

'Skit and Skat' would shift between gag-a-week or continuity narratives and lasted uninterrupted till (including) no 66 (dated May 8th, 1937). It would resume at no. 97 (dated Dec. 11th, 1937), retitled as 'Skit, Skat and the Captain', and last till 1940.

'THE ADVENTURES OF SIR ENDOR NEVAH THE KNUTTY KNIGHT' (1938)

'The Adventures of Sir Endor Nevah the Knutty Knight' is a very interesting humorous adventure comics serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1938 (no.'s 115-126, above scan is of the first episode). It features the exploits of the title hero and his page as they try to rescue a princess. What makes it stand out as almost avanguard is the presence of weird pseudo-futuristic motifs in its medieval setting:

I am surprised to find absolutely no mention of this exceptional comics anywhere on the net. If anyone knows anything about its writer and/or artist, please tell us...

ADDENDA FROM OCT. 2010: I've just realized that this obscure comics has also been serialized in the weekly Turkish children's magazine Afacan in 1939 as 'Kral İle Devin Resimli Masalı [The Illustrated Fairytale of the King and the Giant]'.

'HEAVENLY TWINS' (1936)

Above scan is of the first installement of the gag-a-week comics 'Heavenly Twins' ran in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1936 (no's 28-44).

THE GREEN MEN (1935)

In this post, I present select images (uploaded last month to the outducks archive by user Mankkop) from a great-looking Italian comics set in Atlantis: 'Gli uomini verdi [The Green Men'], which had started to be serialized in the back cover of Topolino no. 139 (dated Aug. 25th, 1935); the above installement is from no. 142 and the two below ones are from no. 146 and no. 148:

After no. 150, 'Gli uomini verdi', unfortunately was shifted to the interior b&w pages till it ended at no. 155 (dated Dec. 12d, 1935); the below installement is from no. 153:

'Gli uomini verdi' was the work of Yambo (Enrico Novelli, 1876-1943). Apart from his comics work, he was also apparently a prolific writer of adventure books. Soon after his retirement, he died of a heart attack during an air raid in the 2d World War.

FILM FUN

I give a break to my coverage of the pre-history of comics in Turkey to post scans from two pre-war issues of the British film comics magazine Film Fun which I recently acquired. Film Fun was published by Amalgamated Press, pioneer of platinium (pre-golden) age comics boom in Britain, between 1920-1962. The two issues I acquired contain comics featuring comedy film stars of the era, as well as text stories.
No. 446, dated Aug. 4th, 1928 (which became the earliest comic in my collection [costing me 12.5 pounds]) has 10 of its 24 pages (including covers) reserved for comics. A 2-page Harold Lloyd gag comics starts at the front cover [above scan] and ends at the back cover:

Other comics in this issue are Lupino Lane (1 pg), Grock (2 pgs, which appears to be part of a continuity), Jackie Coogan (2 pgs), Ben Turpin & Charlie Conklin (1 pg), Buster Keaton (1 pg) and Charlie Murray (1 pg)

British artists known to be working in Film Fun in its first decade include George Wakefield and Tom Radford.

For no. 730, dated Jan. 13th, 1934, Harold Lloyd's place had been reduced to a single page...

... while Laurel and Hardy take up the two centre pages:


Other comics in this issue are Joe E. Brown (2 pgs: front and back covers), Sydney Howard (1 pg), Tim McCoy (2ps, part of continuity), Wheeler & Woolsey (2 pgs), Lupino Lane (1 pg) and Schnozzle (1 pg).
Some of the comics from Film Fun were reprinted in Turkey in the children's magazine Afacan (1932-34). See my post dated Dec 22nd, 2007 for a coverage of film comics in general, including the Turkish reprints. For a nice round-up of the evolution of Film Fun itself over the decades, see the post dated Jan 14th, 2010 at http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/

DEBUT OF BRINGING UP FATHER IN TURKEY (1925)

Esin Bayraktar provides a detailed coverage of the very interesting debut of 'Bringing Up Father' in Turkey in her article 'Seni Bir Yerlerden Gözümüz Isırıyor Bican Efendi...' in Serüven [2nd series], no. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 41-45. The scan and the info in this post are from that article.

'Bringing Up Father' debutted as 'Bican Efendi' in no. 1, dated May 28th, 1925, of Resimli Perşembe weekly and was published in its first eight issues. As can be seen in the above scan, a moustache was added to the face of Jiggs and, furthermore, the characters were depicted in traditional Turkish dresses of the time. Five of the eight installements carry the abbreviated signature "İ"; however, the identity of the artist in question is unknown. Bayraktar speculates that the installements with the İ signature might have been Turkish productions while the rest are modified versions of original American sources.

The name Bican Efendi comes from the title of a Turkish comedy film series.

Beginning with 1950s, licensed and faithful reprints of 'Bringing Up Father' would be published in the Hürriyet daily newspaper as 'Güngörmüşler'.

EARLIEST KNOWN CONTINUITY COMICS PUBLISHED IN TURKEY (1925-26)

Currently available research so far indicates that the earliest continuity comics published in Turkey had appeared in a periodical titled Resimli Mecmua in 1925-26. Hülya Eraslan, in her article 'Resimli Tefrika: Acar'ın Sergüzeştleri ve Abbas Yolcu' published in the now-defunct (but much missed!) comics research journal Serüven [2nd series], no. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 46-49, had covered the comics published in Resimli Mecmua at length. All the info and the scans in this post come from that article:
The first six issues of Resimli Mecmua serialized 'Acar'ın Sergüzeştleri [The Adventures of Acar]', chronicling the globe-trotting adventures of a Turkish character named Acar. The first four installements credit the script to Abdullah Ziya, a famous Turkish writer of popular fiction, better known in the later decades as Abdullah Ziya Kozanoğlu, who would create the trend-setting Turkish swashbuckling comics hero Kaan (later re-named as Karaoğlan) in the 1950s. In these four episodes, Acar is a mischievous kid who is sent by his father to work in a ship. There, he befriends a Chinese and a black kid ad together they go to the poles.
The art and the content drastically change in the fifth and the sixth installements where Acar is now a youngster who solves a murder mystery in Paris.

'Abbas Yolcu [Abbas On the Road]' starts at no. 26 and continues for 18 issues. It starts with the house of a rich guy named Abbas being flooded and the character washed over to the sea in his bed where he is picked up by a ship:

Abbas' adventures take him first to a deserted island, then to the poles. Eventually, he becomes a film star on the strength of his newly gained fame as a globe-trotting adventurer. The saga ends in Paris, where he had already bought a house before embarking on his journey.
If anyone recognizes the original source of this comics, please let us know.

EARLIEST KNOWN GAG-COMICS PUBLISHED IN TURKEY (1913-14)

Prior to the introduction of the Latin alphabet in 1928, the Arabic script was used in Turkey. The illegibility of pre-1928 Turkish publications to subsequent generations in Turkey has caused a void in knowledge about such items. Hence, the history of comics in Turkey before 1930s has been documented very little. Çocuk Dünyası, a children's magazine published between 1913-14, is one of the earliest Turkish publications known to sparadoically print gag-comics. The scans in this post are from the first 49 issues, in my collection, of its 79 issue run. The scan above is of the first appearance of a gag-comics in this publication; titled as 'Devekuşu ile Maymun [The Ostrich and the Monkey]', it was printed in no. 10, dated May 16th, 1913.
The next issue, no.11, dated May 23rd, 1913, carried the below one and a half page item titled 'Hayvan Hikayeleri: Tavşan ile Tilki [The Animal Stories: The Rabbit and the Fox]':

Note that the Arabic script requires a reading directed from the right to the left. Whether this item should be called a comics with text beneath the panels or simply an illustrated story is open for debate. Nevertheless, the illustrations are framed as panels even though they are not ordered in rows.

The no. 25, dated Aug. 29th, 1913, would carry the below comics strip, titled simply as 'Yazısız Hikaye [Story Without Text]':


The below strip was serialized in two issues:

Note the last panel carries the signature Sewell Collins.

The below scan, titled as 'Yazısız Hikaye [Story Without Text]', is from no. 46, dated Jan. 23rd, 1914:

and the below one, titled 'Bizim kedi kardeş, çok cesurdur!! [Our kitty is very brave!!]' is from no. 47, dated Jan. 30th, 1914:

Gag comics were also apparently published in another Turkish children's magazine of the same era, Çocuk Duygusu (see Esin Bayraktar, 'Yazısız Hikaye', Serüven [2nd series] no. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 62-65 *).

* Bayraktar identifes the publication date of Çocuk Duygusu as 1911, but other sources note it as from 1913-14. In the same article, Bayraktar also covers comics published in Çocuk Dünyası which she also misidentifies as being from 1911.