More Comic Art from Turkey

As promised here are a few more examples of humor papers from Turkey.

1983 edition

Here's a brief glimpse at an older publication--Gir Gir.  Gir Gir was an enormously popular publication back in the 1970's and '80', selling allegedly a million copies a week ! All of the work below is from the 1980's.

1986 edition

Gir Gir was the creation of cartoonist Oguz Aral apparently regarded as the granddaddy of Turkish comics. He influenced, taught and mentored many Turkish cartoonists in his time.

Oguz Aral had a lively zany style reminiscent of Mad magazine's Sergio Arragones.

Here's an example of one of his most popular features Avini the Gullible.

Gir Gir was banned around 1980 during a military coup. I showed a current edition of Gir Gir in the previous post on Turkish comics. That reincarnation began in 2008 and isn't considered the classic Gir Gir.

Here are a few clips from Gir Gir (crca 1983-86):

Cartoonist Behic Pek

I like Behic Pek's unrestrained style. He was a student of Oguz Aral.

Cartoonist Ufuk Uyanik

Ufuk Uyanik is creator of a comic book popular all over Europe--Viagraman.

Sarkis

A portion of a nicely drawn comic story, Kabus, by Kaan Ertem.

Comic Art in Turkey

Here's  a selection of humor publications from a recent visit to Turkey. While we were in Istanbul demonstrations were taking place in Taksim Square and Gezi park over the heavy handed policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Uykusuz

(I believe the word baloon translation is: "I want my lawyer!")

Penguen

(featuring Erdogan on the cover)

Gir Gir

(This seems to be a resurrected version of the renowned humor paper Gir Gir. 

Again featuring Erdogan on the cover).

Caf Caf

Here's some of the content. Translation is an issue. For those of you a little rusty on your Turkish, I invite you to use the internet Turkish=English translation sites. The literal translations can be pretty hilarious. However, the general intent of many of the cartoons is fairly clear.

The mask from the graphic novel/movie "V for Vendetta" seems to be a common symbol for the demonstrators.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

("Tayyip Istifa" seems to be "Tayyip (as in Tayyip Erdogan) Resign" usually shouted by the protestors. In this case by Erdogan himself).

("Welcome to Fascism")

Here are a couple more humor papers:

Mandanoz

(With a feature on the late cartoonist Eflatun Nuri) 

Bayan Yani is a humor paper created by 19 women cartoonists.

by Feyhan Guver

by Sibel Bozkurt

More on Turkish comic art (some older publications) to come in the next few days.