Karaoğlan is a Turkish historical comic book that was created in 1963 and drawn by Suat Yalaz. It was first published on January 3, 1962 daily in Akşam newspaper. Karaoğlan was started to be published by Yalaz as a separate comics magazine on April 1, 1963; and was continued to be published by various publishers till 2002.
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The comic's story takes place between the 12th century and 13th century in Central Asia during the reign of Cengiz Khan. The main character, Karaoğlan, is a young Uygur Turkic adventurer who worked as a scout in Cengiz Khan's army. Karaoğlan is portrayed as an 23 years-old adventurous and brave youngster. He is nomadic and travels throughout Eurasia in his stories. He traveled as far as China, İndia, Konstantinople and Siberia. He is accompanied by his faithful friend Balaban, an ex-captain in Mongolian army and his father Baybora. His archnemesis is Camoka, a Mongolian bandit who raids villages with his men.
Karaoğlan has an interesting origin story. His mother got killed in a tribal blood feud and his father(which he will reunite with years later) Baybora had to run while Karaoğlan was just a baby. He was raised by a woodsman. Because he was never officially named with a ritual by his father(this was the tradition in those times) the boy remained nameless. The woodsman called him "black boy" (karaoğlan) because of his long black hair.
Suat Yalaz based his stories from Turkish history and folklore. He was faithful to the language and daily life of that era. Because it is originally started as a daily comics in newspaper, stories were focused for a mature audience with serious issues of war, politics, history and eroticism. Humour is also an important part of stories. Characters are never portrayed as two dimensional heroes or villains. Socio-political aura of 60s' and 70s' Turkey also found its reflection on Yalaz's stories.
Karaoğlan is the first Turkish comic book that is published internationally. After Yalaz moved to France, Karaoğlan was published in Paris with the title of "Kebir" for seven years. Kebir comic books got successful and begun distributed to French speaking regions of Europe and Canada, as well as north African countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco etc. The Kebir comics started publishing as monthly, then turned to fortnightly. This success brought new editions of Kebir comics in English and Arabic (in Iraq under the title "desert eagle" at the end of 1970s).[1] A Russian edition with the title "БОЭКАШИ" (Bozkashii) was also planned by the French publishers but later was canceled.[2][3]
Karaoğlan was first adapted to movie by Suat Yalaz as writer, director and producer in 1965. Yalaz searched for a long period for the actor to play Karaoğlan and found a young, (then) unknown theater actor from Ankara, Kartal Tibet. Yalaz and Tibet made five movies from 1965 to 1967, which brought great fame to the actor. Suat Yalaz replaced Tibet with Kuzey Vargın in 1969 movie Karaoğlan-Samara the Daughter of Sheik. In 1972 Tibet returned to the role for a last time in Karaoğlan Geliyor, which was directed by Mehmet Aslan.[4]
| Year | Film | Director | Actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Karaoğlan - Altay'dan Gelen Yiğit(The Hero From Altai) | Suat Yalaz | Kartal Tibet |
| 1966 | Karaoğlan - Baybora'nın Oğlu(The Son of Baybora) | Suat Yalaz | Kartal Tibet |
| 1966 | Karaoğlan - Camoka'nın İntikamı(Revenge of Camoka) | Suat Yalaz | Kartal Tibet |
| 1967 | Karaoğlan - Bizanslı Zorba(Tyrant of Byzantium) | Suat Yalaz | Kartal Tibet |
| 1967 | Karaoğlan - Yeşil Ejder(The Green Dragon) | Suat Yalaz | Kartal Tibet |
| 1969 | Karaoğlan - Samara Şeyhin Kızı (Samarra Daughter of Sheik) | Suat Yalaz | Kuzey Vargın |
| 1972 | Karaoğlan Geliyor | Mehmet Aslan | Kartal Tibet |
Karaoğlan was also adapted for television as a mini-series in 2002. Series was directed by Cem Akyoldaş and Erdogan Engin. Kaan Urgancıoğlu played Karaoğlan, and Baybora was played by Serdar Gökhan. On June 24, 2010, in a TV interview Yalaz mentioned his new Karaoğlan movie project which is early stages of development.
Karaoğlan was the nickname of Turkish politician Bülent Ecevit.
Turkish postal service PTT printed a series of memorial stamps to honour Karaoğlan in 2006.