Karaoğlan

For the places in Azerbaijan, see Qaraoğlan.

Karaoğlan is a Turkish historical comic book that was created in 1963 and drawn by Suat Yalaz. It was first published in January 3rd 1962 daily in Akşam newspaper. Karaoğlan was started to be published by Yalaz as a separete comics magazine in April 1st 1963; and was continued to be published by various publishers till 2002.

Synopsis

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 travelles throughout Eurasia in his stories. He travelled 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 wil reunite years later) Baybora had to run while Karaoğlan was just a baby. He was raised by a woodsman. Because he was never officialy 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 erotism. 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.

İnternational publishing

Karaoğlan is the first Turkish comic book that is published internationaly. After Yalaz moved to France, Karaoğlan was published in Paris with the title of "Kebir" for seven years. Kebir comic books got succesfull 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). A Russian edition with the title "БОЭКАШИ" (Bozkashii) was also planned by the French publishers but later was canceled.

List of Adventures

1. Asya Kaplanı
2. Baybora'nın Oğlu
3. Altay'dan Gelen Tiğit
4. Semerkand Casusu
5. Buzlu Çöller Tilkisi
6. Yeşil Ejder
7. Kanlı Saltanat (Uğursuz Saltanat)
8. Bizanslı Güzel Vasiliya
9. Tek Gözlü Albız
10. Asya'yı Titreten Korku
11. Samara-Şeyhin Kızı
12. Ötügen'in Üç Atlısı
13. Sarı Bayrak
14. Yavru Düşman
15. Çöl Şeytanı
16. Ölüm Yoldaşı
17. Bizanslı Zarba
18. Şeytan'ın Çakalları
19. Çayır Korsanları
20. Dokuz Tuğlu Kahraman
21. Uzun Saçlı Kahraman
22. Gökçe'nin Baykuşu
23. Cengiz Han'ın Habercisi
24. Bağan Tigin
25. Ergenekon
26. Kızıl Kule
27. Tiyen-Şan Canavarı
28. Kılıçların Gölgesinde
29. Ölüm Süvarileri
30. Uygur Güzeli
31. Sarı Büyü
32. Camoka'nın İntikamı
33. Alamut Kalesi
34. Kurt Başlı Sancak
35. Tibet Fedaisi
36. Ölüm Geçidi
37. Yeşil Gözlü Dilber
38. Kanlı Tuzak
39. Kudüs İlahesi
40. Üç Gözlü Mabut
41. Kırbaç Altında
42. Gök Han'ın Mirası
43. Kafkas Çiceği
44. Kaplan'ın Adaleti
45. Ulah Han'ın Gazabı
46. Dağlar Benimdir
47. Dağlar Benimdir 2
48. Fedailer Alayı
49. Bozkurt Gelini
50. Kara Panter
51. Kara Panter 2
52. Cengiz'in Gazabı
53. Cengiz'in Gazabı 2
54. Her Kılıç Bir Kın İçin
55. Hind Yıldızı
56. Dünyalar Hakimi
57. Dağlar Fatihi
58. Camoka'nın dönüşü
59. Deniz Ejderi
60. Düşman Uyumaz
61. Sarı Baltuk Hocanın Sırrı
62. Suruç Dağlarında
63. İnsan Avı
64. Ötügen'in Dört Atlısı
65. Acuna Bedel Oğul
66. Selçuklunun Şeref Sözü
67. Tumanbay'ın Gelini
68. Kayıp Ülke
69. Fırat'ın Sahipleri
70. Mor Kahküllü Şehzade
71. Ullimalı Kanlı Sultan
72. Çin Duvarlarında Dehşet
73. Demir Maske
74. Çakal Adamlar
75. Bir Ölümcül Oyun Bozkaşi
76. İnce Yılan Hanı
77. Kul Bakay'ın Mezarı
78. Banı Çicek
79. Ya Devlet Başa Ya Guzgun Leşe
80. Delice'nin 4 Kızı

Adaptations

Karaoğlan was first adapted to movie by Suat Yalaz as writer, director and producer in 1965. Yalaz searched for a long poeriod 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-Samarra the Daugher of Sheik"'. In 1972 Tibet returend to the role for a last time in "Karaoğlan Geliyor" which was directed by Mehmet Aslan.

Year	Film	Diercor	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. In June 24 2010, in a TV interview Yalaz mentioned his new Karaoğlan movie project which is early stages of developement.

Trivia

Karaoğlan was the nickname of Turkish politician Bülent Ecevit.

Turkish postal service PTT printed a series of memorial stamps to honour Karaoğlan in 2006.

External Links

http://www.suatyalaz.com