Tarkan is a fictional Hunnic warrior created by

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Sezgin Burak. Official

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

considers Huns the ancestors of modern Turks. Earlier Turkish cartoon depictions that heroized Huns were ''Atilla Geliyor'' and ''Atilla'nın Ölümü'', created collectively by Şahap Ayhan and Ayhan Erer in late 1940s.

Publication history

Tarkan was created by Sezgin Burak while he was resident in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, working for the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

art agency ''Studio D'Ami''. The first adventure of Tarkan, ''Mars'ın Kılıcı'' (The Sword of Mars) was serialised in 1967 as a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

on the pages of daily ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

''. From 1970, adventures of Tarkan had been published in an eponymous magazine. The last Tarkan adventure, ''Milano'ya Giden Yol'' (The Road to Milan) was left unfinished due to the artist's death in 1978, only to be completed by cartoonist Özcan Alper (i.e. Özcan Eralp) in 1983.Sezgin Burak ve Tarkan
, Mavi Didim The comics are being reprinted.

Fictional character biography

Tarkan's background is revealed in the adventure ''Gümüş Eyer'' (The Silver Saddle). He is born as the son of Hunnic warlord Altar in the

Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains, : pronounced * hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ, : pronounced * az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced * rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ * tr, Kafkas Dağla ...

. As an infant, he is orphaned after an

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

raid and raised by wild

grey wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

, a process that makes him overwhelmingly powerful and courageous. Later, he becomes a warrior in the service of

Attila the Hun Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

. Tarkan's sole companion is his grey wolf named simply ''Kurt'' (

for wolf) and he is occasionally helped by Kulke, a cunning and skillful warrior of short stature, and Bige, a bold and chaste girl with romantic interest in him.

Film adaptations

All Tarkan adaptations - except two - feature

Kartal Tibet Kartal Tibet (27 March 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Turkish actor and film director. Some of his famous films include ''Ölmeyen Aşk'', ''Dağlar Kızı'', ''Senede Bir Gün'', ''Sultan'', ''Zübük'', ''Gol Kralı'', and '' Şalvar Davası''. T ...

as the protagonist, in a series that ran from 1969 to 1973. However, the first Tarkan film is ''Tarkan: Canavarlı Kule'' (Tarkan: The Monster Tower), which was shot and released separately from the first Tibet Tarkan (''Tarkan: Mars'ın Kılıcı''), following a dispute about the casting of the lead actor. Another film, made in 1971, is ''

Tarkan Viking Kanı ''Tarkan Versus the Vikings'' ( tr, Tarkan Viking Kanı) is a 1971 Turkish action film, directed by Ertem Eğilmez based on a comic strip by Sezgin Burak, starring Kartal Tibet as fictional Huns, Hunnic warrior Tarkan (character), Tarkan, who vo ...

'' (Tarkan: The Viking Blood). An earlier film inspired by Tarkan is ''Bozkırlar Şahini Targan'' (Targan: The Falcon of the Steppes) directed in 1968 by Mehmet Aslan who would also be the director of four Tarkan titles.

Legacy

Although the name of the character is claimed to be styled as a compound word referring to

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

ethnic origin of the artist himself, the word

Tarkhan Tarkhan ( otk, 𐱃𐰺𐰴𐰣, Tarqan, mn, or ; fa, ترخان; ; ar , طرخان; alternative spellings ''Tarkan'', ''Tarkhaan'', ''Tarqan'', ''Tarchan'', ''Turxan'', ''Tarcan'', ''Turgan, Tárkány, Tarján'') is an ancient Central Asia ...

is actually a title for Turkic and Mongolian nobility and was used as a given name millennia before publication of the comic series. Following Tarkan's great success, it became a popular given name in Turkey.Who is Tarkan?
, Tarkan Information Website

References

{{reflist

External links