Turhan Selçuk: Google Doodle honors 98th birthday of Turkish cartoonist

Google Doodle celebrates the 98th birthday of notorious Turkish cartoonist, artist, and comedian Turhan Selçuk on July 30, 2020.

Who was Turhan Selçuk?

Turhan Selçuk was born on July 30, 1922, in the antiquated Turkish city of Milas, Muğla. Turhan Selçuk was a praised pioneer of the contemporary Turkish comic strip.

While still a secondary school student in 1941, Turhan Selçuk published some of his first illustrations in the newspaper Türk Sözü (The Turkish Word) and Red and White, Sut sports magazines published in Istanbul. He saw proceeded with progress with his throughout the decade.

The artist Turhan Selçuk, who originally began working in Akbaba in 1943, worked as a cartoonist and painter in the Tasvir newspaper in 1948. As the chief artist for the Yeni Istanbul (New Istanbul), he sharpened his artistic style and championed the belief that cartoons were a universal medium of storytelling.

In 1954, Turhan Selçuk took a similar position at Milliyet, an Istanbul-based daily national newspaper that three years after the fact became the home for Selçuk’s definitive, postmodern comic series “The Adventures of Abdülcanbaz.”

Known for the series Abdülcanbaz, which Turhan Selçuk began to draw in the newspaper Milliyet in 1957, this character was additionally played in theater and film. Over an almost three-decade run, the angular legend Abdülcanbaz, otherwise called the “Istanbul Gentleman,” traveled around the world and even through an ideal opportunity to battle injustice and help the powerless.

In 1969, Turhan Selçuk co-founded the Turkish Cartoonists Association to instruct youthful cartoonists and advance the medium around the globe. He got various awards all through his very nearly seventy-year career and was the first Turkish cartoonist to be awarded internationally.

His cartoon “Peace and Book” was used in posters and logos of the book reading campaign propelled by the Council of Europe in 1992.

Turhan Selçuk was the founder of the Turkish Cartoonists Association along with Semih Balcıoğlu and Ferit Öngören.

Turhan Selçuk died on March 11, 2010, at 87 years old in Istanbul.

He is viewed as one of the few cartoonists in Turkey, who paved the way for the current Turkish cartoon scene.

Every year, awards are given by Milas Municipality under the name of “International Turhan Selçuk Cartoon Contest” in memory of Turhan Selçuk.

On July 30, 2020, Google Doodle, described by Istanbul-based visitor artist M.K. Perker, observes Turhan Selçuk’s 98th Birthday. Using a moderate style of line workmanship implanted with an intense mind, Selçuk masterminded one of the nation’s first and most celebrated unique comic book characters, Abdülcanbaz, who is portrayed riding a bike in the today’s Google Doodle artwork.