Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Transitions 9, London, Birleşik Krallık, 8 - 10 Nisan 2021, ss.38-39
In Turkey, from the late Ottoman Empire period and in the Turkish Republic period;
most of the caricature, cartoon and comic productions have been published by
weekly magazines. An important tradition and rich culture have emerged in this
cultural segment. Especially in 80’s, after the military coup in Turkey, Gırgır has
become one of the most important popular culture icons ever; the sales figures of
the magazine were almost as high as daily newspapers. The content of Gırgır was
mostly based on politics and daily life. It was representing the urban atmosphere
and public figures in a humorous way; and Istanbul especially was the common
background of almost all productions as an urban landscape. Bülent Arabacıoğlu, a
cartoonist working for Gırgır those years, was known mostly as the creator of
adventure comic series “En Kahraman Rıdvan” [“Rıdvan the Most Heroic”], and also
the multi-layered cartoon pages with multiple jokes, called “Panorama”. Each
“Panorama” was drawn as a large scale perspective of an urban fragment containing
different physical elements of the city with many characters. Around 20 jokes and
situations on a specific theme were combined together in an architectural space,
and a holistic narrative was being formed out of various sequences. This study
focuses on 16 Panorama pages where Arabacıoğlu puts a lot of information about
physical qualities of Istanbul, and the daily life of the time. These urban fragments
are analyzed by simple architectural illustrations and a comparative reading in terms
of perspective use, depth, scale, sophistication and perception of time. The study
also examines how the unique theme of each panorama determines its architectural
space and the represented social life. Consequently, repeated sociological and
cultural codes of 80’s Istanbul are deciphered by producing patterns and diagrams.