He was once publishing the world's best-selling humor magazine: Who is Oğuz Aral?

He argued that the caricature should be "written" so that large masses of people could understand it, and he struggled with this with the humor magazine he published.

By Stephen McWright Published on 3 Mart 2023 : 22:31.
He was once publishing the world's best-selling humor magazine: Who is Oğuz Aral?

Turkish cartoonist. He trained many cartoonists in the humor magazine Gırgır, of which he was the director. He was born in Silivri. He left the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts after studying for three years. He drew his first cartoons in the magazine Hafta in 1950. He performed in Istanbul and Anatolia between 1960-1964 with the Wordless Play theater he founded. He worked for various newspapers and magazines. In 1972, he edited the humor page of Gün newspaper with the title Gırgır. Later, he started to publish Gırgır as a weekly magazine (1973). The magazine featured young people who were interested in cartoons, published the cartoons they sent along with their criticism, and held meetings with them.

Oğuz Aral (1936 – 26 July 2004) was a Turkish political cartoonist and comics artist, known for his satirical style. He was also active as a theatre designer, playwright, ceramist and animator, establishing the first Turkish animation studio.

In the years when Oğuz Aral started caricature, the period of Cemal Nadir-Ramiz came to an end, and the understanding of "humor in line" was born under the leadership of Turhan Selçuk. The revolution created by the famous cartoonist Saul Steinberg in caricature also affected the young artists of the period in Turkey. Among these artists, there were also those who were attracted to Walt Disney's cartoon aesthetics. Aral also watched Disney for a while, but gradually began to introduce "writing" into his cartoons. He claimed that "humor in cartoons" was not understood by the uneducated public and attributed the decreased interest in cartoons to this.

Aral, who criticizes the young cartoonists who see cartoons as a readable phenomenon and follows artists such as Turhan Selçuk, Tonguç Yaşar, Ferruh Doğan, Ali Ulvi, and Tan Oral who continue to use "humor in the line", realized his thoughts in Gırgır. He professionalized the young cartoonists he trained by taking them to the magazine staff. Gırgır reached a circulation of around 300,000 in 1979-1980.

Apart from caricatures, Oğuz Aral also produced products in the fields of comics and cartoons. He created comic-book heroes such as "Hayk Mammer", "Mole Hosni" (Köstebek Hüsnü), "Shameless Man" (Utanmaz Adam), "Hafiyesi Mahmut", "Vites Mahmut". His constantly published comic story "Avanak Avni" is one of his most popular works. He has cartoons called Koca Yusuf, Bu City-i Stambul, Direk Inter, Cicada, and Ant.

Oğuz Aral has taken his place as a master of understanding Turkish caricatures with his cartoons and the types he created. He trained many new cartoonists in his magazine, which deals with social problems through humor and criticism.