You’ve delighted in their visual appeal. Now here’s a graphic novel by a Bangalore-based storyteller.
George Mathen is Appupen and Appupen tells stories. Not the sort where you string letters and crowd pages with cliches.
Instead, the kind where you pull out your pen and sketch out an entirely new world, precisely called Halahala. Mathen’s first full-fledged graphic novel titled Moonwards invites you to scan through the lives of people caught in this new world.
Talking about the book, he says, “There are definitely no superheroes in their underwears in the novel. You could say the story revolves around one main character, but there are also many diverse characters in the book.”
Giving a sneak peek into this allegorical world, Mathen describes its craziness, “There are mad scientists, genetically engineered plants that walk into conveyor belts, a planet made of cheese that’s constantly getting smaller as it’s being eaten by mice, and machines that come to life with TICTAC syrup.” One more fact about the fictional city tumbles out from the author: The official soft drink of Halahala is supacola.
Since readers journey into this new world for the first time, Mathen says that he has built it in a way that it is open to interpretations. He shares that the first fifty pages of the book are completely silent, with absolutely no words: “I wanted people to interpret what they saw, the way they want. I want them to read between the lines.” Being the introduction to a new world, more in the series will definitely follow, he assures.
Having commenced work on the 280 -pager in 2006, he says that he initially thought of dabbling with animation but felt that a graphic story would be cheaper, faster and hence more practical. Besides, a graphic novel is something where only the artist’s skills are involved in the creative process, he explains.
Confessing that drudgery was an integral part of his creative journey, he says, “You work all day and you’ll probably have one or two good pages in a day. Then there are good patches and bad.” Letting in on the process he informs that he first draws on paper, before a tad bit of digital correction is done. He’s also tried to keep the colour as minimal as possible, he reveals.
Mathen rattles out a few important influences: Jewish-American comic writer Will Eisner, Pulitzer prize winning comic artist Art Spiegelman and French cartoonist Lewis Trondheim who is known for his ‘silent’ comics. He then adds the regular staple of comics like Batman and Tintin to it.
According to Mathen, the difference between comics and a graphic novel can be rather tricky. But he says that while comics are trivialised as a medium just for kids, graphic novels can be much wider, reaching out to everyone. “At least, that’s how people perceive graphic novels,” he admits.
Better known as the drummer boy in the city band, Lounge Piranha,
Mathen could hardly resist a dig on the band itself. Shatrix, The world’s graphic band bio, as defined by the band’s website, was created by him. It answers the mundane repetitive questions of “How did you guys get together as a band?” in a not so typical way.
Before you pick up Moonward, you could stop over at Mathen’s virtual residence. A click on the comics section and you’ll have access to a list Empyr, comics by Appupen. And Appupen is George Mathen. Bump into Appupen at www.georgemathen.com
Moonwards, published by Blast, releases in August.
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