The Hindu Lit for Life | Appupen on how comics can portray complicated stories too

When you say comics or graphic novels, people always think of Western stuff — Marvel, DC, things like that. But there’s a whole treasure of stories, settings and environments in India where comics haven’t even scratched the surface. For me, Tamil Nadu is a setting like that. I haven’t seen it in comics. So, this is my chance to make that inroad and to enter that environment through comics. That is why adapting Vaadivaasal mattered. 

Even today, people assume comics are for children. I made a book on AI (Dream Machine 2024) that was published by MIT Press, and a woman asked me to sign it for her eight-year-old daughter. An eight-year-old is not going to understand it. It is not meant for kids. But because it has pictures, she thinks it’s explaining large language models, surveillance, authority, and the State to a child. That is the idea people get. 

I’m relying on Perumal Murugan for the conversation at the event because he is very charismatic. I know I can pass the ball to him because when he is on stage, people take it seriously. We’ve spent a lot of time together travelling for research, staying in the same place, doing the storyboard, and things like that. So there’s a comfort between us, on stage and off. For this session, I want to start by showing some images and get people into the mood of the graphic novel. There are many nice stories that come out once you’re inside that space. 

I started building the world of Halahala (Graphic novel Legends Of Halahala) in 2005. It started as a distraction, a way to make sense of things. Now it’s become an escape. I want to get there fully, but I can’t until I earn enough money. Making comics takes time. And sometimes, like, with music, you put years into something, and it disappears. I spent seven years building the visual identity of a band, and then the band split. All that effort just vanished.