BENGALURU : In a world struggling with a pandemic and a dismal state of socio-political affairs, George Mathen seems to have found a haven of sorts. The city-based graphic novelist, who is popularly known as Appupen, has spent the last couple of months working on the second instalment of his popular comic series, Rashtrayana, which, like his other works, takes place in his fictional dimension of Halahala. Called Rashtrayana II: Divide and Fool, the comic series will be released on Brainded India over the coming weeks till Dec. 31.
The “totalitarian adventure” plays out in the fictional nation of Rashtria, which has been reeling under the authoritarian regime of Rashtraman (Mathen’s saffron cloak wearing superhero, who is also the star of the satire series). Back in action are also his crew of sidekicks, who featured in the first instalment called Rashtrayana: Trouble in Paradesh that was released in 2018. They include Cowboy (half-man, calf-god), PropaGandhi (the father of propaganda or as Mathen calls him, “Rashtraman’s PR team”), Vigil-Aunty (the torchbearer of Rashtrian values and traditions), and Lady Justis (who no longer has a blindfold).
The team is joined by new sidekicks from cricket and movies, enter Batmanu and Action Kumar, as they hitch a plan to save (read annexe) Cowrashtra by spreading talk of a ‘Cowvid’ pandemic. Hope, however, remains too, with a new order being formed – an abandoned league of radicals, rebels, leaders, and loners who abhor this new idea of nationhood.
“I didn’t just want to focus on the comic, I wanted a strong story element too. And if you look at the last 2-3 years, you’d see similar trends in many parts of the world. If you zoom out, the larger agenda is always about power and control, be it through religion or business,” says the artist, who prefers to be called Appupen. He adds, “The comic has to make sense to people outside the country or 10 years later too. It’s only art for me when it’s able to achieve that.”
Interestingly, while everyone raves about Captain America and Batman, Appupen is vehemently against superheroes. And yet his series is full of them. “I think they are poster boys used to push forth different agendas and we have a tendency to glorify superheroes in our comics. So that’s why I decided to use satire to present these characters in new light,” explains the 41-year-old, who is often asked if Rashtraman is good or bad. “I’m not going to answer that,” he laughs, as he adds, “There are instances where some right-winged social media pages share my comics, not realising it is satire.”
The past few months have had him grasp firmly at every chance of escape to his fictional world. “It’s not going to change anything in the real world but you can always believe things will change in the story,” says the artist who has been creating the mythology of Halahala since 2005 and has previously published graphic novels like Moonward, Legends of Halahala and Aspyrus.