Appupen, is a comics creator, visual artist and musician who tells stories from a mythical dimension called Halahala. Armed with a skewed vision of the world, darkly vivid art and a satirical bite, he is a unique voice in Indian comics and comics in general.
His latest graphic novel is ‘The Snake and the Lotus‘. It is a 272 page adventure of a mysterious new hero, at a time when the dying diminutive humans and their legacy of AI machines threaten the continuity of life itself in Halahala. The ancient Silent Green breaks its silence and calls for help – to any who can still listen.
Appupen’s first graphic novel ‘Moonward’ published by Blaft in 2009, was selected for the 2011 Angouleme festival. Moonward revealed the birth and journey of life on Halahala, a fantasy world that sometimes darkly mirrors our own, over 272 pages. Ancient creatures, gods and men play out their schemes for control, ushering in a strange dystopian future and unwittingly starting off a series of interconnected stories. See some ‘Moonward’ stories.
His second silent graphic novel, ‘Legends of Halahala’ (HarperCollins, 2013) has no words and became a major success among today’s low attention span youth. It is a book of five silent love stories from across the vast expanse of Halahala and time. From the early ‘Oberian Age’ to the dome cities far in the future, the book famously jumps across more time than ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. See some pages and art from Legends of Halahala.
Appupen’s third graphic novel is ‘Aspyrus’, (HarperCollins, 2014). More than a book, Aspyrus is a trend or a movement. Albeit one that consumes the world in large gulps. Mostly silent, mostly beautiful, Aspyrus attacked Appupen first in 2007, and it took him seven years to tame it. Or did he? See some pages and art from Aspyrus.
Lately Appupen has been very regular with his online comics, especially RashtraMan. See Appupen’s latest work for Brainded India here.
Appupen’s Empyr of Rock has been continuing in Rolling Stone India magazine for over 90 issues.
Appupen’s art has appeared in various art galleries, restaurants, pubs, cafes and retail outlets across India. Some of them haven’t paid him, and he plans to bring them down one day.
He is also regular with his commissioned stories in various magazines.
Appupen lives between Bangalore and Halahala.
Appupen Ad: Read the one of a kind serialized cricket comic CRIK-X by Appupen and Chacko, from ‘The Cricket Monthly’. The first real cricket comic after ‘Sunny the Super Sleuth’. Actually that was all about Sunny (the terror of evil-doers and bowlers the world over). Sunny-corder, Sunny Marzuki (800), Sunny-com (the only computer in the world that lists all criminals), etc.
Appupen 