A new comic book story about a turban-wearing superhero will be published later this year after creators were overwhelmed with donations on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. The original target of $5,000 (£3,344) was quickly exceeded and in less than a month $22,511 (£15,059) was pledged.
The proposed graphic novel follows Super Sikh aka Secret Agent Deep Singh, a 20-something superhero “who loves Elvis and hates bad guys”, as he attempts to travel from India to The King’s heartland, Graceland, without being killed by the Taliban.
The kids’ comic book aims to dispel stereotypes of Sikhs, who Eileen Alden, a Sikh convert and co-creator, says are often misunderstood, and are the subject of hate crimes in the US for the way they look.
Supreet Manchanda, the other half of the creation team and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, told the Hindustan Times: “For our children Super Sikh will fill a void by creating a new positive narrative and a modern Sikh role model,” something which he says is severely lacking in modern US culture.
Singh’s enemy in the comic is a Taliban commander and megalomaniac, who leads a gang of terrorists determined to take Singh out for promoting women’s education.
The enemy character was inspired by the 2009 Taliban attack on teenager Malala Yousafzai and her Peshawar school.
Thanks to the over-funding the campaign has received, the creators say they now have enough money to produce four full issues – 1,000 print runs each – and start working on a fifth.
The 22-page comic will be illustrated by Comic Con India award winner Amit Tayal.
The comic is expected to be published in December 2015.
Featured image: Eileen Alden