By day, Daniel Peterson works at the Maeva City Police Department as a detective. By night, his alter-ego Gabriel watches over the city as its metaphorical guardian angel. Smoke rises on the skyline as houses burst into flames. The police are unable to find a cause. Now, it’s up to Gabriel to take flight and discover the mysterious threat before the entire city goes up in flames. This is the newest comic created by Meghan Creamier, “Gabriel; Trial by Fire, Issue No. 1”

Without a doubt, the world is quickly changing. With the media and government scrambling over the sudden rise of a mutant population known as Diavarants, chaos rules the streets. Out of the madness rises those who would risk their very lives for the good of the world. Heroes. And from them, emerges a vigilante unafraid of the darkness and what lies within. After all, how can someone be afraid of the dark when they wield the light?

Ten years ago, The Feather newspaper posted its last comic, “How Things Are No. 16.” Now, a decade later, The Feather reboots the comic section with a new creator and a new story. “Gabriel: Trial by Fire” brings a new genre of comics to the Feather page.

From the creator

Creating a story has been a dream of mine since middle school, and seeing it come to fruition years later is such an amazing experience. The process of creating the comics was difficult at first, though over time and through several revisions of ideas, the work grew easier to the point that I started becoming impatient to sit down and draw again. The hardest part of any creative project (at least in my experience) is figuring out where to begin.

Finding the right character to begin the comics with felt like an arduous task. How can I pick one character to kick off a story I’ve waited so long to write? I pulled out a notebook and began to list potential main characters. Some ideas included Sparrow (a tech-based hero who prefers to work with her gear than with people) and Fallout (a character with radiation abilities). While going through the lists and character information, one hero stuck out to me. A hero whose very name inspires thoughts of angels and divine protection. Gabriel. I don’t know why he stuck out to me the most. He was one of my more recent creations and though I had built some form of a backstory, I never thought I would begin the comics with him. Gabriel has slowly grown to become one of my favorite characters through all of the drafting and storyboarding; I’ve come to realize that there isn’t a better hero in my arsenal to kick off the comics with.

Of course, all heroes need a villain. And while “the fearsome and terrible” Oh-Possum Man isn’t the main villain of the comic, he found a place in my heart right beside Gabriel. He started out as a gag character, just a ridiculous idea I flowed by Erin Poudrier, a constant help and encouragement throughout the creative process. We both immediately loved the idea and–after doing a quick search to check if the character already existed–Oh-Possum Man took his place as the first villain to be fought in the comics. His inspiration originates from a DC villain named “Condiment King,” a goofy villain that Batman faces several times in the comics. I enjoyed the idea of a villain who’s so utterly ridiculous that he’s maliciously complex. His character design came from a lack of sleep (as all best ideas do), and I believe that out of all designs I’ve created, Possum Man’s is my favorite.

It would be wrong for me to claim that I was the one who started this creative world’s construction. To that, I give credit to Ava Lee, whose idea to create a superhero movie trailer in middle school inspired us to create a world of our own. I hope that readers of The Feather will find a break from the stress and confusion of our world and venture into stories of nefarious villain schemes and superhuman deeds of bold heroes.

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