rebels
Erik Atwaters is an ambitious, slightly unstable police sergeant – a vampire police sergeant, that is! He lives in a world that vampires and humans are simply two coexisting races. So when Erik’s half-vampire, half-human girlfriend gets murdered in a movement of escalating civil unrest, Erik becomes the central opposing force against a band of humans and vampires determined to exterminate the members of the population who are neither fully human nor fully vampire.
When he decides to abduct the witnesses to his girlfriend’s murder; his week-old son; a fellow police officer, the fiesty French woman Elodie; and his own closest friend and comrade, Andrew, he complicates his own role in the Rebels movement. His disappearance quickly attracts the attention of the Rebel’s leader, an angsty college student named Kaleb, who is bent on snuffing out Erik’s influence…maybe.
The story is set alternately in Boston and in a cabin in the snowy Appalachians. It features an expressive, passionate cast of characters. The “Good” and the “Bad” are fluid camps which many of the characters shift between throughout the story. You will be rooting for the bad guys just as much as the good guys, and by the end, you won’t care which side anyone is on.
Rebels is a story of sacrifice and ambition, of allies and enemies and the things in between, with a profound message about what it takes to make things happen.
![](https://mymentalbreakdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/erik.jpg)
Process/Inspiration
Rebels was a spinoff of sorts from Redefining Evil, further exploring Erik/Danyil’s very firm identity as a law enforcer (ACAB, yikes). I feel like this might have been the first story where I made over Andrew from Bakura, turned him ginger, and gave him a ponytail, which all became permanent fixtures in his character design. This story also features Micah in one of his wishy-washiest roles, as well as someone I kind of credit as an early iteration of Ingrid (Elodie ends up being Ingrid/Sophie’s big sister in Farewell, Fairytale, and Ingrid in later stories has Elodie’s grumpy and sharp personality).
2006-2007
manga
1 volume