When I wrote the Cyber Phantom and researched how to publish it, I drew several illustrations in case I included them in my budget. The first illustration I created for the novel was the Cyber Phantom’s first debuted. One of the challenges I faced when creating him was how to insert him into the conflict of the story.
In many stories involving prejudice, discrimination, and racial harmony, the antagonist of the story is one race or the other, usually the opressor. However, what if the antagonist has no identity? It would be difficult to label someone if you don’t know who or what they are. In an additional note, the antagonist can be prejudice if he doesn’t target only one group. That’s how I imagined the Cyber Phantom as an entity of justice: an being with no identity and will take down law breaker regardless of their species, race, or social status. Very much to how Lady Justice is.
The next step I took was determining the world the Cyber Phantom would live in. When it comes to racial issues, basing it directly in current times can become outdated quickly. Sure, one can base some aspects on current events or experiences, but to create a story that one would like to age well, they would have to write something timeless, or at least, not a product of its time. So what I did was base my story in the far future where all humans are mixed races and the minorities are aliens with immigrant ancestors from the stars. This way, the story could have its take on racial harmony without referring to actual races.
As for story perspective, it did not see how I could make the Cyber Phantom the main character given all the powers I’ve given him and his role as the mysterious viligante. It made more sense for me to write the Cyber Phantom from the perspective of my character, Paul Strongarm, a young police who is overwhelmed by hostile alien citizens (More on him in future posts).
The story of the Cyber Phantom was written because of racial issues that always to emerge every other generation. The reality of it is, they are not always black and white, or even about race to begin with. I am hoping whoever reads the Cyber Phantom would reflect off the settings, the characters, and the Cyber Phantom himself and look at any racial issues at a different perspective.