1. My Life as THE OPOSSUM. By: Aaron Moses
As a child born and raised in a southern town in Texas, I felt that I would never see anything as
different as the world I was used too. Brownsville, Texas, a small city right by the Mexican border, and
close to the bay area, was all I knew growing up. My family, like a lot of Hispanic families around here
were not very open-minded about a lot of things outside of their traditional upbringing ways. Such
things as my fascination for fantasy, you know fairy tales, the science fiction movies, all those mythical
things, but most of all my love of comic books and all their amazing adventures. With such characters
as SUPERMAN and SPIDER-MAN, where they are seen as these weak nerd-like people and then in an
instant, they are saving the world in disguise, “Wow”, I would say to myself. Back sometime in the
year 1992, I was having some troubling issues (some might even say mental issues). I can still
remember those days like it was yesterday. At that time I was in middle school, and had just come to
the breaking point of being picked on, and alienated. Even prior to that, as a young child I could never
escape these constant torment. Mentally I longed to be somewhere else, far away from this place, only
to wake up from daydreaming in class, and know that I was going to have a gang of my peers follow
me home to beat me up, and spit at me as I lie helpless on the ground. What was it about me that people
hated so much? I could never understand. And even though I had my mother there, who went through
her own struggles to raise my two sisters, myself and a younger brother, she could not see her own
son's pain, as I was going through it. With my elevated anxiety, knowing I had to endure this again for
another day, suicidal thoughts were playing constantly in my head, as I debated what day I should pick
to live or die. Then it just came to me, I literally wanted to make myself into a comic book hero or at
least the image of a vengeful being, to use all that rage that had built up inside me, to have something
to vent out from. I had to be dark and brooding, something that the people of this town despised and
hated, because God only knew I hated so many of them. The one comic book character I gravitated on
the most was BATMAN. I’m a huge BATMAN fan and had always liked characters in animal disguise,
I am guessing it’s something about that whole primal thing that attracts me to it. Now I can vaguely
remember this particular event in my life, but as I was sitting at my sister’s desk in her room sketching
and drawing the look of what my new terrorizing image was to be on a note pad, I heard some kind of
commotion coming from outside near her window. As I moved the curtains to the side to see, I saw that
the noise was coming from the next door neighbor’s front porch. It was a man trying to kill a huge
opossum about the size of a large cat. For those who are not familiar with this animal, the Opossum,
“Genus: Didelphis Virginana”, is North,and South America’s only marsupial with its triangular head,
long pointed nose and a prehensile tail for grasping and wrapping around tree limbs and other objects.
Commonly mistaken with a rodent or a rat, the opossum has developed a hatred among many of the
locals of this town over the years. Some see them as pests, some see them as diseased vermin, and
some even see them as reincarnated demons that are out to kill their children; nothing can be further
from the truth. What inspired me the most, from watching this brutal event outside the window was
that no matter how hard this man was determined to kill this animal, it would not die. It simply would
play dead (as they are known for) and would just walk off, until the man brought out a B.B gun pistol,
shot it, and ended its life. The brutal beatings it took with rocks and big sticks struck me mentally. This
thing, this hated thing, just wanted to live where so many dreaded its existence.
THAT’S IT! That's what I'll become. I quickly felt some sort of connection with it, so as I rummaged
through my closet pulling out some old Halloween costumes, a sketch of the look of my suit was
starting to take form. It looked crude and rough, nothing like the clean sharp edged super heroes I was
use to seeing in comic books. “No!” this look had to really scare people. I even decided to carry a gun;
a Colt single action .357 magnum revolver, that my uncle gave to me for save keeping, because he was
afraid that my aunt would dispose of it. It was all played out in my head, as I could see myself
mercilessly beating and scaring the crab out of those creeps in my neighborhood. With a pint of paint

2. and some liquid latex, my suit finally came together. I looked into the mirror and got a feeling that I
will never forget; that night I was reborn as “THE OPOSSUM”. Funny thing is that the week I was
planning this so-called attack on some certain individuals, a religious male teenager was allowed into
my house with my mother's consent, in order to speak to me about his faith and from what I am
guessing to teach me a more christian way of life. Apparently my mother took notice of my troubled
behavior and felt that this was the right approach. We began to talk, this christian person and I. He was
very zealous of his faith and as I remember, convinced me of a different approach to things. Soon I
explained to him my plan and how I was going to execute it. And even though he found it a bit
fascinating he soon made me realize the real danger that I was about to put myself in. I decided to
change my approach and pen my idea into a personal illustrated story. Come years later I never learned
what became of that young christian man, I could not even find that opossum costume I made, I think
my mother threw it away or something. But I still have all the illustrations and that personal comic
book that I drew and wrote. Many changes have happened in my life after that talk, and for a while
during my high school years the whole OPOSSUM idea was put in the back burner as I fell deeply in
love with a girl. Sadly it did not last, and it effected me emotionally and mentally and plunged me into
a deep depression. Once again I went back to my OPOSSUM story, though this time it was not going
be me putting on a suit. It was all about a new approach to my fictional autobiography (or what I called
it ), getting into dark comic books such as James'O' Barr's “THE CROW”, and even the 1994 film
staring the late Brandon Lee, THE OPOSSUM story took on a deeper and darker meaning into what I
wanted my life to be. The one thing I used to cope with life's problems was this idea I had made of
myself. And so here I am now, the years have past, and still with the urge to see a world different than
the one I am used too. I am a father and husband now,with a whole new perspective on life. Things will
never get any easier, but I least I have an amazing illustrating career to look forward too. And in 2007 I
finally got to self publish THE OPOSSUM issue number #1 followed by THE OPOSSUM issue
number #2, with a self proclaimed documentary filmed by my filmmaker friend Rick Medina. It has
been a dream come true to see how some people have taken in the positivity of my creation and have
even been influenced into turning their negativity into amazing works of art. For THE OPOSSUM will
always be lurking in some corner of my psyche ready to resurface and so whenever it's me against the
world it is THE OPOSSUM they will have to deal with.