As a an adolescent, Totem's Founder Gabriel Wilson spent time in his rural homestead in the woods carving fallen maple into the faces of characters he found in his imagination. He later came to realize he was making Totem Poles.The word Totem in English originally came from the Ojibwe tribe of Indigenous Peoples in what is now Southern Canada and the Northern United States. “Ototeman” can be found globally when you search the vast array of Indigenous cultures. These deeply rooted cultures would traditionally stack the generations on top of each other, reminding them of the past, present and future. 

 

Totem Poles share the history, culture, and memory of a people. In a world where culture is diverse and not necessarily ancestral, it’s still important to find common stories, and build up the next generation of story tellers.

 

As Gabe pursued art into adulthood, he realized he wanted to dedicate his livelihood to producing graphic novels because he deeply values the platform a fully-illustrated book gives to a story. As a child he struggled with reading (and sometimes still does!), and spent hours listening to audio stories. He didn’t know it then, but he was learning how to create concept art- imagining the characters in his mind and then bringing them to life on paper. 

 

Growing up, Gabe’s faith surrounded him with beautiful images (Icons). This led to the creation of his first Graphic Novel series based on the lives of the Saints he grew to love. He has come to strongly believe the images we consume are very important to our mental, emotional and spiritual formation. His aim is to make those images beautiful, whimsical, and heartfelt. It takes a lot of time and energy to put that into book form!

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In order to pursue this dream of working full time as an author/illustrator, he had to find a place to put these works, and fund them. Totem Press was born out of Gabe’s desire to tell all the stories swirling around his head.