DF Interview: Marco Finnegan returns a hero from the dead to solve a kidnapping in ‘Calavera, P.I.’

By Byron Brewer

In 1925, Juan Calavera died a hero. After a career spent outside the law defending the Chicano barrios where the police refused to operate, he earned a reputation for fearlessness . . . and a gunshot in the stomach. Now, five years later, on Dia de los Muertos, his restless spirit has been summoned from the grave to help a desperate former colleague unravel a kidnapping all too close to home. With only days to solve the case before he is called back to the underworld, can Calavera reveal the identity of the masked human trafficker known as La Fantasma before tragedy strikes again . . . and solve the mystery of his own murder in the process?

From the desk of artist/author Marco Finnegan (Morning Star, Night People), walk the shadow-shrouded alleys of Hollywoodland to solve the mystery of Calavera, a newly-resurrected private investigator whose first case is about to straddle the blood-soaked boundaries between the living and the dead. I chatted with Marco Finnegan about the coming comic.

Byron Brewer: Marco, you certainly do not give your protagonists easy first issues. What was your inspiration for this supernatural crime saga?

Marco Finnegan: Oh yeah—he has a rough night! Calavera came about as just a love of pulp and noir stuff I’m kind of obsessed with. I love detectives who are these Knight Errant types like Marlowe/Spenser/Continental op/etc, who kind of work outside the confines of the “law” and who all have their own code, but I wanted him to be Chicano and kind of reflect the people I know/have known growing up. So that was the spark: how can I create a Chicano P.I. that isn’t a Latino version of the above guys? I wanted it set in LA and as a period piece; it seemed like we had a big giant hole of Chicanos during the heyday of pulps and film noir. This was wild to me because here’s this city thriving with Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants and none of them show up in these stories? There’s an occasional nod to Mexico or a Mexican in Hammett or Chandler but never as the hero…so I decided to invent one as if I were writing it in the 1930s.

Byron: I love old OLD Hollywood(land). Tell readers about the canvas onto which you will set us in November. What is this world you have built, partially from the reality of fame and fortune, and what type of research did you have to do, as illustrator AND writer, to bring this atmosphere and period piece alive?

Marco Finnegan: I grew up in Los Angeles county and we would go to LA the city often, and it was always so curious to me. It wasn’t like New York in the comics, it had all this history and was in all these movies and just kind of fascinated me; still does. Once I settled on a time period, I started doing my research and reading about the area known as La Placita which was a place where Mexicans and Mexican Americans would gather and talk, shoot the breeze, etc…just like a hub of the community. I thought it would be interesting to make this Calavera's Gotham; he would be their unofficial protector.

Byron: Tell us what you can about Juan Calavera. We know a little about his deeds. What can you tell us about the man himself, his backstory, without spoilers?

Marco Finnegan: When we meet Calavera, he’s kind of disenchanted with his life. He’s this great detective, almost legendary in his skill and cunning, but he can’t get a job on the LAPD because he’s Chicano. He may have fought in WW1 (no spoilers) and in all respects is the archetypal gumshoe—except he can’t get any real press for his cases because of his ethnicity. The irony is that in the 1920s it’s hip to be a Latin lover in Hollywood, just not hip to be a Mexican American, you know? So he’s bitter. He’s also a working class guy, this is what he knows so this is what he does to pay the bills…very much like the gumshoes that would’ve been his peers. No heroics, just work.

Byron: What can you tell readers about the mysterious criminal known as La Fantasma?

Marco Finnegan: She’s going to be fun. She’s kind of a La Llorna type in that her grieving is what drives her… that’s all I can say now or my editor Gabriel will beat me up.

Byron: I know this is a gritty crime yarn with a supernatural edge, but there is much more to it than that. What is it that you as artist and writer hope readers come away with in a higher sense after experiencing Calavera, P.I.?

Marco Finnegan: I have a Walter Mosley quote pinned above my desk and it reads, “If people don’t exist in literature, they don’t exist to the general public at all.” Calavera is my attempt to say that during this time when pulps and comics and film noir were raging through Los Angeles, these people existed. They were heroes, they were romantics, they lived and had adventures. That’s kind of my goal for this book. Not so much to teach a history lesson, but to tell stories that could’ve happened where no one was looking.

Byron: Marco, what other projects do you have coming out that you can tell readers about?

Marco Finnegan: I have some stuff percolating and hope to do more Calavera down the line!

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Marco Finnegan for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. Calavera, P.I. #1 from Oni Press is slated to be on sale November 6!

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