Cartoonist Marco Finnegan’s love of film noir and pulps led him to creating Calavera, P.I., about an undead murdered detective who comes back on Dia de los Muertos. Not only will Detective Juan Calavera have to solve a new crime, he also needs to find out who killed him. Finnegan spoke with Cemetery Dance about the use of Mexican folklore in the graphic novel, his horror influences, and what he would like people to take away from his newest work.
(Interviews conducted by Danica Davidson)
CEMETERY DANCE: How do you mix crime and Mexican folklore for Calavera, P.I.?
MARCO FINNEGAN: Thanks for doing this! Calavera, P.I. is my love letter to film noir and pulps from the ’30s and ’40s, but I wanted to filter it through my own lens of being a Mexican American who loves these very American genres but also doesn’t see myself in them very often. I wanted to tell a story that feels like a classic noir but set in a community of L.A. that has not been explored too much. The folklore of Dia De Los Muertos kind of lends itself to a supernatural noir but also provides the “rules” for this book.
Sometimes you work as a comics illustrator with a different writer, and sometimes — like with Calavera, P.I. — you handle both writing and art. What is your experience like being both writer and artist?
I think it’s all the same part of the mind — telling stories. My writing process starts with drawing more than words and then the words supplement the art. When I work with other writers (which I love) I am still thinking in pictures but the process is reversed — the words generate the pictures that I use to tell the story.
What are your horror influences?
I love Mignola’s HELLBOY, old EC comics — especially those done by Johnny Craig and Alex Toth. In novels I adore the way my friend Tananarive Due writes her horror stories, they’re full of heart and beautiful characters but also freak me out! In film I like the Scream movies just because they are so smartly done. My son Justin has been recommending a bunch of horror films for me because that’s his jam, so from that I am branching out to the cool A24 films and Jordan Peele’s brilliant work.
What would you like people to take away from Calavera, P.I.?
I hope it does what other noir stories have done for me, guide the reader into the shadows of a world they thought they knew. So hopefully folks will see a part of L.A. noir that they haven’t seen before,
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
My website is marcofinnegan.com and I spend way too much time on tXitter at @marco949 and Instagram at @marco.finnegan.
