Marco Finnegan Has No Bones About ‘Calavera, P.I.’, A New Skeleton Detective Series From Oni

This week, Marco Finnegan’s noir skeleton detective comic Calavera, P.I. #1 hits stores from Oni Press. The cleverly constructed series focuses on Juan Calavera, a heroic detective who died mid-mystery. Five years later, on Dia de los Muertos, he’s back with a new mystery — and a new skeletal look.

He’s also, if you couldn’t figure it out, of Mexican American descent — which changes the way Finnegan treated the noir tropes; and in other ways, it didn’t at all.

“On the surface, the world should work the same, but as we see in the first issue, there are spaces where Juan is not allowed: he can’t get the credit, he can’t be on the force no matter of his skill,” Finnegan told Comic Book Club over email. “So it’s important in the sense that he has to navigate these additional hurdles, but in terms of tropes and traditions of noir, he is very much in that same lane, just with a different point of view.”

To find out more about the book, read on!

Comic Book Club: You do a fair amount of setup in this issue for the world… Why was this approach important, versus jumping right to “skeleton detective”?

Marco Finnegan: I wanted to establish some rules for the world. For instance, in the world of Calavera, PI, the dead can come back. In issue 1, I also think it’s important to get a glimpse of who Calavera was before his death, who Maria is and what they could’ve been if he had not been killed. Kind of setting up those relationships as well as the world. In issue 2 the world and the story really open up.

What kind of research (if any) did you do for the setting in old Hollywoodland?

Besides watching a ton of noir I dove into what the area around Bunker Hill was like and what the Mexican American community was like during that time. The book DECADE OF BETRAYAL was a huge help in understanding that world.

Juan is obviously an important character… What were you aiming to capture about him, from the art perspective? And what was important to set up from the writing perspective?

Art-wise I leaned into the “latin lover” look that was very popular in Hollywood in the 1920s. I wanted Calavera to be dashing and charismatic, so that when he is “changed” it is more visceral. From a writing perspective, he is very much cut from the same cloth as Hammett’s Continental Op, a blue collar guy who is good at his job, not romantic about it. The type of guy Bogart always played but from the Chicano lens.

General question, but as a dual writer/artist, which do you approach first? Or is it a fluid process?

I’ve tried writing first, but have now evolved to a layout script. So the drawing is definitely important to the writing stage. I think in pictures, so I think this is the most efficient way for me now. There was a really detailed sequence written in issue 2, it was really procedural, showing Calavera as a meticulous detective, but when I drew it out it actually worked better as this nice emotional moment where he shows his vulnerability.

The covers are really lovely throughout… I imagine that’s the noir setting, but were there any specific influences in particular?

Thanks so much! For my covers I was thinking and looking at a lot of movie posters from the era.or the variants i think the theme was, “make Marco feel bad because we draw better than him.” LOL! We were also blessed with some amazing variant covers, by Zeke Pena, Estaban Sanchez, Juan Gedeon, Ramon Perez and Gonzo. It’s super humbling to see these takes on Calavera.

How does it change things to have a noir detective of Chicano descent? How does it change or tweak those classic tropes?

I think on the surface the world should work the same, but as we see in the first issue, there are spaces where Juan is not allowed: he can’t get the credit, he can’t be on the force no matter of his skill. So it’s important in the sense that he has to navigate these additional hurdles, but in terms of tropes and traditions of noir, he is very much in that same lane, just with a different point of view.

What can we expect as this mystery continues? What do you want to tease for future issues?

Calavera’s real work starts in issue 2 when we see him really start shaking things up and looking under some rocks, but with all noir, what we see isn’t always what we think it is, especially as we start to get closer to who the villains are in this world. I’m having a blast and I hope you all will dig it too. Thanks for taking the time!

Calavera, P.I. #1 hits stores on November 13 from Oni Press.

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