VERTIGO
Eric M Esquivel is unleashing Mexican monsters in Vertigo series Border Town
The cult comic book line gets a relaunch with Borderland.
While he’s a fan of hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Eric M Esquivel is disappointed by its lack of Latin characters. This is an absence rectified in his new Vertigo series Border Town, which kicks off a relaunch of the cutting-edge DC imprint next month. Set in the small Arizona town of Devil’s Fork, the Ramon Villalobos-illustrated monthly details what happens when a crack in the border between worlds releases an army of monsters drawn from Mexican folklore onto an unsuspecting populace.
“It’s not the Mexican mythology that makes our story different, it’s the Mexican perspective,” Esquivel tells Red Alert. “It’s also about the ways we choose to segregate ourselves from our fellow human beings.”
The story centres around Frank Dominquez, a reluctant recent arrival in Devil’s Fork. “He’s a moody high-school sophomore who’s never met his Mexican father, and was raised – up until now – in an aggressively Caucasian Wisconsin suburb by his white, single mother,” explains Esquivel. “As a result, he’s extremely anxious around all things Mexican, and sees himself as a tourist in his own skin. A belief that’s shared by his new classmates, both the fluent-in-Spanish cholos and the local White Power militiamen bully Frank.”
The only camaraderie Frank finds is with some fellow “multiracial misfits”, including Chuy, who just happens to be a chupacabra, a Puerto Rican “goatsucker”. “He’s like the mascot of the book,” laughs Esquivel. “But for some weird reason, something happens to the brains of the less ‘woke’ folks of Devil’s Fork when they look at him, which causes them to hallucinate Chuy as a non-threatening puppy. And because of his otherworldly nature, Chuy can literally sniff out the supernatural.” SJ
Border Town #1 is released on 5 September.