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Calavera, P.I.
Sometimes it takes a dead man to crack the case!
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 Día 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 rising star 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!
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 Día 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 rising star 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!
- GenresComicsGraphic NovelsNoir
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2025
2 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 21, 2025
Calavera is a resurrected former private investigator in 1930 Los Angeles, a skeleton in a trench coat and wearing a hat.
The debut issue details the former life of Juan Calavera - - a handsome, confident p.i., athletic and clever with a sharp tongue. The story opens with Calavera exposing and assisting local police in arresting a wealthy American criminal involved with a Mexican crook in human trafficking, specifically supplying ladies for extravagant parties. He befriends a female crime reporter for the local newspaper, who witnesses his eventual demise while trying to break up a suicide attempt. She is blackmailed into performing the ritual that allows him to rise from the grave.
This is atmospheric, evoking memories of Raymond Chandler’s 1920’s-1930’s Hollywood as observed by his detective Phillip Marlowe. Colors, shading, and images all work together to create the mood. It’s a one person show - - written, illustrated and colored by Marco Finnegan.
The overall feel of the story and art is classic noir, with pulpy aspects. Finnegan manages to insert some Los Angeles history into the proceedings, specifically the treatment of immigrants and abusive deportation efforts - - a bit reflective of current events.
The story takes a definite supernatural turn as it develops, and that helps keep this from being a typical pulp detective pastiche. A noble effort, with the door left open for more.
The debut issue details the former life of Juan Calavera - - a handsome, confident p.i., athletic and clever with a sharp tongue. The story opens with Calavera exposing and assisting local police in arresting a wealthy American criminal involved with a Mexican crook in human trafficking, specifically supplying ladies for extravagant parties. He befriends a female crime reporter for the local newspaper, who witnesses his eventual demise while trying to break up a suicide attempt. She is blackmailed into performing the ritual that allows him to rise from the grave.
This is atmospheric, evoking memories of Raymond Chandler’s 1920’s-1930’s Hollywood as observed by his detective Phillip Marlowe. Colors, shading, and images all work together to create the mood. It’s a one person show - - written, illustrated and colored by Marco Finnegan.
The overall feel of the story and art is classic noir, with pulpy aspects. Finnegan manages to insert some Los Angeles history into the proceedings, specifically the treatment of immigrants and abusive deportation efforts - - a bit reflective of current events.
The story takes a definite supernatural turn as it develops, and that helps keep this from being a typical pulp detective pastiche. A noble effort, with the door left open for more.
September 2, 2025
I really enjoyed this one! The art style was very cool, the characters were super interesting, and I really enjoyed the bits of history for the character of Calavera! I’m hoping to find a copy of “The Man With the Calavera Smile” to read!!
July 3, 2025
No habrá paz para los malvados.
"Calavera, P.I." is hard hitting Chicano Noir with a strong Day of Dead theme and avenging hero who returns from beyond the veil of death. This book presents an engaging and suspenseful story with supernatural elements, a deep grounding in L.A.'s Chicano roots and an unflinching look at the racist attitudes and policies directed against Hispanics in the twenties and thirties.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Oni Press, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
"Calavera, P.I." is hard hitting Chicano Noir with a strong Day of Dead theme and avenging hero who returns from beyond the veil of death. This book presents an engaging and suspenseful story with supernatural elements, a deep grounding in L.A.'s Chicano roots and an unflinching look at the racist attitudes and policies directed against Hispanics in the twenties and thirties.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Oni Press, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
June 29, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for an advance copy of this graphic novel featuring a hero who even death can not hold back, as he tries to find the missing child of a person who meant much to him in life.
I discovered pulp fiction at an early age, getting copies of the Shadow and Doc Savage books buy the bagful at my local library book sales. From these it was a small hop into the world of private detectives, those knight errants who walked the bad streets doing bad things for good reasons. Again I was a huge fan. The stories, the violence, the cool, even the dames as women have been a mystery to me most of my life. As I got older one could see that pulp novels though done quickly for cash, sometimes told more about the world than other forms of entertainment, even the media. The steady show of corruption. Cops brutalizing people for their own reasons, going after criminals if they weren't being paid off. The failure of society to take care of a certain segment, a segment that called on the private detective to help them. As one sees nothing has really changed, people still sell out, cops protect those in power, corruption is the system. I just hope we still have heroes to keep up the fight, like the main character in this book, who even death can stop when an important case comes up. Calavera, P.I. is written and illustrated by Marco Finnegan and tells of a man of the people who returns to the world of the living when to help his friends and their family from an evil that will destroy everything.
Juan Calavera is known as a man of the people, a protector of the Chicano people in Los Angles from criminals and cops alike. In 1925 Juan Calavera died, shot while trying to help someone, and leaving a legacy that his friends kept alive. In 1930 one of Calavera's associates is threatened and her son kidnapped. The only demand is that Juan Calavera deal with them. The day however is the Day of the Dead, and somehow through divine intervention or prayer, Juan Calavera is returned to life, though without skin on his face. Much has changed in five years. The Depression is wrecking the country, racial strife is running high, and the prominent feeling is that getting rid of the undesirables will make America great again. Added to this is s mysterious figure who seems to understand that Juan Calavera is not alive, but with a thirst for revenge that even death can't tame.
A really good story. I like the added supernatural aspect, which adds to the story, along with the numerous historical details that really give the story a good strong setting. Most detective books deal with people doing evil things. Why wouldn't this evil be demonic in someway. The writing is very good, with a lot unsaid, the relationship between Juan Calavera and his associate, along with the parentage of her child. Why and how Calavera came back, is not explained, which gives a little bit of fable or urban myth to the tale, which again adds to it. I liked the art quite a bit. The Mike Mignola influence is strong, but Finnegan is an artist completely of his own, and the story reflects that. The characters are well drawn, the colors are muted, and really help advance the story. Quite a lot of fun, and a story that is far more topical than I expected.
I discovered pulp fiction at an early age, getting copies of the Shadow and Doc Savage books buy the bagful at my local library book sales. From these it was a small hop into the world of private detectives, those knight errants who walked the bad streets doing bad things for good reasons. Again I was a huge fan. The stories, the violence, the cool, even the dames as women have been a mystery to me most of my life. As I got older one could see that pulp novels though done quickly for cash, sometimes told more about the world than other forms of entertainment, even the media. The steady show of corruption. Cops brutalizing people for their own reasons, going after criminals if they weren't being paid off. The failure of society to take care of a certain segment, a segment that called on the private detective to help them. As one sees nothing has really changed, people still sell out, cops protect those in power, corruption is the system. I just hope we still have heroes to keep up the fight, like the main character in this book, who even death can stop when an important case comes up. Calavera, P.I. is written and illustrated by Marco Finnegan and tells of a man of the people who returns to the world of the living when to help his friends and their family from an evil that will destroy everything.
Juan Calavera is known as a man of the people, a protector of the Chicano people in Los Angles from criminals and cops alike. In 1925 Juan Calavera died, shot while trying to help someone, and leaving a legacy that his friends kept alive. In 1930 one of Calavera's associates is threatened and her son kidnapped. The only demand is that Juan Calavera deal with them. The day however is the Day of the Dead, and somehow through divine intervention or prayer, Juan Calavera is returned to life, though without skin on his face. Much has changed in five years. The Depression is wrecking the country, racial strife is running high, and the prominent feeling is that getting rid of the undesirables will make America great again. Added to this is s mysterious figure who seems to understand that Juan Calavera is not alive, but with a thirst for revenge that even death can't tame.
A really good story. I like the added supernatural aspect, which adds to the story, along with the numerous historical details that really give the story a good strong setting. Most detective books deal with people doing evil things. Why wouldn't this evil be demonic in someway. The writing is very good, with a lot unsaid, the relationship between Juan Calavera and his associate, along with the parentage of her child. Why and how Calavera came back, is not explained, which gives a little bit of fable or urban myth to the tale, which again adds to it. I liked the art quite a bit. The Mike Mignola influence is strong, but Finnegan is an artist completely of his own, and the story reflects that. The characters are well drawn, the colors are muted, and really help advance the story. Quite a lot of fun, and a story that is far more topical than I expected.
December 20, 2025
Calavera, P.I. (2025) by Marco Finnegan would have been the perfect complement to my Fall 2025 detective fiction course in that almost half of my students were Chicano. We read Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, featuring twenties LA but almost no brown people. We read Dashiell Hammett’s also west coast The Maltese Falcon, no brown people. Then we read Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, LA in the sixties from an almost exclusively black perspective. Again, no brown people.
Now, a novel can’t do everything or can’t be transported to what we assume is a more enlightened present, nor would I want to. All three of those books are among the greatest detective fiction of all time. Still, it was good to read this book of 1920s LA seen from a mostly Chicano perspective, already then dealing with deportation, as now. And it is ambitious, written, drawn and colored by the (mixed race) Chicano Finnegan. Calavera is a PI that comes back from the dead to solve a case, and maybe solve his own case. So it has a zombie detective, and other supernatural elements pervade the Day of the Dead themed story.
It’s pretty crazy, but honors Chicano history and Chicano folklore. If I taught the course again, I would use it because it is perfect for yet another perspective on LA, crime, racism and corruption, joining the history of those themes across the twentieth century and in detective fiction. It’s the first volume, and I usually like later volumes better, so will read on.
Oh, and it features an introduction by Luis Urrea!
Now, a novel can’t do everything or can’t be transported to what we assume is a more enlightened present, nor would I want to. All three of those books are among the greatest detective fiction of all time. Still, it was good to read this book of 1920s LA seen from a mostly Chicano perspective, already then dealing with deportation, as now. And it is ambitious, written, drawn and colored by the (mixed race) Chicano Finnegan. Calavera is a PI that comes back from the dead to solve a case, and maybe solve his own case. So it has a zombie detective, and other supernatural elements pervade the Day of the Dead themed story.
It’s pretty crazy, but honors Chicano history and Chicano folklore. If I taught the course again, I would use it because it is perfect for yet another perspective on LA, crime, racism and corruption, joining the history of those themes across the twentieth century and in detective fiction. It’s the first volume, and I usually like later volumes better, so will read on.
Oh, and it features an introduction by Luis Urrea!
December 29, 2025
I thought the concept behind Calavera, P.I. was intriguing, and the striking cover art definitely caught my eye when I first saw it at my local comic shop. That visual flair was enough to make me pick up the trade when it showed up at the library. Unfortunately, the narrative didn’t quite live up to the promise of its premise. While the Chicano cultural elements and Day of the Dead-inspired aesthetic were a welcome touch, the story itself felt thin—more a collection of loosely connected legends than a fully fleshed-out mystery.
The book leans heavily on a neo-noir vibe, complete with a skeletal detective navigating a morally gray world, but the plot lacks depth and momentum. It’s stylish, sure, and the art does a lot of heavy lifting with bold contrasts and folkloric motifs that give the pages personality. Still, the writing never quite matches the visual ambition, leaving the experience feeling more like a mood piece than a gripping detective tale.
Overall, this was a quick read with some cool cultural flavor and strong visuals, but it could have been much better narratively. Worth flipping through for the art, but don’t expect a groundbreaking story.
The book leans heavily on a neo-noir vibe, complete with a skeletal detective navigating a morally gray world, but the plot lacks depth and momentum. It’s stylish, sure, and the art does a lot of heavy lifting with bold contrasts and folkloric motifs that give the pages personality. Still, the writing never quite matches the visual ambition, leaving the experience feeling more like a mood piece than a gripping detective tale.
Overall, this was a quick read with some cool cultural flavor and strong visuals, but it could have been much better narratively. Worth flipping through for the art, but don’t expect a groundbreaking story.
May 18, 2025
A skeleton in a trench coat fits the noir beat of 1930s L.A., especially that he's resurrected for a quick and dirty case. Calavera, P.I. blends Chicano culture, Día de los Muertos mysticism, and pulp detective tropes into a stylish, supernatural crime comic with a lot of visual flair. The art is strong, and the setting refreshingly different for the genre.
But while the concept is killer, the execution is just okay. The plot moves fast but brings nothing really new, and the mystery never quite landing with the punch it promises. Characters, including Calavera himself, feel thin, but hey, that’s half the noir aesthetic. It’s all archetype and atmosphere, and if you’re into that, you’ll probably vibe. If not, you might be left wanting more meat on these bones. Solid concept, average delivery.
ARC through NetGalley
But while the concept is killer, the execution is just okay. The plot moves fast but brings nothing really new, and the mystery never quite landing with the punch it promises. Characters, including Calavera himself, feel thin, but hey, that’s half the noir aesthetic. It’s all archetype and atmosphere, and if you’re into that, you’ll probably vibe. If not, you might be left wanting more meat on these bones. Solid concept, average delivery.
ARC through NetGalley
September 11, 2025
Calavera, P.I. mixes pulp noir, supernatural horror, and Mexican-American history into one beautiful, cohesive thriller.
Juan Calavera, a hero in both life and death, is tasked with solving a kidnapping, clearing his name, and facing the ghosts (both literal and metaphorical) of L.A.'s barrios.
Finnegan's art leans into the shadows and eerie beauty of folklore while his writing provides an open view of real life issues: human trafficking, cultural invisibility, and deportation.
It's spooky, fun, and hits it's target.
Perfect for fans of Blacksad, Lady Killer, or Sandman Mysteries.
Juan Calavera, a hero in both life and death, is tasked with solving a kidnapping, clearing his name, and facing the ghosts (both literal and metaphorical) of L.A.'s barrios.
Finnegan's art leans into the shadows and eerie beauty of folklore while his writing provides an open view of real life issues: human trafficking, cultural invisibility, and deportation.
It's spooky, fun, and hits it's target.
Perfect for fans of Blacksad, Lady Killer, or Sandman Mysteries.
June 20, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for my Advanced Reader's Copy of this book.
Looking for a noir PI detective novel set in the 20s and 30s? Do you also like some fantasy thrown in? Maybe some vengeance? Then this is the book for you. A quick read and very enjoyable. I highly recommend.
Looking for a noir PI detective novel set in the 20s and 30s? Do you also like some fantasy thrown in? Maybe some vengeance? Then this is the book for you. A quick read and very enjoyable. I highly recommend.
September 20, 2025
Great premise, just a little clumsily done. The art is fantastic, but the script could have given more depth to the characters. I closed the book without a true sense of characters and what drives them. A little too rushed overall.
October 29, 2025
A killer Mexican-American supernatural noir story with a cool hook, a great skull-faced scoundrel with a heart of gold protagonist, and top notch art. Marco Finnegan created a timely and compelling comic, well worth a read! I hope we see more of Calavera PI in the future!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews