Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill stop by to chat with Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, about their Los Angeles-based period piece, Death to Pachuco, successfully funded through Kickstarter - keep an eye out for this Chicano noir!
COMIC BOOK YETI: Welcome to the Yeti Cave, Henry and Rachel! Thanks for stopping by to discuss Death to Pachuco. How’s everything going back in your respective locales?
HENRY BARAJAS: I was just at Comic Arts Los Angeles and before that Latino Comic Expo. I don’t think L.A. gets a fair shake when it comes to how good the scene is here. I doubt Portland has a Latino Comics Expo or fosters enough people of color out there to celebrate the diversity the industry has to offer.
RACHEL MERRILL: NYC is in a bit of a weird transition as far as the comic scene goes. We nearly lost Desert Island and still there is no CAB replacement. Mocca is hostile to anyone who hasn't been an established artist for 15 years and NYC Comic Con is even worse. Frankly compared to the support you see for independent creatives in cities like Toronto the almost negative advocacy in NYC should be a scandal.
CBY: The fresh perspective on the metropolitan US comics industry is much appreciated. Firstly, I’d like to congratulate you both on a successful Kickstarter campaign! You mentioned this is the first issue out of an intended four-part series. What’s the plan for getting the book out to the masses in 2025 now that the campaign is over and building the audience further? What needs to happen before you things get rolling on issue #2?
HB: Good question. We were discussing that today. Unfortunately, we had to make the first leap of faith before anyone wanted to join us. I hate to be brief here, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m not offered the same kind of respect my contemporaries are given. It’s not enough to have your work in the Smithsonian’s gift shop and incorporated in the nation’s largest school district. A core group of readers has given us enough runway to tell a 24-page story, so we’re going to use that stage time while we have it.
RM: All of what Henry said - there's a lot of hostility towards creatives, especially if they didn't come up at the right time, at the right age, at the right school. It’s not enough that I've been a New Yorker cartoonist, or that I was an artist in the Eisner-nominated Little Earthquakes Anthology OR the Ignatz-winning Comics for Choice. If you’re over 25 and not a DC/Marvel artist no one wants you.
That said, we made our goal under our deadline because the story resonates and folks outside the gatekeepers want to support it.
CBY: A bit sobering for those of us without so many accolades and achievements in our own careers trying to gain traction with our stories in this industry! So I’ve been vaguely familiar with the Pachuco subculture since the brief moment in the late 90’s when Zoot Suit Riot hit the charts (providing a teachable moment for all those awkward adolescents who were suddenly being offered swing dance lessons). Henry, given your current location in Los Angeles, drawing upon the story of the Sleepy Lagoon Murder for Death to Pachuco, and your focus at Latinx Press on amplifying issues of concern to the Latin American community, the rationale and value of the work is clear, even if the story is generations old - what led to you deciding to tackle it now? How long have you had this project in development, and Rachel, when did you enter the discussion?
HB: In 2023, I was doing research on Sal Castro for a project that should be coming out next year. In the process of learning about the East L.A. walkouts in 1968 and telling Dolores Huerta’s story for Civics for All, I have gleaned enough ideas for stories until I’m old and dead. The timing also coincided with the 80th anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots. There was a major celebration of Chicanos in zoot suits near where the violence took place. It was a physical manifestation and sign from above. I couldn’t ignore the injustice even if I buried my head in the ground.
RM: Not long after I started at Gil Thorp, Henry called me and said that he had another comic in the works and asked if I’d be interested in tackling it as well. I think I got through two pages and immediately knew I needed this project, it was such a strong, atmospheric story. We discussed it at length, and he mentioned my self published comic Adult Romance and how the style of it would suit his 1940s LA noir story. It was a huge compliment as someone who was moving away from florid color use and trying to focus on the bare bones of comics drawing and storytelling to see that my more stripped-down style resonated for him with both comics.
CBY: So you’re both credited as co-creators, and you’ve also been working together on the syndicated newspaper comic strip, Gil Thorp, which you assumed, Henry, when Neil Rubin concluded his 18-year run (on a title that started in 1958), with Rachel joining more recently. Can you share with our readers a bit about how you two began working together, and how Death to Pachuco differed in development from the requirements of a daily strip, both in accommodating different editorial expectations and finding a rhythm that works for carving up the various tasks between the two of you?
HB: Rod Whigham is a consummate professional and the last of his kind. I needed to find someone I wanted to work for an undefined amount of time. I read Rachel’s work on Gumroad while originally scouting her for DtP. But the timing of Rod’s retirement forced me to bring her into the strip and see if she was interested in the Chicano noir. Gil Thorp requires a lot of references for specific physical sports while Death to Pachuco is us working more freely and creatively speaking.
RM: Henry is right, Gil Thorp is much more about hewing to a “house style” which was Rod’s work of the last 14 years. With Death to Pachuco we can really go wild, especially for a massive film geek like myself and pull from all over to create what hopefully feels like a uniquely real lived-in world.
CBY: You’ve also pulled in Lee Loughridge as colorist. I’ve enjoyed Lee’s work on countless titles through the years (including contributions on the ongoing series, Babs, for which we’ve just featured an interview) - how’d you mutually decide on teaming up for Death to Pachuco and then enlist David Lapham and Chloe Brailsford for their cover work?
HB: We both wear a lot of hats when it comes to Death to Pachuco. But I try to work with artists I would support even if I wasn’t writing the thing. In my humble opinion, I believe Lapham’s Stray Bullets is the great noir comic. I don’t want to get any wires crossed here. This is a true-blue noir. This is my first rated R comic, so I wanted to do a risqué cover with Chloe because I think she’s one of the best in the industry. I think it’s going to be limited to 100.
RM: Chloe had contributed a gorgeous fanart for one of my previous comics, so when Henry suggested her I immediately vouched for her quality and speed. We’re thrilled with how the piece came out, and I appreciate everyone's patience as I attempted first time art direction along the way.
CBY: The results speak for themselves, so congratulations on a job well-organized. Having worked with a variety of publishers (Tribune, New Yorker, DC, Image, Ahoy, etc.), what convinced you both that Kickstarter was the way to go with this publication? I see a number of established creators successfully running crowdfunding campaigns - in this instance, was it driven by a desire for creative/editorial control, or were there other considerations in mind when you opted for this approach to launching the series?
HB: A majority of the key players want to publish a comic that has film and television potential. The entertainment industry is currently trying to figure out its own issues with streaming, so getting something optioned and adapted is becoming more difficult. I don’t have the time to wait to get a yes or no. La Voz de MAYO and Helm Greycastle were originally Kickstarters before they got published by Top Cow. The train is leaving the station, so you’re either getting on this ride and doing business with us, or, you’re not. I’m telling this fucking story.
RM: There’s a catch 22.
CBY: Indeed! You've also noted the noir inspirations for Death to Pachuco. What sort of aesthetic and narrative influences underpin your work, in general, and which specific stories served as points of references when you two were building the look and voice of this comic?
HB: We did a 10-day promo leading up to the Kickstarter launch on our various social media feeds. One of the biggest ones that isn’t on enough radars is Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit. It was originally a play before it was adapted as a film starring Edward James Olmos. The Broadway play helped me sculpt the voice of Death to Pachuco. I really hope Death to Pachuco gets more people to find Zoot Suit because it’s a trip.
RM: For me, it's a hodgepodge mix of noirs, especially Double Indemnity along with Satoshi Kon’s films and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost In The Shell. The Blade of the Immortal manga series by Hiroaki Samura is also a huge influence in terms of the mark-making for the art itself.
CBY: You've shared a unique blend of western and Japanees visual influences I wouldn't have necessarily identified. On a heavily noir-infused note, Henry, I see you’re contributing to a Green Hornet/Miss Fury title, debuting Jan. 15th, with contributions from Alex Segura Jr., Frederico Sorressa, and cover art from Francesco Francavilla and others. I’m always curious about the iterations of Miss Fury, who is now in the public domain. Dynamite has utilized her before (most recently in a 2021 graphic novel written by Billy Tucci), but this is the first team-up with the Green Hornet. Where does this fit into the respective continuity for each character, and what sort of background reading should audiences put on their list if they want to pick up on the history you’re infusing into this new edition? Rachel do you have any other work, noir-inspired or otherwise, that is coming out next year, as well?
HB: Alex Segura brought me to co-write this series with him, so I’m super grateful for that. We are really swinging for the fences. This story pulls from many places from Green Hornet’s history such as the early 1943 series issue #12, the 1940 movie starring Gordon Jones, the TV series from the 1960s starring Bruce Lee. This one is for the pulp fans while trying to bring in new readers. I can’t wait to see the reactions to what we’re doing here. No one is safe.
RM: I’m currently in production animating the short film Seen written and directed by my partner, Travis Carr. It’s about an animated guy struggling to fit in the live-action world. So right now I’m making A LOT of hacky jokes about completing another “scene from Seen.”
CBY: Given the political climate in the United States and the terrifying amount of anti-immigrant sentiment (both in the callously inadequate measures taken under the Biden administration and the enormously threatening platform now underway by the Trump administration), Death to Pachuco is alarmingly pertinent to the American zeitgeist. What would you like to express to our readers about the value they’ll derive from reading this comic, and how can they take away your intended message and mobilize to reduce violence and discord in their own lives?
HB: I started writing La Voz De MAYO back in 2015 when Trump announced his presidency. Now he’s promising mass-scale deportations on day one. Unfortunately, anti-immigration sentiment is evergreen. I was a journalist when President Obama was in office. He was nicknamed the Deporter-in-Chief. I can’t chase trends. There are enough non-Mexican storytellers out there to tell border trauma porn. I remember as a kid going to the coroner's office with my parents to identify family members found dead in Mexico. My uncles have had to find their way back to their families and I’m going to assume they didn’t take Spirit Airlines. I can’t begin to calculate the outcome for the reader. All I know is that I was mad as hell when I found out about it.
RM: We’re currently in something like the Thermidorian Reaction where the right wing is desperately trying to claw back what little progress we’ve made in the last 20 years. Trans panic is the new “gay” panic of the early 2000s. Once again, the easiest target for adult bullies are children. A lot of folks right now are jumping on the right wing zeitgeist because it feels safe to be on the so-called “winning side”. But in the end, it’s doomed to fail and once it does many of those same people will say they never “really” supported the jerks that they voted for. My dad recalled that the same folks who bragged about voting for Nixon also pretended they never actually did once he was forced to resign.
This is a longwinded way of saying none of this is normal or acceptable and once the winds shift a lot of the jerk offs are going to ignore their own complicity in this mess.
CBY: I hope, given the public record of social media, it's now harder for reactionaries to hide their beliefs and hide within the zeitgeist. To continue engaging with the broader context of this work, this past year saw your release, Henry, of Historias de Resistencia: Dolores Huerta and the Plight of the Farm Workers & Union Organizers (available through WeTeachNYC). Rachel, I know beyond comics you’ve done numerous film posters and storyboards. Not all of your work is grounded in history and the struggle across class, cultural, and ethnic divides, but you are making conscious efforts to add stories of instrumental social intent to the comics landscape. How do you both think the medium can better be used to instigate social change, and who else is out there putting in the work to illuminate readers to issues of broader concern? (...and can we expect Historias de Resistencia #2, Henry?)
HB: I watched Alan Moore’s masterclass videos from the BBC last year, and he discussed how the medium as an educational tool has a brighter future than it does an entertainment medium. I am afraid I have to agree with him. The state of American reading comprehension is in decline, and I hope comics can help kids focus on more words. But I’m blessed to have worked with WeTeachNYC and found a way to give back in a small way. The next issue will focus on L.A. Walk Outs.
RM: To quote James Baldwin, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
I just carry that with me, that reading and watching can unlock perspectives and identities you weren’t aware of and make you feel less alone in the world. I would say the person I feel currently most embodying that ethos is the films of Mike Leigh.
For a double-as-single recommendation I’d go with The Battle of Algiers along with The Little Solider. They’re both about the Algerian War which most Americans probably aren't aware of. Together they show how geopolitical conflict and the oppressive hand of authoritarian chauvinism affect regular people in ways that resound with today.
CBY: To close, if you’ve got any recommendations for our audience to check out other comics (or film, music, literature, etc.) unrelated to Death to Pachuco, what should everyone make sure catches their attention once they give your comic a read?
HB: My biggest recommendation is the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies’ Zoot Suit Riot song from the 90’s.
RM: Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, Brick starring Joseph Gordon Levitt.
CBY: Henry and Rachel, thanks for the recommendations and stopping by today! It’s been a pleasure discussing Death to Pachuco, and if there’s other publication or portfolio material you’d like to share alongside social media links, I’m sure our readers will appreciate the opportunity to check out more of your work!
RM: My instagram and bsky are both @ohhhaeee and my “official” portfolio is
rachelmerrill.net. Also read Gil Thorp over at Go Comics if your local newspaper does not carry it (though it should!)
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