If you've been paying attention to the national news over the last year, the topics of travel bans, immigration and racial tension have dominated the headlines. It's almost impossible to log into your favorite social media platform or to hold a conversation with your friends and family without digging into these important subjects.

Some of the best comic book stories find inspiration from the real world, and that is certainly the case with writer Eric M. Esquivel and artist Ramon Villalobos' Border Town, the first title from DC Vertigo's line-wide relaunch, which tells the story of a crack in the border between worlds that causes monsters of Mexican folklore to spill out into the small town of Devil’s Fork, Arizona. Frank Dominguez, the new kid in town, will have to fight the monsters and the brewing racial tension in the town, who are convinced the deaths are because of “the illegals.”

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CBR spoke with Esquivel to find out the origin of the series (on sale now), the history of the Mexican monsters, how his real-world experiences shaped the comic, and the death threats he received ahead of Comic-Con International in San Diego.

CBR: Border Town is definitely a comic you don't typically see on newstands, with its origins tied to Mexican folklore and the brewing nationwide debate regarding undocumented immigrants and the Mexican border. Is this the type of story you've always had in your back pocket, or did the times we're living in right now inspire you to start crafting this tale?

Eric M. Esquivel: This question is always hard for me to answer. Because it shouldn't be an event when a book featuring the indigenous people of this continent score some representation in the media. But - because of the times we're in - it absolutely is.

BORDER TOWN is a story I've been working on for years, based on experiences that went down in my own life about fifteen years ago, and the Mexican-American folklore I was raised with as a niño.

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Let's talk about the Border Town cast. The comic stars Frank Dominquez as the new kid in Devil's Fork, AZ. While he appears to be a socially-conscious white male, we learn he is a half-Mexican who can pass as white. We also have a nazi named Blake, Julietta, Aimi and Quinteh. How did you come up with the different personalities to fill the "human" side of the comic, compared to selecting which Mexican monsters to use?

Francisco "Frank" Dominguez is our entry point character, and there are two reasons for that: One, is that he's the new kid in town. After getting suspended for fighting in his original high school in Wisconsin, his mom decided to move him across the country to live with her and her long-distance boyfriend, so he'd have a male role model.

Two, is that he's a biracial (Mexican and Irish) guy, which - theoretically, at least - gives him equal footing in both "sides" of the town's most prominent racial conflict. Frank is an angry, defensive young man. He feels like he doesn't belong anywhere and, in a lot of ways, he's right.

His first human antagonist is Blake Dixon - who isn't actually a Nazi, as you stated. He's just another angry, defensive young man. And he channels a lot of that anger at the local Latinx population. Because his dad told him to.

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In a lot of ways, they're the complete inverse of one another: Frank's life sucks because his father didn't stick around and instill a sense of community in him. Blake's life sucks because he's dad is overbearing, and instilled a sense of community loyalty in him that is so intense it causes him to hate anyone who isn't a part of it.

Frank, Blake, Aimi, Julietta, and Quinteh are all amalgamation of people I grew up with - folks who I've loved, hated, bled with, and gotten my ass kicked by.

And the monsters are all super, super well-known figures from Mexican and Southwestern American folklore that my cousins used to terrorize me with. If you're of the Latinx persuasion, seeing these figures illustrated for the first time is going to be a trip! If you're not, I look forward to sharing these creepy weirdos with you.

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This is obviously a personal comic for you. How did your real-world experiences help shape your ideas and plans for Border Town?

A lot, honestly. My goal here is to tell the most compelling horror story I can. And the only way I know how to do that, is to make the "real world" stuff feel as genuine as possible - making it infinitely scarier when El Cucuy leaps out of the shadows and rips the throat out of a character I just spent six months making you fall in love with.

For those who may not be aware, can you let the readers know the history behind the monsters of Mexican folklore?

In a nutshell: a lot of Mexican folklore is informed by stories that were told around campfires back before the United States was even an idea. They started out in Nahuatl (the native language of this continent), were translated into Spanish after Spain conquered the land, and then into English when England did the same. It's a "telephone game" stretching back hundred of years, through countless families - which makes for a lot of really weird, really wild deviations.

Ramon and I combined the versions we'd been told all our lives, and dropped those ancient horrors into a world that is already full of its share of non-supernatural evil.

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An unfortunate result of the Border Town announcement were death threats you received ahead of Comic-Con International in San Diego. That's obviously something you can't prepare for, but what were your initial thoughts once you read the messages, and then after the initial shock wore off?

I'm from Arizona. I can take the heat.

As far as the story goes, do you and Ramon Villalobos have a long-form story planned, or is there a definitive ending in place?

We're here for the long haul. The story of Devil's Fork stretches back hundreds of years. And the way our first adventure resolves will impact the course of human history for generations to come.

Buckle up.

And finally, what has the collaboration process been like working with Ramon? His unique, expressive style seems to fit perfectly for Border Town.

I have been a fan of Ramon Villalobos for YEARS. He was the only person the editors and I ever considered for the gig, and I am infinitely proud that he decided to come on board as a co-creator, and co-owner.

But, PLEASE, don't tell him I said that. He'll roast me on Twitter for days.