Eric M. Esquivel

Eric Michael Esquivel (born 1987^[1]) is a Latino American^[2] comic book writer and journalist, known for the 2018 series Border Town, which was cancelled following allegations that he had sexually and emotionally abused a female friend.

Eric M. Esquivel
Esquivel in 2012
Born	(1987-02-10) February 10, 1987 (age 38) Gurnee, Illinois, U.S.
Notable works	Border Town
Collaborators	Eddie Berganza
emecomics.com

Early life

Eric Esquivel was born on February 10, 1987,^{[citation needed]} in Gurnee, Illinois. He is of Irish and Mexican ancestry.^[2]

Career

Esquivel has worked as a journalist and critic, writing for such websites as Bleeding Cool,^[3] Fox News Latino,^[4] Bookmans Entertainment Exchange,^[5] and The Tucson Citizen.^[6] He has worked as a comics writer for publishers including Archie Comics, Boom Studios, DC Comics, Dynamite, Frederator Books, Heavy Metal, IDW, Papercutz, Scholastic, Starburns Industries Press, and Zenescope.^[7]

In 2018, Esquivel began writing Border Town, a magic realist comics series with art by Ramon Villalobos, at the center of a relaunch of DC's Vertigo imprint. The series dealt with immigration and Latino identity, for which Esquivel received death threats in advance of its publication.^[2][8] The series was well-received by critics, and the first issue went to a second printing after its September 2018 release, to meet retailer demand.^[2]

In December 2018, Esquivel was accused by a woman of subjecting her to ongoing sexual and emotional abuse several years previously; he disputed her account of their interaction. His creative collaborators on Border Town (of which four issues had been published) withdrew from the project.^[9] DC cancelled the unpublished issues, and accepted retailer returns of those that had been published.^[10][11] DC also cancelled plans for Esquivel to take over writing their superhero Nightwing series.^[12][13]

In 2020, Esquivel announced Alternate Empire, a publishing venture with Eddie Berganza, who had been terminated by DC in 2017 following sexual harassment allegations.^[14][15]

Bibliography

• Childish Delusions of Grandeur and Superiority #1-2
• The Adventures of Bikini Automatic #1 (one-shot)
• Calabrese! #1-2
• Horrible Little People (OGN)
• Reasons Why Superman is Better Than God (mini-comic)
• Awesomenaut (OGN)
• Zombies vs. Cheerleaders #3 (collected in Zombies vs. Cheerleaders Volume One TPB), #4, #5, #7, Volume II #2
• Robot <3 Kaiju (one-shot)
• Girl Scouts in Space (one-shot)
• The Golden Age: Blackest Terror (mini-comic)
• The Golden Age: The Owl (mini-comic)
• Blackest Terror (one-shot)
• Normal #1 ('zine)
• Unite And Take Over: Stories Inspired By The Songs of The Smiths Volume Two (OGN Anthology)
• Thor: Unkillable Thunder Christ (one-shot)
• American History Z (OGN Anthology)
• Electric Youth (one-shot)
• Freelancers #2-6
• Autobiographical-Erotic Asphyxiation (a comic strip, appearing in The Tucson Weekly)
• The Legend Of Oz: The Wicked West Volume Two, #6-8
• The In Crowd #1-4
• The Spider's Web #3
• Smell Ya Later (An ongoing comic strip, appearing in the Tucson Weekly)
• Bravest Warriors #13
• BOO! #3
• Adventure Time #27-28
• Loki: Ragnarok And Roll #1-4
• Grimm Fairy Tales: Wonderland #22-25, Age Of Darkness one-shot
• Grimm Fairy Tales: The Dark Queen (one-shot)
• Sonic the Hedgehog #265
• Mega Man #41-44
• Roberto Roboto Volume One, "Domo Arigato!"
• G.I. Joe - Storm Shadow: 21st Century Boy
• Super Sonic Digest #11
• Border Town #1-6 (issues #5-6 not published)