Oni Press; $4.99

Fantasma is opening a portal between the living and the dead to retrieve the soul of her dead son and revive him by taking over Miguel’s body. Elsewhere in LA, Mexican Americans are being rounded up by the police to be forced back to Mexico. With time running out before he’s called back to the other side, the injured Calavera needs to think of something fast to save Miguel.

The Calavera P.I. miniseries by writer and illustrator Marco Finnegan comes to a satisfying end with this issue. The Latin American gothic tale puts a gumshoe hero into a supernatural story as a dead detective is brought back on Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) to find the kidnapped son of a former associate. Racial tensions during the Great Depression deepen the story as fear and hatred are manifested, adding more complications to the situation.

Calavera P.I. is a pulp story with an emphasis on Chicano history in LA, giving it a refreshing new angle on the genre.

–Amanda Sheriff