| Eric M. Esquivel | |
|---|---|
 Esquivel in 2012 | |
| Born | February 10, 1987 Gurnee, Illinois, U.S. |
Notable works | Border Town |
| Collaborators | Eddie Berganza |
| emecomics | |
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 Esquivel was born on February 10, 1987,[citation needed] in Gurnee, Illinois. He is of Irish and Mexican ancestry.[2]
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collaborators on Border Town (of which four issues had been published) withdrew from the project.[9] DC cancelled the unpublished issues, and accepted retailer returns of those that had been published.[10][11] DC also cancelled plans for Esquivel to take over writing their superhero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]