To say that Alex Segura has a nerd’s dream job, or several dream jobs, is getting it backwards. In fact, he has forged a highly successful career out of turning his personal fascinations – with crime novels, comics, sci-fi and music – into unique artistic projects. The author of the acclaimed Pete Hernandez PI series, set in Miami, he has also written a Star Wars novel, Poe Dameron: Free Fall, and worked on a series of comics, including the The Black Ghost, the YA music series, The Archies, and the Archie Meets crossover series, featuring The Ramones, B-52s and others. Now many of these threads come together in Secret Identity, a thrilling noir novel set in the world of comics, circa New York City 1975, an era that, as far I can remember, he gets just right. Plus it has an actual comic set like a special gift inside the book.
DG: You grew up in Miami, but you have a real feeling for New York, especially the music scene and the dirty old town of the 70s. Can you speak about your connection to that world and why you set the book there and then? In particular, the music scene!
AS: Thanks for saying that – it means a lot, because your novels really bubble with a feeling of real New York. New York is my home now, though Miami will always feel like home. When I first moved here, around 2006, and when I first started thinking about writing a PI novel – my first instinct was to set it in New York. But I didn’t feel ready. Plus, I wanted to write books about the place I’d just left, the place I missed. When I finally did come around to writing about New York, I knew I wanted to write about an era of New York I found particularly fascinating. 1975 is not only a low point for the comic book industry, it’s also a low point for New York – at least in terms of what the city became or wanted to be. Crime was high. The city was broke. The country was shaking off a series of startling failures in terms of Watergate and the Vietnam War. But at the same time, there was this energy – this sense of something crawling out of the chaos to create great art and music. The bands of that era – Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, and post-Velvets Lou Reed and John Cale, Patti Smith…those are seminal bands for me. Records I’d play over and over in college and beyond. I was in a lot of bands in my twenties – none of which were particularly successful, aside from my last. But I loved that energy – of jamming with friends and creating music together. It’s the closest thing to creating comics I can think of, where you’re each adding a piece and the end result, if done right, is greater than the single pieces. So I knew I wanted a big music element to permeate the book, if it wasn’t the central plot point.
DG: Like me you obviously grew up loving comics, but you actually took it a step further and now work in comics. Can you tell me about your creative history with the form and how it has combined with your path as a novelist here?
AS: I always wanted to tell stories – ever since I was a kid. I used to write and draw my own comics, and I had a few attempted novels, too. I just loved the idea of crafting stories – with my own characters or established ones. Comics were always a big part of my literary DNA, alongside true crime, science fiction, and mysteries. I loved how comics blended the visual with the mental narratives to create something new and unique. I loved the colorful heroes and villains, the cliffhangers, and the supporting casts that showed up in each book. It was my favorite thing as a kid – to just hunker down in my room with stacks of comics, reading and rereading and organizing them. It was my escape and happy place, I guess. My professional life started in journalism – reporting internships, then a job as a copy editor at local papers. At some point, I thought it made sense to blend journalism and comics, and use those skills to work in the industry I was such a fan of. So I started writing features and interviews for a fan site, Newsarama, and later for what was basically the equivalent of EW in comics, Wizard Magazine. Eventually, I’d come back to Miami and was doing some freelance reviews of graphic novels for my local paper, The Miami Herald. I’d mentioned to my contact at DC Comics, David Hyde, that I was going to be in New York on vacation and that I’d love to visit the offices. Even that request felt so wild, and I didn’t expect him to reply.
But what happened next was kind of magical – he asked me if I wanted to apply for a job in the PR department. This was all finalized while I was there on vacation, so the night before I had to shop and piece a suit together, and the next day I was doing a series of interviews for a job that I eventually landed – my first real, full-time gig in comics publishing. It was amazing, and a veritable crash course in how comics were made and the people behind those stories. I learned so much watching and even befriending some of the biggest names in the industry, and it felt like such a blessing. At the same time, comics became my job. It was no longer about what comics I wanted to read, there was a stack on my desk each week that I had to read. That changes things. Plus, I’d just moved to New York City from Miami, and I was feeling very homesick – I think people underestimate how lonely New York can be that first year, even when it’s loaded with people. I turned to mystery novels to fill the void – and I became obsessed with modern PI fiction. I was already familiar with the classics like Chandler, Macdonald, and Hammett, but I was entranced by novels from more contemporary authors like Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, Duane Swierczynski, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, James Ellroy, and Megan Abbott. All were so steeped in setting and character, and it just felt like I’d found my tribe, even before meeting any of them. After a while, I decided I wanted to try my hand at my own novel, for fun – something to do when not toiling away at work.
That’s where Pete Fernandez came in. It was just a lark, I’d never planned it as a series. That first novel, Silent City, was really just an attempt to see if I could put my money where my mouth was – if I could finally write that novel I’d dreamt of writing. And I also wanted to write a novel about my hometown, and one that featured someone like me – Cuban-American, not an ex-cop, younger, still figuring things out. It felt very important to me, and I’m glad that’s what happened. And for a long time, those two threads – my comics career, both as an exec/professional and writer, and my novel-writing – were very separate. I’d put on my novelist hat when I was done with my day job. I wrote my five Pete Fernandez novels that way – but as I was finishing up the fourth, I knew there would be one final novel in the series. I’d never envisioned it as the kind of PI series that went on endlessly. As much as I love some of those, Pete just wasn’t built for that. The five novels were about a screwup pulling himself up and getting his life in order, as much as they were about crimes and mysteries. I knew Miami Midnight was going to be the finale, so at that point I started thinking about what was next. The idea of doing not only a mystery set in comics, but having actual comics in the novel hit me quickly – and once I nailed down the time period, the 70s, Carmen showed up, very much in the same way Pete had, almost fully-formed, in my mind. It felt like the perfect blend of these two tracks I’d kept intentionally separate, and the novel I wasn’t ready to write before, but was totally prepared to handle now.
DG: How did the idea for Secret Identity originate? How long did it take to come to fruition?
AS: Different elements came at different times. The idea to do comics inside the novel, that hit me decades before – in college, while reading Michael Chabon’s magnificent Kavalier & Clay. I loved that book so much, and I’d devoured his earlier novels, too – I think Secret Identity actually owes as much to The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Chabon’s debut – but one thing that stuck with me after finishing K&C was this burning desire to actually read the comics discussed in the novel. They eventually did make them – but as a separate product. I wanted to read them while reading the prose. But that was just a fleeting, wishful thought. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d eventually have the chance to create a novel like that myself, and I feel really blessed that it came to pass – and in such a pitch-perfect way.
In terms of the plot itself, I really wanted to place the elements of noir on an area/world/industry that wasn’t obvious. In the same way someone like Megan Abbott does – she creates these magnificent noir novels set in the worlds of science, gymnastics, dance, cheerleading. Why not comics, I thought? One of my favorite writers ever is Patricia Highsmith – who creates suspense so well, who crafts these complicated and conflicted characters and just lets them loose – all her books have this simmering, dangerous beauty to them. I wanted to try and evoke that, too. To really immerse the reader in not only comics and New York, but in a feeling. A sense of danger and excitement that wasn’t just about the physical or the violent, if that makes sense. More like a de Palma neo-noir as opposed to a shoot-’em-up.
In terms of time, I feel like I’ve been building toward this book my entire life. No pressure, huh?
DG: What was it like developing the story within the story – collaborating on the pages from Lynx that appear in the book? What was the process of working with the artists?
AS: When we sold the novel, it was a partial – a chunk of the prose plus a tight outline. But I knew that I needed a serious proof of concept to go with the pitch. I’d mapped out the comic book sequences and had the general idea for the Lynx, but I needed to find the perfect partner to create the visuals. Sandy Jarrell isn’t just an amazing artist, he’s a student of comics – he knows the history, he knows the characters and creators, and he has a passion for it. When I asked him about doing Secret Identity, he was all in. We’d wanted to work together for years, and he’s just the nicest, most professional guy I know. We worked together in what’s known as the “Marvel Method” – as opposed to full script. I’d send him a few lines, basically “the Lynx jumps across some rooftops, she catches a henchman, she questions him,” etc – with some basic stylistic notes, like “go for a Daredevil/Frank Miller vibe on this” and a rough idea of page count, and then Sandy went to town. He would draw layouts and I’d give him (usually minor) notes, then he’d ink it up and I’d write a script for Taylor Esposito, the letterer, to lay over. And we were off to the races. I have that first page – the one we created on spec for the pitch document – hanging in my office at home.
DG: What attracts you in particular about the noir world or aesthetic?
AS: I love noir. I think it’s such a primal, human story – the idea of people being painted into corners and seeing how they respond; that, to me, is the crux of noir. What would you do if you were tempted with your heart’s desire? What would you do to cover up the bad things you did to get there? That’s why I feel like this book is much more noir than amateur PI or anything else. It’s not a procedural – it’s about human people making mistakes and trying to cover them up and then struggling to do the right thing, with the backdrop of comics. Noir is the purest, most intense kind of story, because it just cuts to the core of what we are: messed up people scraping by.
DG: You have written a detective series, sci-fi, and comics. Do you find your imagination has always flowed naturally into these genres, or did it grow on you? Which came first? Are there any genres or forms you want to try?
AS: I love being flexible, and being versatile. I try to keep busy. I’ve been blessed enough that my hobbies have become professional gigs, so I have zero to complain about. I try to use my time to stay productive and engaged, which just means I’m working on a million things at once – comics, novels, whatever is interesting to me. This is the job I’ve always wanted so I don’t really need hobbies anymore. I like doing different things because it keeps me interested, and I honestly have trouble saying no to cool assignments – my weakness is that I just work all the time!
DG: What comics artists are your heroes or greatest influences?
AS: It’s a long list, but in terms of comics, the creators that continue to influence me regularly are Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Jaime Hernandez, Dan DeCarlo, Roger Stern, Chris Claremont, Kelly Sue DeConnick,
DG: Without spoilers, your protagonist, Carmen’s creative interests pivot toward graphic memoirs and near-future dystopian sci-fi. Considering your own path, is this a next direction for you?
AS: That’s a great question. I think I just wanted Carmen to have a soft landing, but not a predictable one – so that’s why that came to be. I love sci-fi, and if I wasn’t writing mysteries and comics, I’d probably lean into that more, so you never know.
DG: Will there be a Lynx comic?
AS: It’s funny, because the work that went into creating these interstitial sequences wasn’t any different from what it takes to create a comic – we had to figure out her conflicts, supporting cast, rogues gallery, city – you name it. So along the way, Sandy and I just kept talking about how fun it’d be to create a comic book that actually felt like it was from the time, 1975, and put it out as a “lost” collection. I think we might do that, honestly. It’d be a missed opportunity if we didn’t!
