Danny Trejo Reveals How His Family Ancestry Influenced New Comic Year of the Devil [EXCLUSIVE]

When it comes to absolutely iconic character actors, there are few as legendary adsDanny Trejo. The actor has appeared in seemingly countless projects bringing to life some genuinely unforgettable figures on both the big and small screens. That includes forays in to the world of comics with his fan-favorite performance as Breacher in The CW’s The Flash. But now Trejo is venturing into comics in a completely different way with Year of the Devil. The brand new, original supernatural action-horror graphic novel is set to launch on BackerKit this September and while it’s poised to deliver an epic tale of an immortal warrior that juts so happens to look a lot like Trejo, it turns out that the story itself has roots in the actors own ancestry as well.

Speaking with ComicBook at San Diego Comic Con, Trejo explained how his family’s own history helped to inspire the story of Year of the Devil’s Diego.

“They did they did a documentary on me called Find Your Roots, and it went all the way back to a conquistador from the Cayman Islands, coming over and getting with my great great grandmother, who was an Aztec,” Trejo said.  “And that’s how the family started. So, when I told them that that’s where they took off and it became an unbelievable story.”

Year of the Devil Is a Story Fans of Trejo’s Other Work Will Love

If you’re a fan of Trejo’s acting work, there’s a solid chance that you’ll end up enjoying Year of the Devil. The graphic novel is co-created by Trejo along with Keith Arem (Call of Duty, Spider-Man: Ascend and writer Chris Yates (Marcus Walker: Kingslayer Protocol). The prestige, five-issue graphic novel combines Aztec mythology, biblical prophecy, supernatural horror, and a ton of relentless action to tell the story of Diego De Rojas a Spanish conquistador who, after failing to stop the Massacre of Toxcatl, uncovers a buried prison beneath Chichen Itza and inadvertently unleashes the Devil. Desperate to stop the Devil from escaping, Diego seals the prison shut with his own body and bonds his soul with an ancient curse and, in doing so, is condemned to endless reincarnation, being reborn throughout history to hunt the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. But he slowly comes to discover that the mark on his chest changes with every kill and he’s moving every closer to a horrifying truth tied to his bloodline, his past sins, and even the fate of the world.

It’s an exciting premise and feels very in line with some of Trejo’s previous acting work, but the actor told ComicBook that he just loved the concept of Diego and his story for what it is — particularly because of how expansive the tale is poised to be. As he put it, Diego is on a mission and it’s a big one.

“Diego really got a mission. You know, he’s locked the devil up now. He’s got to go after the Horsemen,” Trejo said. “So, it’s not it’s like a straight out ‘this is what it’s going to be.’ It’s like there’s these different parts to it, you know, and it’s almost like he might die and wake up in another century and I just even loved the concept. From all the way from the conquistador to the Roman to all the way up.”

Danny Trejo’s Year of the Devil launches on BackerKit in September.

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