Graphic novelist, writer and Hollywood conceptual artist Ricardo Delgado spoke to Cemetery Dance in 2022 about his Dracula of Transylvania, and now he’s back in that dark world with his new work, Vampyre: A Horror Folktale. It is currently on Kickstarter. Cemetery Dance has exclusive artwork to show, and also caught up with Delgado about Vampyre, its connection to his childhood and previousDracula work, and what else he has going on.
(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)
CEMETERY DANCE: How does Vampyre: A Horror Folktale blend family history, folktales, and horror fiction?
RICARDO DELGADO: There were a lot of plates to spin in this story, all of them at the same time, yet they all melded together really well. It started in a lot of ways: my lifelong interest in things that go bump in the night, ghost stories from old Costa Rica that my mom would tell us kids when we were little, and our own family history both here in the States and back in the homeland of Costa Rica, a place full of daily life that blends well together with the supernatural. Lots of crosses on the roadside, folks praying rosaries to themselves in the park, pigeons flitting in during the morning mass, that kind of thing. When I was a little kid, we took a trip to Costa Rica, the first one that I remember anyway, and one of my uncles took me to see a bunch of horror movies dubbed in Spanish: Brides of Dracula, Horror of Dracula, and after a rather long post-lunch rosary, I’d watch the Spanish-language version of Dark Shadows. So vampires in Costa Rica is not such a new thing to me, and I decided to share all of those feelings, emotions and memories through a brand new story. A really good one, I’m happy to report 🙂
How does it connect to your work Dracula of Transylvania?
There was such a vast supernatural world created for DOT that I wondered what it would be like to tell an off-shoot story, a tale that tangentially links to that epic tale of the King of the Vampires. Along those lines, I did so much research into vampire lore that I wanted to merge all that with the stories my mom would tell us as kids, and it really started to grow from there.
In Vampyre there’s a really cool story collision: in 1948, Costa Rica was in the middle of a civil war because of a disputed election, and it occurred during Easter Week, and that intersection of politics and religion I felt was too ripe to pass up. And a vampire is like salt sprinkled onto a bag of popcorn in that it always works. You had human rights, faith and the supernatural, all colliding into the events of one week a half-century ago. Too good to pass up.
You also talk about your process, influences, and commentaries on the concept art. Why did you want to include these things?
Well, that’s how I wanted this project to feel even more unique. By sharing as much of my process as I could, I thought it would make for a more interesting experience for the audience. As a kid I gobbled up as much info from the “making of” or “art of” books, a cool window into the creative process, and after I’ve learned all I could as a fly on the wall around the likes of Cameron, Spielberg, Landis, as well as being initiated into the fascinating “best idea wins” philosophy over at Disney Animation, I felt like I wanted to share what I’ve learned with this project.
What can you tell us about your Dracula of Transylvania tarot cards?
One of the great publishing projects of my career. I researched Tarot thoroughly, took the time to do a deep dive into the wonderful, mysterious world of the cards and the occult and came out informed, intrigued and with what I think are a tremendous set of cards, as well as a heckuva guide book to accompany it. It all goes back to the intricate tapestry that I created for the novel and The Art of Dracula of Transylvania where there were so many characters that I could choose from for the Major Arcana, as well as a really imaginative set for the Minor Arcana. They actually are completely sold out, yet Clover has plans to do a second printing, so stay tuned! It really is a wonderful set, with some incredible art direction from Robbie Robbins at Clover to make it a fun, spooky part of the Dracula of Transylvania universe.
Are there any other artistic projects you’re working on that you’d like to share?
Yes! If you go to my Instagram page, you’ll see a pinned post for my next book project: an ambitious sci-fi/spy IP called Warhead, which is basically an alien secret agent! There’s no humans in the stories but plenty of humanoids that check all of the classic spy character trope boxes! Sinister villains? Check! Malevolent henchmen? Check! Femme fatales? Check! ‘cept all of them are extraterrestrial versions of said characters.
Hope everyone will tune in for this one as well as Vampyre.
Just lots of fun, based on the stuff I loved as a kid.
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