“It’s a Coming Together of My Ancestry and My Career” — Q&A: Ricardo Delgado Transports Readers to 1940s Costa Rica in VAMPYRE: A HORROR FOLKTALE, Now on Kickstarter!

Expanding on the eerie world he brought to undead life in Dracula of Transylvania, Eisner Award–winning storyteller Ricardo Delgado invites readers to travel back in time to 1940s Costa Rica where a small town is stalked by a "monstrous creature of the night" in his new illustrated novel Vampyre: A Horror Folktale.

A deeply personal supernatural tale drawing from "his own life and classic horror in equal measure," Vampyre: A Horror Folktale comprises "over 200 pages crammed with historical maps, Delgado’s beautifully drawn creature designs, and photos of actual locations from the story—past and present."

With Vampyre: A Horror Folktale now on Kickstarter from Clover Press, Daily Dead had the pleasure of catching up with Delgado in a new Q&A feature to discuss how his family ancestry impacted the novel, the importance of telling this story in both English and Spanish, the types of goodies Kickstarter supporters can look forward to, and being inspired by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson's Cycle of the Werewolf.

Below, you can read our full Q&A with Ricardo Delgado, and we also have the official press release with additional details and a look at the chilling cover and interior artwork from his new illustrated novel. To learn more about Vampyre: A Horror Folktale, be sure to visit:

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cloverpress/vampyre-a-horror-folktale?ref=8swsak

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Ricardo, and congratulations on Vampyre: A Horror Folktale! This is a personal story that is both a folktale and an autobiography. When did you initially decide that you wanted to tell your story in this unique manner?

Ricardo Delgado: Honestly, it’s a story that’s more about my parents than myself, as well as the history of the small town in Costa Rica where they grew up called Alajuela. It’s actually really close to the airport, which is an interesting metaphor for technology vs. magic, and for me Alajuela specifically and Costa Rica in general has a lot of magic, and a lot of it mashes the supernatural into life on a daily basis, which fascinates me. I’m not a particularly religious person myself, but I do get a kick out of wandering into one of the local churches on a rainy day and just sitting among the pews and watching birds come out of the rain and into the foyer, walking along the tiled floors. It’s fun, though I’m thinking of ghosts and monsters while morning service is going on, which is how one can see that Vampyre: A Horror Folktale came together.

Vampyre: A Horror Folktale is dedicated to your parents, and it takes place in 1940s Costa Rica in the small town they grew up in. How did they encourage you as a young artist when you were first getting started, and does their impact still inspire you today?

Ricardo Delgado: My Mom and Dad didn’t always understand their weird little kid who loved to draw and read about monsters and dinosaurs, but they always supported my endeavors wholeheartedly. They were new to this country and felt that there were opportunities there for all of their kids, and I’ll always be grateful for that, and them. I think I inherited my religious skepticism from my Dad, but my Mom has always been super Catholic, as is most if not all of Costa Rica, and yet she was the one who filled me with folklore and ghost stories of Old Costa Rica, which I ate up, of course. In another irony, I wore my An American Werewolf in London t-shirt in front of her, it’s the one with The Slaughtered Lamb on it, and my mom just looked at me like, “Oh my son, where did I go wrong with you,” lol!

During one of our trips down to Costa Rica as a kid, my maternal grandfather would gather us all up after lunch for a rosary, and holy smokes they felt eternal to an impatient kid like me, and we even had to do the litanies, which always elicited a groan from me and a side-eye from my granddad, yet after that there would be the Spanish-dubbed Dark Shadows on television in the afternoon. So in the end it all mixed together into this book, which I’m really excited about having the world see.

Did you learn anything about yourself or your family history that surprised you while working on this new book?

Ricardo Delgado: Yeah, some of it good and some not so good, like in every family. Most of the story is from my Dad’s side of the family, and I made sure he read it and was okay with the stories within the manuscript, but to my Dad’s credit he said that he wanted the truth of his family to live forever not just for himself, but for his grandkids and beyond.

There’re also some really interesting life trivia and details from 1940s Costa Rica that are in the story, more of a window into daily life back then. Some of it is an integral part of the story, and I would ask my parents stuff like, “What was the police force like in Alajuela back then?” because there’s a vampire in my story and I wanted to know the actual structure of law enforcement and how that body would have reacted to a plague of murders, so some of it was procedural, yet other stuff is more on the romantic and nostalgic side that adds texture and depth to the story, like the really interesting customs and rituals that surround Easter Week, for example. Some really interesting stuff there from Holy Monday all the way to Easter Sunday, and I wanted to capture all of that for my kids and my nieces and nephews as well. Slice of life from back in the day, if you will.

Vampyre: A Horror Folktale is told in both English and Spanish. How important was it for you to incorporate both languages in this book?

Ricardo Delgado: Oh, I wanted everyone both here in the good ole USA and in the Costa Rican homeland to be able to read the story, so I came to the decision to include both English and Spanish versions of everything in the book, even the annotations in the concept art. Now, to be honest, my Spanish is not the strongest, especially the written aspect of it, and even there there’s the whole sub-dialect thing going on, where the local lingo can vary within Latin America from country to country, so I just did the best I could and while some of the stuff is going to read like the friggin’ Google Translate version of generic Spanish, because that’s what it is, I was able to drop in the local Tico idiom where I could. I also ran the finished Spanish language draft past my Dad, and he chipped in as well, which I’m grateful for.

Similar to your illustrated novel Dracula of Transylvania, a Kickstarter campaign has been launched for Vampyre: A Horror Folktale. What types of goodies can supporters of the Kickstarter look forward to?

Ricardo Delgado: Lots of cool stuff, including a skeletal pen! There’s also a few other goodies coming up that I can’t talk about yet but am very excited about! Everyone will have to tune in when the Kickstarter launches. I love this stuff, because it’s more of a way to connect with the audience and for them to say, "Hey, I was there at the beginning,” that sort of connectivity is important these days. I really want readers to get their money’s worth.

Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz calls Vampyre: A Horror Folktale “a captivating celebration of urban legends, horror stories and the power they hold over us.” What can you tell us about the urban legends and horrors that await readers within the pages of this ambitious illustrated book?

Ricardo Delgado: It’s just an old-school haunting combined with a serial killer story, and in this case the killer is one of those things that goes bump in the night. I feel like it’s a strong mood piece with a base in Costa Rican myth and folklore, and like many of the classic vampire stories, laced with the old-time religion that folks like Edward Van Sloan and Peter Cushing used to simultaneously explain the stakes to us moviegoers while chilling us to the bone. At the same time, it’s an excursion into the creative process that goes into conceptualizing a creature for feature films, which is my background as well. So, it’s a coming together of my ancestry and my career, and I’m eager for readers to have a look. More experienced readers might recognize the vague parallel to a significant work that made a grand impression in my young life: an illustrated novella called Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. It came out in the 1980s and boy did I love that book: the whole format, that of a story that takes place over a structured, explained specific time period, with some beautiful, even poetic illustrations within it, so all I can say is that I’m feebly trying to stand on the shoulders of giants while I’m telling my own story.

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Vampyre: A Horror Folktale?

Ricardo Delgado: That there are folktales all around us that interweave with our own history, whether it be near past or in the depths of time. The lynchpin of Vampyre: A Horror Folktale is that after the events of the story, no one is ever the same again. Costa Rica was different, the small town of Alajuela was forever changed, and many of the people of the story decided to try their luck somewhere else and forge a new life here in the good ole US of A.

Thank you very much for your time, Ricardo!

Ricardo Delgado: My pleasure! Thanks for the opportunity! Always happy to talk about ghost stories.

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From the Press Release: Master Storyteller Ricardo Delgado is expanding the world of his acclaimed illustrated novel DRACULA OF TRANSYLVANIA with a brand-new project that draws from his own life and classic horror in equal measure. Told in Spanish and English VAMPYRE: A COSTA RICAN FOLKTALE will be presented in a beautiful hardcover, including over 200 pages crammed with historical maps, Delgado’s beautifully drawn creature designs, and photos of actual locations from the story - past and present. VAMPYRE tells an unforgettable story and offers great insight into the work of one of Hollywood’s leading conceptual designers, who has contributed to Apollo 13, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Incredibles, Men in Black, Wall-e, and many other beloved films. Fans can follow the prelaunch page for Clover Press’ Kickstarter campaign to get an email when the project launches in early 2026.

“This is a very personal story for me, and it’s dedicated to my parents,” says Delgado of the one-of-a-kind tale of a small town's struggle in the face of a series of brutal murders perpetrated by a monstrous creature of the night. Set in the same world as Delgado's DRACULA OF TRANSYLVANIA, VAMPYRE: A COSTA RICAN FOLKTALE is a supernatural tale set in 1940's Costa Rica in the small town Delgado’s parents grew up in.

“Part folktale. Part autobiography. This gruesome novel is a captivating celebration of urban legends, horror stories and the power they hold over us,” Says Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz.“Inspired by elements of the classic 1980's illustrated novella CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF by Stephen King and Berni Wrightson, Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, and Costa Rican folklore, Delgado weaves his family history into an ambitious new multi-media mythology that must be seen and read to be believed.”

VAMPYRE: A COSTA RICAN FOLKTALE features page upon page of original, never-before-seen designs of the terrifying, shapeshifting titular character, and offers an in-depth analysis of Delgado’s process as well as how his childhood influences impact the writing and design of VAMPYRE. The creator also uses his decades of film knowledge to craft additional commentaries on the concept art from a modern Visual Effects perspective in BOTH Spanish and English. This in-depth reading experience even includes a set of maps that explain the real-life locations of the folktale, giving the experience a historical, geographically-based experience.

A multi-talented artist and writer, Ricardo Delgado is one of Hollywood’s most prolific artists. He has contributed character designs and storyboards to countless beloved films including Apollo 13, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Incredibles, Men in Black, and Wall-e. In addition to his film work, Delgado has chronicled the prehistoric world in his Age of Reptiles graphic novels, which earned him the 1997 Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

Fans can visit the Kickstarter Prelaunch Page to sign up to receive an email when the campaign for VAMPYRE: A COSTA RICAN FOLKTALE is live. For more updates, follow Clover Press on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube.