Ricardo Delgado Brings VAMPYRE: A Costa Rican Folktale to the Comic Crusaders Podcast #748

WEPA! The Comic Crusaders Podcast welcomes legendary concept designer, writer, illustrator, and Eisner Award-winning creator Ricardo Delgado for a deep dive into fear, folklore, family legacy, and the kind of creature design that makes you check the hallway twice before shutting the lights off.

Delgado joins Al Mega to discuss VAMPYRE: A Costa Rican Folktale, his haunting new Clover Press project that blends classic horror with deeply personal history. The illustrated hardcover is told in Spanish and English and features more than 200 pages of artwork, historical maps, creature designs, and real-world location material connected to the Costa Rican setting of the story.

Set in 1940s Costa Rica, VAMPYRE unfolds in the town where Delgado’s parents grew up, turning family memory into a supernatural nightmare filled with brutal murders, urban legends, and a terrifying shapeshifting creature of the night. Delgado has described the project as personal and dedicated to his parents, giving the book an emotional foundation beneath all the shadows, blood, and folklore-soaked terror.

This is not just another vampire story. This is horror with roots. Delgado pulls from Costa Rican folklore, classic vampire mythology, family storytelling, and the cinematic instincts he developed across decades as one of Hollywood’s most respected visual storytellers. His film work includes major productions such as Apollo 13, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Incredibles, Men in Black, and WALL-E, while his comic work includes the acclaimed Age of Reptiles, which earned him the 1997 Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

During the episode, Al and Ricardo dig into the origins of VAMPYRE, the emotional weight of honoring family history, the importance of bilingual storytelling, and how Delgado approaches monster design from both a comic book and modern visual effects perspective. They also explore why folklore survives across generations and why the scariest stories are often the ones that come from home.

Delgado has spoken about childhood memories of Costa Rican ghost stories and folktale parables told by his mother, including supernatural figures such as La Llorona and La Carreta Sin Bueyes, and how those stories blended in his imagination with monster magazines, horror comics, classic creature culture, and family history.

For fans of horror, comics, concept art, creature design, folklore, and creator-owned storytelling, this episode is a full-course feast. We are talking gothic atmosphere, ancestral memory, terrifying art, and a project that feels like a haunted family album wrapped in a hardcover coffin. Delicious? Yes. Safe after midnight? Absolutely not.

Check out the episode, support the project, follow Ricardo Delgado, and keep your garlic close, Crusaders. Legends never die. Sometimes they just wait in the dark until the Kickstarter launches.

Follow Ricardo Delgado

Instagram: @ricardodelgadoart
X / Twitter: @Delgadosaurus
Facebook: Ricardo Delgado Facebook Profile
Official Blog: RicardoDelgadoArt.blogspot.com

Ricardo Delgado’s blog lists his Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X accounts, along with contact information.

Follow Clover Press

Kickstarter: VAMPYRE: A Horror Folktale
Instagram: @clover_press
X: @CloverPress
Facebook: Clover Press
YouTube: Clover Press YouTube

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Edited/Produced/Directed by Al Mega