He is the lord of vampires. He has been written about by countless authors, and played by some of history’s best actors. In comics he has fought Batman, the Silver Surfer and the X-Men, to name a few. He is Dracula. There are myriad takes on the king of the undead, and currently, a new vision is on Kickstarter. Legendary cartoonist Ricardo Delgado, best known for his series Age of Reptiles, is currently promoting Dracula of Transylvania, a novel with more than 20 illustrations, retelling Bram Stoker’s classic tale. We talked to Delgado about the project.
Matthew Lazorwitz: What is the pitch for Dracula of Transylvania for our readers who haven’t seen the Kickstarter?
Ricardo Delgado: OK, in book form it’s “Salem’s Lot” meets an “Art of Star Wars” book. A concept art book that happens to have a full-fledged novel inside as well. Story-wise, it’s the traditional Stoker story yet with the tone of “The Exorcist” meets “Lord of the Rings.” Horror within a sprawling adventure. Lots of uber-fun concept art to look over that ties directly in with a pretty good story in my book, pardon the pun, lol.
ML: What is it about Dracula that makes him one of modern literature’s greatest, most written-about characters, possibly second only to Sherlock Holmes (and even that is debatable)? What draws you to the character?
RD: Well, in my lexicon of Victorian-era literary figures, I’d also add Tarzan to your list. I know Burroughs’ creation is more firmly placed in the 20th century, yet I do consider those the big three. For me, the difference between Drac and the other two is that while Dracula is firmly a villain, Sherlock and Greystoke are clearly protagonists. Perhaps even one if not the first novel of that era to be written about the villain. Dracula was also the monster from the old line of Universal monster movies that was also firmly an antagonist. And the attention and focus for me was to steer the character back to a more malevolent direction, more of a badass. I thought some of the more recent versions had tried to make the character more complex and sympathetic, and that started with the good-but-not-great Dan Curtis TV film in the early 1970s. I sought to make Drac more complex but in other directions. He’s literally taxing his vampiric subjects to bankruptcy and does not accept the ways of the new world. He’s an out-and-out marauding tyrant.
ML: What kind of research went into the book? Was it period research, mythology/folklore research, maybe a little bit of both?
RD: Lots of history stuff, because I wanted his placement in 1899 to have some resonance, and while you can do that in a movie visually with set dressing, costumes, matte paintings, etc., as I began to wade deeper into the story, I realized that there was so much opportunity to inform the audience along the way in the form of footnotes and other forms of annotations. I wanted to not take away from the ride of the story itself, but I did my best to set the table of history and that specific period along the way that will hopefully enrich the experience.
ML: You are a cartoonist, probably best known in comics circles for Age of Reptiles, as well as an accomplished storyboard artist and character designer. This story, you are telling as a novel with illustrations rather than a graphic novel. What makes that the right format?
RD: I just wanted to stretch myself out creatively in a new direction, one that I felt comfortable with yet not in comic book form so that I could inform the audience in a different way, using my unique skills as a concept artist to supplement my writing, and though Poe or Stoker I ain’t, I feel like I painted enough of a verbal picture for the audience that they will really enjoy the concept art, and vice-versa. My Dracula is an incredible shapeshifter, perhaps like never before depicted in a film or TV show, and I wanted my concepts to reflect that spectacular ability that vampires have. No rubber bats here, lol, though I do love classic old monster movies with rubber bats in them.
ML: Why did you decide to take this project to Kickstarter?
RD: Flexibility. Readers can purchase from a variety of levels to get the experience they are comfortable with. If you’re a casual Dracula fan and you’ve never heard of me, that’s cool, so you have an opportunity to get what I’ve come up with for a $20 download. Or if you’ve followed my career and are interested, you can buy the physical book along with a piece of my original art that I’ve created uniquely for the project. Love the variety here.
ML: This year marks the 90th anniversary of the release of Tod Browning’s classic film adaptation of “Dracula,” starring Bela Lugosi. Do you have a personal favorite film portrayal of Dracula? Lugosi? Christopher Lee? Gary Oldman? The guy who plays Heat Wave on “The Flash” TV show in “Blade: Trinity”? Someone else?
RD: There’s a lot of them. I really like the Frank Langella version, but it makes no sense to me why Lucy and Mina look super scary in their vampiric form and the count does not. Terrific movie otherwise. The Lugosi and Lee films are eternal, but I’d also like to shine a light on Carl Dreyer’s “Vampyr” and the two versions of “Nosferatu” by Murnau and Herzog, respectively. The Dreyer film in particular is just an astonishing mood piece, while the Murnau picture is the “Blade Runner” of all vampire films, in my opinion. As a 1970s Marvel horror comic addict, I did/do love “Tomb of Dracula” and “Werewolf by Night.” TOD also brought us Blade, of which the first two Wesley Snipes films are big bowls of vampiric fun, looking forward to the new MCU Blade. Riffing now, love the Houdini-like ambiance of Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” as well as the eternal classic Mexican wrestling film “Santo Contra las Mujeres Vampiro,” which I first saw with one of my uncles in 1972 Costa Rica! Anyway, thanks for having me, it’s been a pleasure!
You can back Dracula of Transylvania on Kickstarter here. The campaign ends Thursday at 11:55 p.m. EDT.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
