Fans of the work of comic creator and animator Rodrigo Diaz Ricci will be delighted to hear his longtime commitment to his vampire character, Ligeia the Vampire, has been rewarded with recognition for his work by the long-running, highly acclaimed Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre International Festival in Argentina, taking place soon.

I first encountered and curated the comic strip version of Rodrigo’s deadly, immortal femme fatale back in 2008, when the clearly talented creator published an early story on the Rok Comics mobile comics platform I curated. Since then, Rodrigo has published stories as motion comics and more recently, as animated shorts.

Now, his animated short film Ligeia the Vampire has been selected by the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre International Festival, screening as part of this year’s programme, alongside a number of other short films, on Thursday 30th November.

Inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Ligeia the Vampire’s adventures are set in the war torn Europe, of the 1920s through to World War Two, a time when the lines between good and evil are never clear cut.

Founded in 2000, the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre is an international film festival devoted to the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy.

Writer, animator, and musician Rodrigo Diaz Ricci, known more recently in the business as RD Ricci, was born in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1971, but later adopted Italian nationality. A graphic designer, after working in cartoons, publishing fanzines and comics he moved to Europe where he published covers for the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia in Athens and for the horror and forbidden archaeology magazines produced by the publishing house Mondo Ignoto.

In recent years he has been working in animation, with new projects already in the works for 2024.

Our congratulations to him for this deserved recognition of his talent and hard work.

• RD Ricci and several Liega works can now be found on YouTube and Vimeo

• Follow Rodrigo on Instagram

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: Animation, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: Animation, Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre International Festival, Ligeia the Vampire, RD Ricci, Rodrigo Diaz Ricci, Vampires