Ghostbusters work
Delgado colored the IDW Ghostbusters line across its main runs. His credits include the Con-Volution and What in Samhain Just Happened?! one-shots; the Ghostbusters Ongoing Series spanning Volume 1 and Volume 2 (36 issues in all) and the Mass Hysteria event; Ghostbusters Get Real; the Ghostbusters Annual editions for 2015, 2017, and 2018; Ghostbusters International; Ghostbusters 101; Ghostbusters: Interdimensional Cross-Rip; Ghostbusters Crossing Over; Ghostbusters IDW 20/20; the four 35th Anniversary one-shots (Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters, Answer The Call Ghostbusters, and Extreme Ghostbusters); and Ghostbusters Year One. He also colored the crossover series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters (both volumes) and Transformers/Ghostbusters: Ghosts of Cybertron, plus the Ghostbusters: Funko Universe and Ghostbusters: Dia de Los Muertos specials.
For Ghostbusters International #10 and for Ghostbusters 101 #4 through #6, Delgado shared the color credit with Anna Chher.
Beyond the comics, Delgado contributed color work to Ghostbusters: The Board Game produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment.
From nearly the start of Volume 1, Delgado's color flatting was handled by Samuel Plata, a Mexican graphic designer and longtime friend (the two have known each other since 2003). Plata's contributions went largely uncredited on the published issues.
His coloring method treats ghosts and other energy sources as a separate pass: he duplicates the line art to color them. He is notably meticulous in his approach and works freehand on the Ghostbusters pages rather than relying on locked selections. He generally picks shading colors as he works, reaching for a multiply-mode layer with a fixed blue when he needs to darken a panel or a character, and a combination of screen-mode and overlay layers at low opacity when he needs to lighten one.
Cameos and references in the comics
Delgado worked himself, his friends, and his family into the books he colored, and other creators returned the favor by naming things after him.
He inserts a "#15" into each comic he works on as a personal signature; the number is also tied to his initials, which show up as a "LAD 15" file-cabinet label in Ghostbusters Volume 2 #19 (page 8).
His own likeness appears as a background extra in many issues. He is an audience member of "The Ja'nine Show" in Ghostbusters Volume 1 #1 (page 3), a New Yorker on page 10 of Volume 1 #3 (partially behind Tristan Jones' knee), and a ghost on the far right by the cannon in Volume 1 #9 (page 11, panel 4). The three ghosts standing near Ray in that sequence are based on Delgado's friends Lu, Camilo (also his cousin), and Polo.
His photo appears above Janine on the subscription cover of Ghostbusters Volume 2 #1. In Volume 2 #10 he appears on page 4 panel 1 and again on page 7 panel 4 in a black hoodie and blue jeans, with the "#15" visible on the hoodie in the second panel. In Volume 2 #13 (page 4), the faces of both Delgado and Erik Burnham appear behind and at the sides of Peter Venkman's face. In Volume 2 #14 (page 3) he makes a cameo as a wedding guest, and on page 17 of the Annual 2015 he and Burnham are again depicted as guests at the same wedding.
He drew himself alongside friends and family into the wedding crowd on page 15 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #1. In the front row: the second woman from left is his mother, and his father stands next to her. Delgado himself is between them in the second row. Directly behind him in the third row is his brother; adjacent are his brother's friends Raquel and Wellington.
In Volume 2 #20 (page 20, panel 1), Delgado appears on the far right leaning against his Jeep, which he named "Amelia" after Amelia Pond from Doctor Who. A menu standee in Ghostbusters Crossing Over #8 (page 20, panel 4) lists "Pan de Muertos, Mexican Bread of the Dead, by Luis Delgado" for $4.99.
On August 9, 2018, Delgado was featured on Crossing Over Virtual Trading Card #50 as part of the Ghostbusters Comics Team of Dimension TH-151.
The villain Idulnas, who first appeared during the Ongoing Series, has a name that is an anagram of "Dan" and "Luis," a tribute to Dan Schoening and Delgado as the series' main artist and colorist.
Delgado's Gym, which first appears in Ghostbusters Volume 1 #5, is named after him. In Ghostbusters International #5 (page 23) an FBI special agent listed in the property-damage section carries his name. In the "Where Winston Was" story from the Annual 2017 one of the journalists is visually based on and named after both Delgado and Erik Burnham.
In Ghostbusters Year One #2 (page 4), Egon wears a scarf visually based on the Fourth Doctor's from Doctor Who. The scarf design was Delgado's idea.
On the credits page of Ghostbusters: Answer The Call #1, Delgado was mistakenly listed twice as an artist rather than a colorist.
Other work
Outside the Ghostbusters titles, Delgado has colored Gene Simmons House of Horrors #3, Mack Bolan: The Executioner, Arcane Legions, and the comic adaptation of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
-
Luis Antonio Delgado biography, "Con-Volution," IDW Publishing.
