The vampire is a mythological or folkloric being that subsists by feeding on the blood of living creatures. Vampires have been recorded in many cultures and may go back to prehistoric times. The term "vampire" was popularized in the early 18th. century after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from the Balkans. The belief in vampire legends became so pervasive that it led to mass hysteria, public executions and even corpses being staked! The interpretation of the vampire by the Christian Church and the success of vampire literature established the archetypical charismatic and sophisticated vampire. Prior to this, the description of vampires was more akin to how we view zombies today. The Christian Church reinterpreted vampires as minions of Satan, which explains why the sign of the cross and Holy Water have the ability to ward off vampires. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" is considered to be the quintessential vampire novel and has provided the basis of modern vampire fiction. Stoker actually named the main character after a Romanian Count Dracula from Transylvania called "Vlad the Impaler". Though not a real vampire, he was nonetheless very evil as he forced his will on the local townsfolk by impaling his enemies on sharped wooden stakes.  Although Stoker's novel was not the earliest vampire novel, the success of "Dracula" spawned a distinctive vampire genre still popular today in books, television shows, and video games. The "Dark Shadows" TV series and movie and the "Twilight" series are just two of the more popular examples. In my interpretation of a vampire, I have tried to include, hidden within the drawing, many of the creatures that send a shiver down our spines, everything from poisonous snakes to deadly spiders, from dinosaurs to dragons and vampire bats to scorpions, twenty in all. Happy hunting.