True Blood

HBO's True Blood is one of those shows that's just good. If you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest watching the series starting with episode 1 from season 1 straight through to the season finale from this year. You can't just start watching current episodes because you'll have no clue what the heck is going on. If you have been watching it, then you know what I'm talking about.

In a nutshell, the show's about vampires attempting to peacefully co-exist with regular humans. But not all vampires want to peacefully coexist with regular humans. And, as each season passes, it's revealed that many of the regular humans on the show aren't so regular. Vampires aren't the only supernatural beings on the show. There are werewolves, shape shifters, witches, and even fairies - and, at one point all of the regular humans in town turned into sex-crazed partying zombies . The weirdness level of the show ranks up there with ABC's Lost, but because True Blood is on cable, the show can go places that ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox wouldn't dare go.

I particularly enjoyed the episodes that focused on humans using V. V is vampires blood and when consumed by humans, it causes crazy hallucinations much like LSD or hallucinogenic mushrooms.

True Blood Comics

Anyway, the show has everything needed to make it great. Good acting, awesome story lines, and surprises galore. Plus, at times, it's funny as hell. Most people that have seen True Blood would call it sexy, supernatural, and addictive. So, I wasn't surprised when I learned that IDW Publishing created a series of comic books based on the show. I haven't picked up any copies yet, but I plan to. From what I've seen at the Grand Comic Book Database, there are three True Blood titles published by IDW as follows:

(1) True Blood (2010) 6 issues with numerous cover variants for each issue
(2) True Blood: Tainted Love (2011) 6 issues with numerous cover variants for each issue
(3) True Blood: French Quarter (2011) 1 issue with numerous cover variants

So, that's a total of 13 distinct issues, but toss in all of the cover variants and we're looking at 80 or so comic books. Ya gotta love the marketing methods of the modern comic book industry..

HBO also produced a one shot True Blood comic in 2008 and I'm sure we'll see more from IDW in the near future.

The graphic above is one of many covers from the first issue of the 2010 series. You can see most of the True Blood cover variants at the Grand Comics Database (links below).

True Blood (2010) Gallery
True Blood - Tainted Love (2011) Gallery
True Blood: The Great Revelation (2008) Gallery

Eric Northman

My favorite character on the show is the 1000+ year old vampire, Eric Northman, played by Alex Skarsgard. He's bad ass, intelligent, funny, and a major schemer.

And, based on my wife's reaction when he appears shirtless, I can only assume that he's one of the main draws for female viewers.

Bill Compton

I'm still not sure what I think about the other lead vampire, Bill Compton, played by Steve Moyer. His character is a bit staunch and I can't stand his obsession with Soooookeeh. I'de like to see him loosen up a bit and enjoy his vampire ways like Eric seems to do.

Sookie Stackhouse (Ssssooookeh)

For male viewers, I'm pretty sure that the leading lady, Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin, is considered to be the hottie on the show I'm not necessarily in that club though. She's cute and all, but there's something about her character that annoys me. Seriously, a sweet little innocent Southern girl in the middle of a love triangle with vampires that could suck the life out of her at any moment and her bold behavior with them and other vampires just annoys me. Then again, Bill and Eric fuel that fire by treating her like the Queen of Mississippi. She's not all bad though. I like the fact that she's a fairy with special powers; so, maybe I'll find a soft spot in my heart for her after all.

Soooookeh In Her Underwear

But, I will admit, that Sookie looks pretty good in underwear...

Soooookeh In Her Birthday Suit

And, anyone who's watched True Blood has had the opportunity to see Sookie in her birthday suit too. You're not going to see that on ABC.

And, I'm sure everyone remembers the controversial cover of Rolling Stone Magazine on which Eric, Bill, and Sookie appeared covered in blood and nude...

Sam Merlotte

Sam Merlotte, shape shifter and owner of Merlot's Bar, is a main character on the show, but he's just sort of there. Aside from the fact that he's a shape shifter, he's really not that interesting., but that could change in upcoming seasons of True Blood So, for now, nuff said about him.

Jessica

I like Jessica. She's a young fair skinned redhead that was recently made into a vampire; so, she's sort of learning what being a vampire is all about which adds some humor to her predicament. The only problem with Jessica's character is that she dated Hoyt for most of the show, a boring sappy character that I absolutely can not stand. The good news is she's not dating him anymore - TFG!

Jason Stackhouse

Jason, Sookie's brother, comes across as sort of dumb which is why I like his character. He gets himself into all kinds of situations that are serious, but hilarious because he's sort of stupid. I especially liked the episodes where Jason was addicted to V. Now that he and Jessica are starting to hook up, I'm curious to see what happens with his character.

Tara

Tara, Sookie's best friend and Lafayette's cousin , is sort of the complainer of the show. which is why I like her character. She's funny. She's creeped about by Vampires and Sookie's attraction to Bill and Eric and all of that translates to funny. Plus, she's moderately good looking and possesses a nicely toned body - slightly muscular and tight - which is always nice to look at.

Pam

Pam is a hilarious evil bitch of a vampire that absolutely has no interest in the well being of humans and would prefer to see vampires take over the planet.

Lafayette

Lafeyette, Tara's cousin, is a flaming homosexual V dealer. He's not a bad guy. He's just living his life the only way that he knows how. Translation: He's funny as hell.

Luna Garza (Janina Gavankar)

There's a bunch of other characters on the show - some cool, some annoying, IMHO. I'm not going to discuss what I think about all of them because I know that nobody really cares what I think about it anyway. I'm only going to point out that True Blood's real hottie is a new character named Luna Garza, played by Janina Gavankar, who's appeared on the show a few times this season. Luna is a shape shifter turned skin walker. On the show, she's supposed to be of Mexican and Native American descent, but the actress that plays her is actually a mix of Indian (India) and Dutch descent. I don't know a lot about Luna and I really don't have much of an opinion about her character, but I can tell you that the young woman that plays her, Janina Gavankar, is stunningly good looking. Take a look...