Why the comic book matters

Updated

1. It’s TB canon; the writers said so.

Volume one is described as ‘loosely set between season 2 and 3‘ at Merlotte’s. Figure that one out. (Is it evidence that the TB timeline is hinky and Sookie’s memory is full of holes?)

2. The subtext is much more overt than that of the show. It is clearly narrated in first person. Bill’s latent homosexuality, uniqueness, and pompus speechifying are highlghted, and the breaking wheel and The Merchant of Venice are directly referenced.

3. The multiplicty of artistic styles in the comic makes the faulty narration blatently obvious. There are two completely diffent versions of young Sookie. Which one is accurate? The answer is neither. Even though Ted is the narrator, we’re seeing Sookie through two different sets of eyes, Sookie’s and Tara’s.

The Story

CB1.1

Synopsis
In this tantalizing series spinning out of the hit show, blood and sex mix on a hot rainy night at Merlotte’s, when Sookie and her friends are trapped by a vengeful spirit who feeds on shame. People die and dirty secrets are revealed as Sookie, Bill, Eric, Sam, Tara, Jason, and Lafayette and are all coerced to dig deep and tell painful memories from their past—those things we all have locked within us that we never tell another living soul!

Bon Temps, Louisiana has never been stranger, or more twisted, than in this story co-plotted by TRUE BLOOD series creator Alan Ball, with a script by David Tischman (Bite Club) and Mariah Huehner, featuring lush art by David Messina.

Summary
See ‘Have You Met Ted?.’

CB1.2

Synopsis
Trapped inside the mystically-sealed Merlotte’s by a soul-sucking spirit [an impa shilup], psychic waitress and vampire girlfriend Sookie Stackhouse is forced to reveal her deepest, most shameful secret to save the lives of Bill and her friends. But will Sookie’s shame be enough to satisfy the spirit, and does her story hold a surprise clue to the true cause of her parent’s death? Our untold tale from the world of HBO’s hit vampire series TRUE BLOOD continues.

Summary
In attempt to stop the killing, Sookie volunteers to share her darkest memory with Ted. She recalls the last time she saw her parents alive. She believes they left her and Jason with Gran the weekend of the flash flood in an attempt to get away from her.

Sookie is guilt ridden that her last words to them were that she hated them. Her story seeminly contradicts the one Jason told Amy about the circumstances surrounding their parents’ death, but Jason’s version and Sookie’s are actually just two different points of view skewed by imperfect memories and false assumptions.

Ted is less than impressed with Sookie’s story and turns his temper on Jason and Sam. Jason is in danger of being popped like a piece of bubble wrap, but Eric distracts Ted by promising a dark tale that he will definitely enjoy.

Flashback to an unpronouncable little European country during the Inquisition–Eric is traveling with Godric and, in a nod to DITF, a new Russian vampire named Alexei. He mentions he always made a point of getting to know the locals. One of the locals was an adventuresome lass named Rachel. She knew Eric was a vampire and approached him anyway, making her one of the first fangbangers ever. During a rather vigorous bout of sex, the magister barges in with his henchmen demanding information…

CB1.3

Synopsis
Eric’s memory of the Inquisition causes a violent reaction among the locals trapped inside Merlotte’s. It’s another night of great fun for the vile spirit feeding off their raw emotions. But Sam’s figured out a way to trick the Trickster, and, with Tara’s help, he sets a trap.

Summary
Sookie interrupts Eric’s story to feed Bill who was injured in his confrontation with Ted back in the first comic book. Really, Sookie? He has to have your blood now? Eric makes a note of  her choice of timing.

Not only does she stop him in the middle of his ‘sex story’ as she calls it, she and Bill give all assembled quite a show, making Eric’s behavior during their enounter at the beginning of season 3 in the basement the tit for Sookie’s tat.

The magister and Eric spar verbally while the magister’s associates torture him. After the magister comments that he has a pound of flesh, he tells Eric that the two of them are not very different. Prophetically Eric responds that the day they have anything in common is the day he will walk in the sun. In season 3 after Eric and the magister both end up on Russell Edgington’s hit list, Eric does walk in the sun.

The magister threatens to end Eric on the breaking wheel unless he gets the information he came for about the Jewish underground. Against Eric’s wishes and knowing that she and all the men she names will be killed, Rachel identifies the members of the underground, including her father, the leader, a wealthy merchant named Abraham. The identification of Abraham as a merchant is an allusion to The Merchant of Venice. Rachel’s betrayal of Abraham alludes to Jessica’s betrayal of her father in the play.

Before dying Rachel tells Eric that her death and the deaths of all those she outed will be worth it because Eric will be able to do more damage to the Inquisition than a million Jews.

Eric’s story is predominantly colored red like the above image to identify Rachel’s sacrifice with the rubedo alchemical stage. The last frame is Eric on a black background indicating that her death has plunged him into the negredo phase, a dark angry period, which he will use to wreak havoc against the Inquisition.

Sam thinks that wood may be dangerous to Ted, so he asks Tara to provide a distraction while he hatches a plan. She launches into a sory about what else…Lettie Mae. Yada, yada…nothing new. Yada, yada…boyfriend with pills…yada, yada, Tara watered down the booze, so Lettie Mae took the pills instead and wound up in the hospital…Yada, yada…the boyfriend wasn’t happy, and when Tara looked to Lettie Mae to protect her, she got a slap in the face instead…yada yada. Snore.

Sam stuffs something into an empty bottle, shifts into a dog, and, with the bottle clutched in his mouth, launches himself at Ted.

CB1.4

Synopsis
Sam’s attack on the evil spirit proves deadly for the local population, and it ends with him having to recount his most shameful memory… a secret powerful enough to re-energize the wounded spirit. Outside, Andy and the Sheriff have discovered the dome keeping them all trapped inside Merlotte’s, but will they be able to break in before Jason recounts the dirty details his first time? The stormy night in Bon Temps continues, in this original idea by TRUE BLOOD creator Alan Ball.

Summary by Osterby (She has no responsibility for the horrendous photography.)

Bud and Andy are at Merlotte’s but outside in the cold and rain. They see that there is something (a dome) over Merlotte’s. Andy wants to go get some C-4 to blast into Marlotte’s, but Bud doesn’t want to piss off whoever put it there. They decide to sit in the car and get good and dry and hope it will all be over in the morning…

Inside Sam leaps through the air with a liquor bottle in this mouth, shifts, lands on Ted, and manages to get the broken bottle into Ted’s mouth. Ted throws Dean into Lala causing Lala to wind up flat on his ass. Ted’s surprised that Sam knew how to hurt him with distilled wood.

Two local yokels attack the slippery squid fucker. Jason wants to get into the action, but Sookie tells him not to. While the local yokels are still fighting Ted, Eric says…”This thing (Ted) is too old and smart to be taken down by anything local.”

Ted recovers enough to squeeze the life out of one of the yokels with his tenticals. Naked Sam yells, “No, I’m the one you want.” Ted tells Sam that they can all go home if Sam stops fighting him and gives Ted his shame.

Sam tells a sad tale of when he was young.

Dean and his doggy buddy, Arthur, got caught by a dog catcher and taken to a lab where Arthur was drugged by a man in the white coat. When the man in the white coat came for Dean the next day, Dean bit him. Dean knocked something over getting away from the man in the white coat and the lab lit on fire. Dean freed the other caged animals in the lab, shifted into Sam, and carried Arthur away, but it was too late to save him. He died.

Ted thinks Sam’s shameful story is lovely, wonderful. Bill tells Sam that he must not blame himself. Sam did what he could. Sam tells Bill he doesn’t want to hear that. Ted says, “Way to ruin a moment, Beeeel.”

Ted kills the other yokel, and Eric says that Ted wasted a perfectly good human. Sookie clings to Bill, reminding Ted that he promised to let them go if Sam did what he asked. Ted tells Sookie not “to get her panties in a bunch, honey bunch.” He adds that he said he is sorry then calls, “Next.”

Jason has his turn. His shameful memory is when he was in high school and hooked up with his English teacher, who happened to be the mother of one of his football team buddies. Jason’s buddy bust in on his mother with Jason.

To be continued next month…

CB1.5

Synopsis
Sex with his hot teacher has disastrous results for the teenaged Jason, but it’s Lafayette’s coming-of-age story, and how it may have affected his psychologically fragile mother that gives the Imp Shaloop—the spirit holding them hostage—a rise.

Will Bill get to his story before daylight, and why does Sookie think the trickster spirit may be hiding the biggest secret of all? The truth is black and white—and red all over.

Summary by Osterby

When last we read…Jason was getting’ his thang on with his high school English teacher while is football buddy, Peter looked on. His buddy, Peter struck his mother and then struck Jason. Jason explains his innocence. Sookie hears Jason’s guilt over the affair in her thoughts and shares this with Bill.

Bud and Andy, still outside, staying dry see a red blur whoooooshhh out (or in) the front entrance of Merlotte’s.

Sookie asked Bill what they are going to do with the trickster (that’s just a fancy word for liar). Bill explains that he has a plan, Sookie must trust him. He will keep her safe.

Ted interrupts Sookie and Bill’s conversation and tells Bill, “You remember what happened the last time you and I disagreed.” Sookie calls Ted a bully. Lala says that Bill hasn’t told his story yet. Ted agrees but is now interested in Lala’s shameful story, after closer examination of Lala. But Eric buys Bill (who seems to have a plan to rid Merlotte’s of Ted) time by teasing Sookie may be more interested in Bill’s shameful story.

Lala tells of his great humiliation as a teenager.

Poor Lala. He grew up with Ruby Jean talking to herself and with her conviction that aliens were waiting outside the house for her and Lala. Ruby Jean humiliated poor Lala all over town, (after she walked in on Lala dressed in her clothes, full make-up) asking gay looking men if they caused her son to be gay. Lala finally found himself a hot man, Alistair. But Alistair broke poor Lala’s heart when Lala found out Alistair was married. Lala pours a pitty party round of shots for the gang, on the family discount, according to Sam. But Lala explains he is not ashamed of himself and is quite happy. Tara and Lala agree that they have a fucked up family, but Lala but sure does miss that bitch (Ruby Jean). Ted says he will drink to that.

Bill deflects. Telling Ted that he has had enough, that these people are not Ted’s playthings and Ted has fed enough on their misery. Ted informs Bill that it is what they do, he and Bill, feed on people. Ted remarks, “curious how you get all self-righteous right when it’s your turn, Mr Compton. You do realize, everyone has told their story, expect you?” To which Sookie replies that Bill has ‘nothing to hide”. Ted says he has one more story to hear and then he’s outta there.

Sookie confronts Ted saying he should be ashamed of himself, pumping himself up by feeding off others shame and remorse, and accuses him of being afraid of what’s “out there”. Ted tells Sookie to “shut up little girl”. Bill informs Ted that touching Sookie was the last mistake he was going to ever make (note: Ted touching Sookie is never pictured) and tells Ted he “should leave this place – now.”)

Ted doesn’t think so, but Bill can keep his secrets because while everyone was telling their stories, the night was ticking away, tick, tock, tick, tock, in twenty minutes, the sun will come up and Bill and Eric Northman will be ashes…

CB1.6

Synopsis
Sookie and Eric, Tara and Sam, Jason and Lafayette—they’ve all spilled their guts, revealing their deepest, darkest secrets—feeding the trickster spirit’s need for shame; hoping he’ll release them when they’re finished. Now it’s Bill’s turn, and the 184-year old vampire’s story of personal regret in post-civil war Louisiana is the most shameful of all! But the sun is coming up, and it’s up to Sookie to uncover the spirit’s true intentions. Will she discover the monster’s secret in time?

Summary by Renée

Eric is getting annoyed with Bill’s coyness since everyone else has spilled their guts and dawn is fast approaching. Renfield Sookie tells Bill that she’ll understand if he decides to kill himself and everyone else, too, rather than disillusion her about what kind of vampire her boyfriend is.

Nobly, Bill starts his story. The year is 1866. The war is over, and Bill has come home to Bon Temps. A beautiful blond, Thistle Mayberry, is the only midwife in a hundred miles. Before the war, she had delivered Bill’s children. On this night, she is making her way home after a long grueling delivery with nothing in her pocket to show for it.  Betty Lou and Barney, a formerly well to do couple with five little mouths to feed, promised to pay for her services when they can.

Thistle stumbles on Bill who is hiding in the woods and looks like death warmed over. She helps him to her house, and we have a replay of Bill and Lorena’s first encounter in her cabin with Bill sitting at the table while Thistle frets over him and lays out a meal in front of him, all the while urging him to eat. Of course, he can’t since he’s a vampire, but he is very hungry, starving, in fact.

Thistle asks if Bill has news of Timo, her brother, and he says some noble sounding bullshit that lets her know he’s dead without having to say the words. Thistle throws open the curtains to let the morning sunshine into the dark cabin. Bill squeals and pops his fangs. Once Thistle realizes that Bill is a monster, there’s not going back. Thistle puts up a good fight with a big kitchen knife, but it’s all over for her.

Since he feels so bad about what he’s done, he throws some  flowers on Thistle’s body before setting her cabin on fire. He justifies her death by telling himself that she did not deserve ‘this hellish existence,’ which was post-war Louisiana.

As Bill watches the inferno that he has created, Lorena, looking like a madam out for a Sunday stroll, shows up and licks away his bloody crocodile tears. She had been in Shreveport on business when Bill decided to visit Bon Temps. Now Bill knows that he cannot survive on his own. He must recommit himself to Lorena. Later he realized that Lorena knew exactly what he would do when she left him on his own and knew how it would turn out. She allowed it to happen to manipulate him.

Sookie tells Bill that he couldn’t help what he did because he was starving. Eric has a different view, though. He doesn’t accept Bill’s excuse. He says that Bill is the same as any other vampire, but he lacks self-control. Pit bull Sookie jumps to Bill’s defense and informas Eric that Bill is kind and wonderful and loving and blah, blah, blah.

Bill uses Thistle’s death as an excuse for why he is so strict with Jessica. Sam and Tara have heard enough and remind Ted of his promise to lift the invisible bubble that’s keeping them in Merlotte’s.

Ted says it’s time for his story. He takes us back to a primordial swamp where he and his mother lived in monster paradise. She was a trickster, too, but according to Ted, never hurtful…or no more than was necessary to teach the original inhabitants a lesson when they needed it.

Everything changed when the Conquistadors arrived. The natives were slaughtered and mom got sick. Ted transformed himself into a human child and went looking for help from the only person he knew that might be able to help her, Eric.

When Ted found him, Eric was feeding on a group of Conquistadors. It’s not clear if he attacked and killed them or was scavenging. Eric refused to help Ted’s mother, so Ted vowed that he would have revenge.

In the present, to Ted and Sookie’s dismay, Eric refuses to explain his actions all those years ago. Ted has learned that the thing Eric fears most is human emotion, so he takes all the shame and fear that had been generated from everyone’s stories and shoots it into Eric. Eric collapses, and Ted removes the impenetrable shield from around Merlotte’s. Sookie and Bill hover over Eric as he recovers, and everyone pours into the parking lot to give Bud and Andy their statements.

Sookie says that she was sure there was something outside that Ted was afraid of, and right then Jessica turns up to confirm her suspicion. At the beginning of the night, when he sensed Sookie was in danger, Bill called Jessica and had her remain outside while he went in.  In the woods, Jessica met another Imp Shaloop named Larry. The shield Ted threw up around Merlotte’s was really to keep him out, not the locals in.  Imp Shaloops must find Jessica as annoying as vampires do because Larry gave up his pursuit of Ted and left after feeding on Jessica’s memory of sleep away church camp.

After everyone has left, Eric approaches Sookie to tell her the reason he came to Merlotte’s in the first place. A Fangtasia matchbook was planted on a dead vampire in New Orleans to send Eric a message. He says it’s from an insane German vampire who is out for revenge. Eric thought Godric had staked him fifty years ago. Eric says the thing he fears most is not human emotion, as Ted supposed. More than anything else, he fears this vampire. Eric warns Sookie, if he’s alive, “we’re all in grave danger.”