I generally don’t go for comics adaptations of media properties, but I thought I’d give the True Blood graphic novel a try, since I watch the show and the IDW comics are now available on Digital Manga’s emanga online platform. The quality of the art was a little inconsistent. There were a couple of fun touches here that would appeal to fans of the show and the story served to give readers a glimpse of foundational moments in the pasts of the main characters. This volume was written by Alan Ball with a group of other writers so it is firmly in the continuity of the TV show, which I have come to think of as “alternate universe True Blood” because the stories are so changed from the books.

It is a dark and stormy night at Merlotte’s and Sookie, Sam, Jason, Lafayette, Tara, and a few bar patrons that serve as redshirts are trapped inside by an ancient tentacled spirit named Ted. Ted is an Imp Shaloop who feeds on the emotional energy of humans. So after trapping everyone in Merlotte’s, Ted decides to make everyone tell him their most shameful memory. This is a somewhat hokey plot device, but it does serve the purpose of giving each character some time under the spotlight. There are quite a few elements of dialog and character interaction that will appeal to fans of the TV show. Eric is as menacingly pervy as one would expect. Sookie’s accent is the focus of some jokes (as it should be) and Tara’s dialog is punctuated with plenty of profanity when she freaks out.

The art has an occasional bit of stiffness that probably comes from photo referencing. I think adapting a TV show is probably tricky, because people already have a set look in their mind for the characters. Sookie, Eric, Tara, and Bill all look more or less like the actors that portray them. Sam and Jason seemed to shift a lot in the arrangement of their facial features and character design from panel to panel, and I found that a little jarring because I kept mixing them up. I did like the way the art shifted in style sometimes depending on who was telling their story. Sookie’s memories were pastel, while Sam’s story of his teen shifter days looked more like a soft-focus animal fable. Eric’s story was drenched in sex and violence, and Bill’s account of his days shortly after turning a vampire had an appropriately old-timey feel.

I didn’t feel like this was a perfect graphic novel version of the TV show. I would have liked to see a more original plot, and art that could evoke the characters without the need to match the actors’ appearances. I’ve certainly read much worse in the way of comic adaptations of media properties, but I think this will appeal most to die hard True Blood TV show fans.