Kicking some vampire butt.

Sorry - but didn't all that goth-vampire-mortal love go down on Buffy the Vampire Slayer first? And better? Well, one could hope that Twilight's box office blow-out, and True Blood's hype might have some Hollywood producers dialing up Josh Wheedon to see about bringing Angel and Buffy to the big screen. Ah, if I ran things...

Anyway, if you're tired of mopey vamps and want a little more bloody red meat, then sink your teeth into Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt. Joe was a snot-nosed nihilistic punk in the New York underground scene until he was sucked dry and infected with the Vyrus in a grungy bathroom of CBGB's. Obviously this is not your mother's vampire Lestat.

Joe's a contrarian by nature and can't bring himself to join any of the various vampire factions seething just below the surface of New York. Instead, he navigates through them all as a private investigator, vigilante, fixer and badass. What makes Joe insanely cool, though, is that while he's a reluctant hero, over the course of the three books I've read he's come to terms with the fact that he's a monster - and those terms are uniquely his.

I met Charlie Huston at ComicCon a few years ago when we were on a panel together and I liked the sound of his books so I checked out his first Joe Pitt story. I thought it really rocked and I remember wondering whether there was an overall trajectory to his narrative. As I eagerly await the fourth now it's because there really is and I'm really looking forward to see what happens next.

Anyway, Charlie keeps up a really decent blog and he's donated books to Operation Warrior Library so I'm in his debt. But I'm also a fan and I think you should be too. So check out a vamp who'd give Edward, Bill, and maybe even Angel, a true beat-down.