Smart Pop Books has made a name for itself in recent years with collections of essays devoted to everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Battlestar Galactica. Penned by some of the genre’s leading critics and writers, Smart Pop’s anthologies have won a huge following among lovers of pop culture. The publisher’s latest volume — A Taste of True Blood (edited by Leah Wilson and based on the hit HBO show) — is due out tomorrow, June 29th. In it you’ll find, among the book’s many essays, one penned by FEARnet’s own Joseph McCabe examining the relaitionship between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and True Blood (entitled “Pure Blood”), as well as an enlightening analysis of Bill Compton by writer Jonna Rubin, entitled “Sookeh! Bee-ill! and the Downfall of William T. Compton”. For an exclusive excerpt from the latter essay, hit the jump now.

And then there is Eric. Oh, Eric. Who else can make track pants and flip flops so sexy? Sure, the guy might sport foils and lament that Pam, his longtime partner and progeny, is going to kill him for getting blood in his famously blond locks, but no mind. Consider the fact that he sullied them while ripping the limbs off of a man during an angry snack, and the situation is significantly less wimpy than it appears. Highlights: the new instruments of masculinity? Well, hardly, but on Eric Northman, everything is manly.

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