We first met Tommy Flood and his lady-vampire-love Jody in "Bloodsucking Fiends", published way back in the 80's. It holds a soft spot in my heart, being the very first book I ever picked up by Moore, and indeed, when trying to get people to give him a shot, I have loaned out my very well-loved trade paperback copy (purchased at Half Price Books, no less, long before I worked there). Just a few years ago, Moore finally published a sequel, "You Suck", which was OK but not nearly as good as the first book. I was happy to revisit my favorite couple and all their friends, but it just felt like it was lacking something.
Perhaps that something was Abby Normal, Emergency Backup Mistress of the Greater Bay Area Night.
OK, Abby was in "You Suck", but I don't remember her being such an integral character as she is in this third and final chapter of this love story. As we return to San Francisco, our now-vamp-Flood and his lady love have been bronzed into statues by Abby and her boyfriend, the "manga-haired love monkey" Foo Dog; Abby couldn't stand the idea of the "Countess Jody" and Flood breaking up (Foo Dog had found a serum to reverse the vampirism - Tommy was ready to go human, Jody was not). They are now trying to find Chet, a rather large cat who has been turned to the ways of the fang by the ancient vampire that turned Jody, in an attempt to bring Chet back into the feline fold and prevent a hostile takeover of the Bay Area by bloodsucking cats.
There's Abby's friend Jared, the Emperor of San Francisco and "the men", Bummer and Lazarus, the only police duo on the force to know that vampires are real, the Animals from the local Safeway grocery chain (who still love to smoke weed and have late-late-night sessions of frozen-turkey bowling), and a strange Asian man with a sword who wears fluorescent orange socks. The story skips around from character to character, so your point of view is always changing. It can be a bit tricky at times, but it also gives you a much clearer picture of what's going on. The only first-person narrative is from Abby, and I gotta tell ya, I loved those chapters! Abby is just a complete riot, and she made me laugh so hard I could have snorted milk out my nose - if I'd drank any, that is.
There's a plot here, albeit a thin one, but I don't think Moore was going for an "in-depth" story here. "Bite Me" is the final chapter in the trilogy that has been C. Thomas Flood and Jody the vampire's love story, and he's brought it around full-circle. It works, and I loved it. Enough said.
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