Actor Sam Trammell charms Houston truebies at Comicpalooza ~ The weekly rewind

Supernatural freaks and comic books geeks gathered one and all for Houston's annual ComicPalooza this weekend, but Truebies, or fans of the HBO series "True Blood," perhaps got the most bang for their buck - a visit from Sam Merlotte himself.

Actor Sam Trammell, who plays Merlotte, a Southern bartender moonlighting as a shape shifter in the supernatural television series, was running on only two hours of sleep when he greeted fans Saturday morning as he had just hopped on a plane from Los Angeles to Houston directly after wrapping up filming for season four's episode 11. But his exhaustion didn't show. He excitedly visited with fans, signed autographs and posed for pictures.

And, although he was unable to give fans spoilers to quench there True Blood withdrawal, he did express his thoughts on why vampire stories have captivated the American public so much in the past three to four years.

"It seems like with vampires there have been waves where every 10 years they get popular, but it has never been like this," Trammell said. "It feels to me like it's also hand-in-hand with the popularity of comic books and movies in general and kind of a revival of fantasy ...

"Intellectually, maybe, you could say or argue that a recession brings on people wanting to escape from reality ... It's kind of baffling, but I'm really happy about it though. We're right in the middle of it. We're a vampire show."

The fourth season of True Blood will begin on June 26. ComicPalooza continues today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center located at 1001 Avenida de las Americas.