Sweet Pea really is a superhero. In fact, he’s been voted Tacoma’s Best Superhero. 
Like most superheroes, sweet pea has a mild-mannered everyday persona. Real superheroes never appear to be superheroes until there’s a crisis. Then they unleash with full force. If they walked around looking all powerful, bad guys would just go somewhere else. So they must maintain a mild façade.

So Tacoma’s superhero spends his time running a small bookstore — King’s Books — which has been his front for seven years or so. He runs a banned book club and a graphic novel book club to make himself appear even more mild mannered. Also, he goes by Sweet Pea for fuck's sake. Who’s going to suspect someone named Sweet Pea of being a ruthless engine of destruction?

“I’m really just a nice normal guy,” says Sweet Pea. Yeah, right. Have no doubts, Tacoma.  Beneath Sweet Pea’s gentle exterior lurks a kung-fu vampire pimp that will eat your face if needed.  If you’re really gullible, you may actually believe he’s simply playing a vampire pimp as a mascot for Tacoma’s roller derby hellions, the Trampires. You may think he’s just playing along, generously offering to submit to the humiliation of playing pimp to a bunch of roller-skating lady vampires. But you’d be wrong. He really is the Pimpire he claims to be. He even made his own crushed-velvet vampire coat with a built-in cape.

If that’s not enough, know that Sweet Pea is a trained ass-kicker. He’s studied Hung Gar Kung for nearly seven years now, and could probably beat your ass. Hung Gar is one of the original Southern Chinese styles, created by one the five survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by Qing Dynasty armies. Hung Gar is known for its brutal strikes and unshakable stances.

Sweet Pea has combined his martial lethality with the innate strength, agility and mystical powers of the Vampire Pimp, which makes him pretty much unstoppable.
As I spoke with Sweet Pea on the phone, I asked him a few questions, hoping to learn some of his secrets.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: If you had to use a book as a weapon, which one would you use?

SWEET PEA: I would probably use one of those nice, leather-bound Easton Press editions. It would stand up to some abuse from swords or staves. It also could be used as a sleight of hand device.

VOLCANO: If you were a mortal, and were attacked by a vampire pimp, how would you defend yourself?

PEA: It’s all about attitude. It really is all about throwing the fierce ‘tude. If that doesn’t work, eventually there might, might be a throw down. I would use my cane — maybe a cane to the neck. Yeah, use the cane to thrust them back, away from my neck. Then maybe I’d go for the kneecap. See, once they’re down on the ground, you’re golden. The big problem is that then they summon vampire whores. And then you’re totally fucked.