Anita Blake

Anita Blake
Comic book depiction of Anita Blake
First appearance	Guilty Pleasures
Created by	Laurell K. Hamilton
Information
Nickname(s)	Ma petite, The Executioner, Lupa, Little Queen, 'Nita, Gatita Negra, Anna, Kiddo, War, Queen, Dark Queen
Species	Human, Necromancer, Succubus
Gender	Female
Occupation	Animator, Federal Marshall, Vampire executioner/hunter, Human Servant, Nimir-Ra, Regina, Bolverk
Family	father(unnamed) Judith(step-mother) Andrea(step-sister) Josh(half-brother) Grandmother Blake Grandmother Flores
Spouse(s)	Jean-Claude (Fiance/lover) Richard Zeeman (ex-fiance ) Asher (lover) Nathaniel Graison (lover/Leopard to call) Micah Callahan (lover/Nimir-Raj) Damian (vampire servant) Jason Schuyler (Wolf to call) Crispin (White Tiger to call) Domino (Black Tiger to call)(deceased) Jade - Yiyú (Black Tiger to call/First Female Lover) Cynric (Blue Tiger to call) Mephistopheles (Gold Tiger to call) Alex (Red Tiger to call) Nicky (Bride/Lion)

Jean-Claude (Fiance/lover)

Anita Blake is the title and viewpoint character of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The series takes place in a parallel world in which supernatural characters like vampires and werewolves exist alongside regular humans, with Blake's jobs including the re-animation of the dead as well as the hunting and executing of supernatural creatures (mostly vampires) that have broken the law. Hamilton stated that she created the character after perceiving a gender inequality in detective fiction, with female characters rarely getting the same treatment as male heroes of the genre.

Anita Blake is a petite woman of mixed German and Mexican heritage with curly long raven hair and pale skin with scars scattered over her body. She is very direct and flippant in her speech, but is said to be highly competent in the professions she is involved in. At the start of the series, she is an animator (a person who raises zombies) and a vampire executioner. She is trained in several forms of hand-to-hand combat as well as in the use of several firearms, with her firearm of preference being the Browning BDM. Blake practices Christianity and is currently of the Episcopal faith, having left Catholicism since the Catholic Church has excommunicated all animators. In the short story "Dancing" she describes herself as being 5'3 inches tall, as well as in Laughing Corpse, Ch. 1.

Blake is known to be carrying between four and five strains of the lycanthropy virus. As of Affliction, Anita carries wolf, leopard, lion, hyena, as well as several different colors of tiger. This is considered to be unusual in the Vampire Hunter universe, with very few other characters possessing more than one form of lycanthropy.

Anita Blake was born with the power of necromancy, a power that she inherited from her grandmother. Her mother died in a car accident when Anita was eight, which greatly impacted her throughout her childhood and adult years. Her father remarried a few years after the death to Judith, whom Anita often clashed with over her powers and differences. Anita initially exerted little control over her powers, eventually leading her father to request that her maternal grandmother teach Anita how to "turn off" her abilities. During college Anita majored in preternatural biology and became engaged to a fellow student, who later broke off the engagement due to his parents disapproving of him dating a Mexican woman. This would cause Anita to remain celibate for much of the initial books in the series. After graduation Anita was recruited by Bert Vaughn to join Animators, Inc. as a professional zombie animator, where she was trained by Manny Rodriguez and became a licensed vampire executioner. During the events in First Death she met the vampire hunter Edward and received several of her scars, which includes a cross-shaped brand on her arm.