Bram & Vlad is a fantasy webcomic about preteens that happen to be descendants of the characters of Dracula characters (and, lately, other public domain characters, such as Count Orlok, Mycroft Holmes, Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll). It's published since 2007 in Portuguese and since 2010 in English.
The strips revolve mainly around Bram (the geeky Nice Boy that descends from Van Helsing), Vlad (the snarky grandson of Count Dracula), Lucy (a smart girl, Mina and Jonathan Harker’s descendant) and Bessie (Carmilla’s descendant, Bram’s own Stalker with a Crush).
The strips are hosted at DeviantArt
and Drunk Duck, where it has two spin-offs: the lovecraftian The Arkham Society (jokingly called “American Bram & Vlad”, as they were the result of the creator of the comic wondering how a strip about British characters could be made more “American” for American audiences) and Victorian Bram & Vlad, some strips featuring their famous ancestors that can be found randomly in their DeviantArt gallery.
Bram & Vlad contains examples of:
- Always Identical Twins: The Holmes girls and the time-traveller vampire twins.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Annoyed that Bram can’t trade pokémons with him, Vlad buys him a Nintendo DS… along with EVERY GAME FOR DS, so Bram can’t excuse himself of playing with him. In Vlad’s short comic, he does the same with Nintendo Wii.
- Badass Bookworm: All the Van Helsings, it’s their family's description.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Bram. Oh, dear, Bram.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, it's revealed that while Bram is dhmpyr, he will still age normally like a human much to the distress of Bessie and Vlad who will outlive him. He convinces them that he'll still be their friend regardless and to cherish the time they have together. We go to the Distant Finale where indeed Bram lived into old age and passed on with Vlad, now an adult, visiting his grave. But Bram's spirit is still with Vlad and he assures him he's not going away any time soon.
- Bookworm: As stated above, the Van Helsings. Ricky Faust applies, too. Also, Bessie, who asks Bram’s hand in marriage after being granted access to his family’s library.
- Brainy Brunette: Bessie, when around Bram.
- Butt-Monkey: Bram, at least in the first seasons. Johnny and Artie often fall into this, too.
- Daywalking Vampire: Bram’s Handbook (Portuguese only) states that some vampires do it out of spite, just to show that they do not sparkle. Vlad also states it clearly in one of the Twilight Syndrome strips.
- Deadpan Snarker: Almost all characters snark, but Vlad takes the cake.
- Determinator: Bram.
- Dhampyr: Abraham Van Helsings II, III and IV.
- Dracula: Well, DUH.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Richter Belmont.
- Family Theme Naming: Every character in the webcomic, but one or two.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: It started being a vampire comic only, now we have a living robot, a literal Jekyll/Hyde pair, a demon, Zalgo… Ellen’s list (see Mad Scientist below) also mentions a werewolf. A very loud werewolf. We meet a werewolf later on, a Brazilian boy called Lauro.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Almost all vampires to date, with the possible exception of George Ruthven II. Given the reaction of his father when he discovered that his son has been rude to a Van Helsing, it’s understandable.
- Gamer Chick: Lucy. She is a better gamer than Vlad, and Vlad does little besides gaming.
- Geeky Turn-On: That’s the reason Bessie gives to why she likes Bram so much.
- Generation Xerox: One of the comic main themes.
- Good Is Not Dumb: The Van Helsings, definitely.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Henry Jekyll and Jack Hyde appear in the Sunday Club arc and in the World Cup specials.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Vlad.
- Killer Robot: Eve (Frankentein’s robot) is a sweet and cute one.
- Looks Like Orlok: Orlok II appears twice, one time when he creeps Bram out and another when he annoys Vlad with hilarious results.
- Love Dodecahedron: Bessie loves Bram who loves Lucy who loves Vlad who loves his PSP. And now, Boris loves Lucy, too.
- Mad Scientist: The Van Helsings are a benign case. If one has doubts about their madness, just look at Bram in his Madness Place here. Or Ellen Harker’s 30 weirdest things she saw the Van Helsings doing.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: The Van Helsings’ basement lab is pretty normal-looking, until you find their eye jar. Since it’s explicitly stated that they use the lab for supernatural research, one can wonder what else it may have.
- Meaningful Name: You know when a character will never appear again when their name doesn't reference a character from a (usually 19th century) book or some vampire story.
- Monster Mash: In the Sunday Club arc, Vlad (Dracula’s grandson) meets Henry Jekyll (descends from the famous eponymous character), Mephistopheles and Victoria Frankenstein’s robot, Eve, not to mention a lot of mad scientists.
- Nice Guy: Bram is this. Beware the Nice Ones apply.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Sunday Club party.
- Oh, Crap!: The standard reaction of people that bother Bram until he reaches his breaking point. Like this. Or this.
- And also Vlad, when he discovers that Lucy definitely doesn’t take a “no” for answer.
- And also Vlad, when he discovers that Lucy definitely
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires in this universe don’t follow the rules set in Dracula. They often follow only the Rule of Funny.
- Parental Abandonment: The only time Vlad’s father actually appeared in the regular strips, he wasn’t exactly all warm and worried about this son.
- Redheads Are Uncool: Bram may be a badass when needed, but he is the geek variety of this, most of the time, as seen in his special comic.
- Romantic Vampire Boy: Subverted. At first, Lucy treated Vlad as this, but she seems to have accepted that he is definitely not the part.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Vlad has hints of this.
- Stalker with a Crush: Bessie starts as this, but she eventually realizes that it’s wrong and gives Bram more space. It works.
- Too Dumb to Live: Vlad just had to break into a Vampire Hunters Society meeting unannounced. He earns a well deserved Face Palm from Bram.Bram: [thinking] And which vampire would be foolish enough to break into this meeting?
Vlad: Don’t look at me like that, I looked for the bell. - The Masquerade: Vlad’s father pays fiction writers to spread lies about vampires, thus helping them to keep the Masquerade.
- The Renfield: Vlad’s bodyguard and caretaker is Charles Renfield. He was chosen among the other candidates precisely for his name.
- The Smart Guy: Bram has already written THREE scientific monographs. One was on psychology.
- The Smart Girl: Lucy and Bessie, in different ways.
- Vampire Hunter: There’s a whole association of them.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When people call Bram (or his father, or his grandfather) Abraham, they are serious or furious. Or both.
