"So, I can now scratch off 'make out with a vampire' from my list of things I thought I'd never do."
Les Normaux is a webcomic co-created by authors going by the name KnightJJ
and Al. Available on Tapastic
The story follows a fantastical version of Paris (dubbed the "Supernatural Equivalent of Paris") and the stories of a group of friends that live there.
- Sebastien is a young man who decides to move there to learn magic, in the process, hooking up with the vampire Elia, which he soon finds out to be also his neighbor.
- Ronnie is a werewolf that falls in love with a mute zombie named Drew after rescuing him from an alley fight.
- Pam is a cyclop girl who envies their friends courage in going after the ones they are interested in, and constantly shies away from asking the girl she is interested in (a lamia that takes the same bus as her everyday) out.
- Radha is the Lamia Pam is into. She holds a candle for a ghost called Amou that she shares her apartment with, which stops her to try to get new relationships or friends, despite he stating they can't be together due to him being a ghost.
- Adrien, Ronnie's sister, is questioning his own sexual identity and to what or who is he attracted to.
- Matisse, one of Sebastien's friends, is a magic student that keeps failing entrance exams.
- Tipone, a friend of Elia's starts going out with Raahim, a friend of Sebastien's who Really Gets Around.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Sebastien is called Seb by his friends.
- Elia calls his older sister Giovanna "Gio".
- All of Elia's friends call Tiponi just Tip.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Tiponi, while not as cold as the standard of this trope, is certainly much less dorky than anyone else in the cast and acts in a way that looks much more mature.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- The Ending of season 1 shows a positive development for Pam and Radha, Drew and Ronnie getting together and Sebastien and Elia becoming official, but it does ends in a sad note as Sebastien's attempt to tell his parents about Elia goes sour when they still expect him to date a woman.
- The ending of season 2 ends on the same note. For all of the good things that happened to all characters, the very end of the season shows Sebastien traveling to meet his parents, who not only don't accept his sexuality and still expect him to be with a woman but also start chastising his choice of career, ending with him deciding that maybe he is better off staying over in Paris.
- Cute Mute: Drew is a rare male version of it, being a very sweet and lovable guy that is mute.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Raahim's story was not pretty. He and his sister were the only survivors of an airstrike in Iraq, they moved from one foster home to another in France, and he kept himself stable with his girlfriend. After a five year long relationship´, they broke up, which he only describes as tragic, which led him to discover about his own magical skills.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Pam doesn't ends up with Radha, becoming Just Friends with her. Lucky for her, she later meets a traveling free spirited gorgon named Tehani with whom she hits off.
- Ensemble Cast: At the start of the comic, it's clear the story is about Elia and Sebastien and their budding romance. As the comic goes on though, less and less focus is directed solely to them as every character gets their own chapters and their story and motivations explained. While Elia and Sebastien still have more screentime, the difference in margin isn't very large and they often appear as support characters in other character's chapters.
- Fantastic Racism: Humans outside of the supernatural circles appear to look down on the species that live in the other version of Paris. Even among the people who live there, ghosts seem to still be target for some prejudice.
- Gayngst:
- Sebastien still can't find in himself to talk to his family about his interest in men, many of which are still expecting him to show up with a girl at home and give up on his interest in magic.
- A variation with Adrien, Ronnie's sister as he struggles to identify himself, not knowing to whom or what he is attracted to. And ends up feeling like he is somehow "wrong".
- Happily Married: Sebastien's aunt and uncle show that they are still energetic and in love as if they were young.
- Interspecies Romance: And oh boy, does this comic runs with it.
- Sebastien/Elia is the romance between a human wizard learning magic and a actor-turned-model vampire.
- Ronnie/Drew is the romance between a werewolf make-up artist with an undead boy who works in a shelter.
- Sebastien's aunt and uncle are a human woman and a Jinn.
- Malicious Slander: Ronnie's high school was full of rumors that she was easy because she thought a guy with whom she had sex was her boyfriend, and he spread about it.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Drew played an unwitting one. Because of his shyness as well as a believe that nobody would actually like him, he kept Ronnie at an arm's length which eventually leads her to think that she might be seeing things and he isn't interested in her.
- Mood Whiplash: After their first kiss, Sebastien and Elia start making out, this is quickly undercut when Elia asks why Sebastien rejected his first kiss, which turns the hot and heavy make out session to dark hints that Sebastien faces issues and then to jokes about Elia biting.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: This trait is actually contrasted with the current real world. Sebastien, the main character, moves to the Catacombs, a fantastical version of Paris hidden beneath the city where monsters and humans that use magic co-exist and his family disapproves of him learning magic and of his homosexuality, so moving there was a plan to escape from it. In the Catacombs, he is introduced to a society where queer identities and romance are all very well accepted and fairly common.
- Open-Minded Parent: Elia's parents are very OK with his sexuality, but they do overload him with questions about Sebastien and their relationship once he confesses to be seeing someone.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires here do need blood to live, but they can buy it on supermarket, and can eat it with other items. They have no problems with garlic, get sunburn in the sun (but can die if overexposed) and are born vampires, so if they bite anyone it doesn't do anything to them.
- Parental Substitute: Sebastien has trouble with his own family, as they don't accept neither his sexuality, nor his choice of dwell into magic. His aunt and uncle are much more supporting and welcoming, which eventually shows that he considers them parental figures more than his own parents.
- Really Gets Around: Raahim is introduced showing he has gotten a date with both a guy and a girl by serenading them and then he quickly states that he has just slept with a model.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Raahim's magic was awoken after a break-up with his girlfriend of five years, which isn't even dips on his past as a survivor from an airstrike.
- The Reveal: Drew keeps writing his narrations as letters to his parents about what he has been up to. It's eventually revealed that he isn't sending them because his parents are dead.
- The Unfavorite: Radha is this. She even keeps her family at distance because she knows everything they'll do is talk about how her sister is doing great and she should be more like her.
- Urban Fantasy: The story follows a fantastical version of modern day Paris in which humans and magical beings live in harmony.
