Webcomic / Vampire Cheerleaders

Monster hunter Stephanie Kane and Vampire Cheerleader Lori Thurston

Vampire Cheerleaders is an OEL Manga created by Adam Arnold with art by Shiei (Volumes 1&2), and Michael Shelfer (Volume 3) and licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment.

As the name implies, it's about vampires who happen to be cheerleaders at their local school and mostly follows their exploits as they go about their existence while trying to avoid suspicion and trouble from human and supernatural alike.

Has a sister comic, Paranormal Mystery Squad, which served as a backup feature in Volumes 1 and 2 (they were both equal length, unlike some backup features).

This series follows cryptid (i.e: monster) hunters Stephanie, Katie, and Charlotte (later joined by J.C Summerfield, a representative of PETM and Lita, the ghost of a demon who was forcibly bonded to them) who go across the U.S hunting them. However their rather bombastic and public approach has gained them infamy and the ire of PETM, a organization that's trying to protect the cryptids.

As of volume 3, both series have been merged under the "Vampire Cheerleaders" banner starting with a full on crossover. Vampire Cheerleaders concluded in January 2015, although an interquel spinoff starring Candice Lavenza, called "Frankenbitches", is being drafted.

Now has a character page.

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Both Series (after the merger)

• Aborted Arc: At the end of book 3, we learn that Senator Worthington is an alien eating several of PETM's "humanely" captured cryptids, and Cressida has bought from him the vampires so she can avenge her sister. This is followed immediately by an epilogue a month later, Leonard and Candace, presumed dead to this point attacking a bar full of demons who normally kill humans by the dozen, and Leonard, who to this point had received no combat training at all, wiping the floor with them. He then asks Cressida's whereabouts despite having no obvious way of knowing who she is, let alone what she's done, and we go immediately to a still frame of a PMS rescue mission that ends the epilogue, before book 4 opens with PMS "victory pancakes" outside the flaming ruin of PETM headquarters (according to Word of God, not where Cressida was found). This whole purposefully disjointed mess was the mangled corpse of the original fourth book, "Vampire Cheerleaders Camp It Up," which was scrapped for marketing reasons when the (more lucrative) Facebook community, already the reason the combined series carried the VC rather than originally intended PMS label, balked at PMS's prominence in the third.
• Art Shift: Vampire Cheerleaders went from the manga-style artwork similar to Adam's Aoi House OEL Manga of volumes 1 and 2 to the current comic-style artwork beginning with volume 3 (and the merger with Paranormal Mystery Squad).
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Suki, despite being a vampire in a world with a very Broken Masquerade, is stunned to learn werewolves exist, and the corollary that this probably means the other things she (and everyone else) has been seeing on TV are real is enough of a shock to stop her in her tracks.
  • Then again this is what happens when you keep your little vampire ring in a small town and don't bother to look into anything in the supernatural world.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the online version, female characters have no nipples; even in the print version, a panel of Suki naked holding a vibrator leaves the reader at a loss where it's meant to go.
• The Cameo:
  • "The Lone Gunmen" (from The X-Files) made an appearance during the 'Paracon Event' in vol.2, they're seen to the left in the bottom panel, here.
  • Near the beginning of vol.3, the PMS team met Agent Lisbon (from The Mentalist), while they were investigating the scene of the car crash, involving Candice.
  • Averted with The Blair Witch, near the beginning of the "Vampire Cheerleaders Must Die!" arc, since J.C. took over the driving on the way back to Bakertown, to keep Stephanie from going after her.
• Crossover: Not long after meeting Aoi house, Stephanie convinces the members of the house to go to Silent Hill. As they're driving, they pass a sign that says "Silent Hill", drive off a cliff, and end up at the lighthouse from BioShock, where they take a submarine to Rapture. As of this writing, there has yet to be any explanation for these events, though it may do with Sandy's alledged 'fanboy powers'.
• Don't Come A-Knockin'/Makeout Point: Seen in one early strip which leads to disaster for both participants. Remember, handbrakes are there for a reason.
• Following in Relative's Footsteps: Stephanie Kaine and Charlotte Roth were both born into families of cryptid hunters and chose to pursue the same line of work, once they came of age. But, in Stephanie's case, it became a matter of revenge against all cryptids, after her parents were killed.
• Friends with Benefits: Leonard and Suki, though some fans are capable of debating for hours just how much they're actually friends.
• Gainax Ending: The final arc, "Vampire Cheerleaders in Space...and Time?!", was confusing in comparison to the prior arcs, and ended very abruptly.
• Grandfather Paradox: When a mothman egg sends Leonard, Katie, and Suki into the 1800's, a ravenous Suki bites Lori, who was a human at this point, turning her into a vampire.
• Oh, Crap!: A non-comedic example happens when after being arrested by the Paranormal Mystery Squad, the Vampires are then captured by Bianca Harrow, the older gorgon sister and get threatened to be eaten or worse. Suki's face is especially terrified.
• Pulling Themselves Together: Candice comes back after her apparent redeath in the beginning with a couple of stitches from the accident.
• Required Spinoff Crossover: While they are not quite spinoffs of each other, the girls of Paranormal Mystery Squad make a few cameos at different points, and the cast of VC shows up in the other book from time to time.
  • Elle from Aoi House appears in Volume 2 as a celebrity judge at the cheerleading competition. Though this might develope into more than a cameo depending on how the story progresses.
• Romantic False Lead: Prior to the merger, Stephanie was shipped with J.C. In Volume 4, she becomes the Queen of the Mothmen and he marries Charlotte.
• Shared Universe: With Aoi House, with Stephanie first being introduced there,. With PMS being hosted on the same site as Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks, there is some talk of seeing if a link is plausible between them. Also with each other pre-merger.
  • A couple of guest comics by Adam for Eerie Cuties were set in a flashback focusing on Layla and Steph as kids. Turns out it was Layla that gave Steph her hairpin saying that they (her and Steph's hairpins) come in pairs. The two strips close with Steph in the present day wondering what Layla was up to at the moment. More recently, Steph is shown talking on the phone with Maria Delacroix, the (vampiric and biological) mother of Layla about the vampires she was currently dealing with.
  • All of the main cast of Vampire Cheerleaders made at least one appearance in Paranormal Mystery Squad pre-merger. Lori and Lesly here, Heather here, and finally Suki and Zoey here.
  • The third story arc (which officially combines the two series) had Steph actually calling Maria Delacroix (Layla and Nina's mother) to get information about Lori, revealing Steph still keeps close ties with the Delacroix clan. Tiffany Winters also gets a mention and Layla, Nina and Blair make a brief appearance as well.
• Shout-Out: Now with a page!
• Time Travel: Volume 4 has Leonard and Katie using mothman eggs to travel through time and space looking for her sister.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Referenced in Volume 4 when a mothman egg sends Leonard, Katie, and eventually Suki as well, ricochetting around the time-space continuum and starting a Grandfather Paradox.
• Token Evil Teammate: After Lita is bonded to Katie at the end of PMS, she becomes a de facto member of the team.
• Zombie Advocate: People for the Ethical Treatment of Monsters are an Expy of PETA, except with actual government authority backing them up and focused on cryptids. They are a chronic pain in the PMS' ass; though they're not without a point in that Steph has a strong Knight Templar streak, their rule is "nonlethal force only" even when a cryptid is on a rampage and endangering others. When they force the military to stand down in the face of a Kaiju threat, it becomes clear that their brains are complete mush. And then it becomes clear that Senator Worthington is using them to supply himself with a cryptid food source.

Vampire Cheerleaders provides the following tropes (Vol 1 and 2)

• All Women Are Lustful: Of course, most of the Cheerleaders aren't exactly celibate.
• Alpha Bitches: The snooty cheerleading team the girls go up against. Not a few minutes into checking into the competition, they quickly start dissing the protagonists. The rivalry only worsens as the story arc goes on.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Joked about In-Universe with Suki and Zoe
  Heather: They're always like this, aren't they?
  Lesley: Constantly. Like an Old Married Couple.
  Suki & Zoe: WE ARE NOT!!!
  Lori: Dammit, will you two lovebirds just freaking scissor and get it over with? Gawd!
  • Finally comes to pass in volume 4.
• Chained to a Bed: Lori ends up like this after being paralyzed by the Gorgeous Gorgon.
• Compulsory School Age: Subverted. Lori has been returning to school every 20 years or so since at least 1892of her own volition, apparently in a quest for the perfect senior year.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Stephanie and Charlotte, taking on the outfits of Samus Aran and Vanille to snap Leonard out of his "thrall" status.
  • Katie does a 'Slave Leia' Cosplay to try to outdo them both.
    • And she succeeds.
• Crossover: In the first volume, characters from each comic appeared in some scenes of the other, and events of Volume 2 leaked into the other story. As of Volume 3, a full crossover occurs leading to the merger of titles.
• Devil in Plain Sight: The Vampires of Bakertown High, who masquerade as the school's cheerleading team and student council.
• Distressed Damsel: Lori's abduction is the center of the second volume of VC.]
• Does This Remind You of Anything??: You could easily replace the word "Vampire" with "Spoiled, Entitled Brat" and you honestly couldn't tell the difference.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin
• Fanservice:
  • Lets see, teenaged vampire cheerleaders who run around in their uniforms, bikini's and other outfits. Oh, and have a backup plan like Plan BC.
  • An ad parodies this by promising "fang service."
• Fan Disservice Lori is tortured in a very rape like manner by the gorgon.
  • In her first appearance the gorgon is shown nude, pity she's straddling a corpse and covered in his blood at the time.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who read Paranormal Mystery Squad knew that The Girl Who Would be Lita mini-story didn't end well for Bianca's servant girl.
• Foreign Queasine: Tribute to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
• Genre Savvy: Leonard knows enough about vampire mythology to be effective. Before he finally confronted the cheerleaders, he gorged himself on garlic and washes it down with listerine to make his blood downright abhorrent to vampires. When Lori tries biting him after stating his intentions to expose them his false surprise transitions into chuckling as his blood immediately makes her vomit.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Bianca Harrow turns out to be a Gorgon
• Jerkass: Suki ain't much better.
• Kill the Cutie: Happens to Suki in vol.4, during the "Adventures in Space... and Time?!" arc.
  • Half the Girl She Used to Be: What a way to go. See the character sheet.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Averted most of the time. When cheerleaders feed, victim feels neither pleasure, nor any negative effects other than woozy head.
• Lesbian Vampire: Lori on this strip Or at least bisexual, given that she seemed to have no problem with exhausting Leonard.
• Near-Rape Experience: Lori's experiences in Volume 2 have this vibe, possibly going past 'near'.
• Neck Snap: How Lori kills Bianca this way. Anti-climatic perhaps, but satisfying.
• No Kill like Overkill: Done in Vol.4, when Lita ends up the target of a group of marauding invaders, who ambush her while she's putting on a show at her interstellar amusement park. Seen here.
• Noodle Incident: Word of God has no intention of explaining what Suki is talking about here.
• Oh, Crap!: When Lori realizes that Bianca has paralyzed her.
  • It happens earlier to an ancient Roman vampire with the same woman as seen here.
• Older Than They Look: Only Lori believe it or not as the other girls were apparently only changed after meeting her in their own high school years. Lori herself is 138 years old assuming she was 18 when she was bitten. The evidence being that her collection of high school graduation tassels has two '92s in them. One of them is obviously from 1992, but by having two means the second one must be from 1892. Don't let the page's status as a guest comic fool you. Shouri was given a list of specific elements that needed to be in the page.
  • After the merger, though, there's a time travel arc where some of the girls have taken The Slow Path and look no older.
• The One Guy: Leonard
• Our Vampires Are Different: They can get by with just two pints of blood a day meaning they don't have to fully drain their victim. They can also move around in the daylight though they admit its not good for their undead skin. And have to tan normally to keep up appearances. Hypnotizing someone is also called "Glamoring".
• Really 700 Years Old: A given in vampire fiction. Lori has been posing as her own daughter to return to high school every twenty years since at least 1892.
  • Lampshaded here. It's even in the strip title.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: While it is black and white, close enough.
• Sassy Black Woman: Zoe seems to be off to a good start.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The rival teams does this to the Bats squad in retaliation for conning them out of their training area.
• Serious Business: See Compulsory School Age, above.
• Theme Naming: Adam loves using DC (especially Batman) and other pop culture based names.
• Time for Plan B: Or should I say, 'Plan BC': Booty Call.
• Title Drop: Featured in both titles in Volumes 1 & 2.
• Took a Level in Badass: Leonard was pretty clearly your factory standard geek, starting out. However the minute he realizes his best friend/prospective love interest has been turned into a vampire (which he actually realized was happening before she was Turned), he immediately levels up to Crazy-Prepared Badass Longcoat Vampire Hunter.
  • Badass Decay: Unfortunately when the girls turn their feminine wiles on him, he turns to putty in an instant. Come next arc, he following along like a puppy and doing their chores for them. Granted the girls are treating him nicely and all albeit in a Butt-Monkey sort of way. Least Heather isn't too hard on him.
    • It seems that this level was not really lost forever, after all
• Transhuman Treachery: What happens to Heather who is described as very sweet when she was a human.
  • Might be subverted, as she seems to act like a vampire fangirl afterwards. And, her parents do reveal some hidden issues.
  • Given her recent actions and what happened to the Bakertown football team it's more like this trope is being played mostly straight.
• Unsound Effect: RUSH
• Unusual Euphemism: You were "double-clicking your mouse," weren't you?
• Vampires are Sex Goddesses: Leonard probably thinks so at this point.
• Vanity License Plate: "BITEME" on Lori's car.
• Villain Protagonists
• Viva Las Vegas!: The setting of the second arc.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lori's reaction to Heather draining the entire football team the night before the homecoming game is this trope on steroids.
• What Could Have Been: Word of God says one of the earliest concepts for Vampire Cheerleaders was more in line with your typical harem series, but with vampires.
  • In addition, the original plan was for the merger to be into the PMS title, while keeping the VC title for side stories featuring them. But, the readership of Vampire Cheerleaders was significantly higher, necessitating a change of plan.

Paranormal Mystery Squad has the following tropes (Vol 1 and 2)

• All Myths Are True: In addition to classics like vampires and werewolves, there are such things as Native American Deer Women, Phoenixes, Chupacabra and what appears to be Mothman.
• All Women Are Lustful: In [1]
  • Lita also show signs of this
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Steph sees her teen sister as this to a degree.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Played straight in the online and e-book editions of Volume 2, but averted in the hard copy edition, at least above the waist.
  • Suki almost has a wardrobe malfunction after getting hit by PK Thunder
• Break the Cutie: Charlotte during the big Prom night battle. It may be a single incident, rather than prolonged torture... But look into her eyes on the next page! She's heading for Kill the Cutie, she knows it, and she can't do a thing to stop it.
• Breaking the Bonds: By pissed off wolfed up Katie.
• Cassandra Truth: Despite raising some valid points about how vampires could be disguising themselves as highschoolers, JC and Char continue to dismiss Steph's suspicions.
• Colossus Climb: Against K'aannl'ngua
• Convection, Schmonvection: Charlotte is rescued virtually unharmed from a fully engulfed wicker man.
  • Katie's tail isn't so lucky
• Crossover: See Shared Universe.
• Cute Monster Girl: Katie. The Deer Woman at the beginning of Volume 1 wasn't bad looking either.
• Cute Wiccan: Charlotte.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Paranormal Mystery Squad consists of a Goth, Werewolf, Wiccan and Dhampyr and they have a bat as the Team Pet.
• Description Cut: At a very public trial, the judge gives the Squad 2,000 hours of community service as punishment for various crimes. He then asks if Steph if she has anything else to say, and she clicks off the TV, since it was actually a recording of the trial.
  J.C.: I can't believe you said that.
  Steph: He deserved it.
  J.C.: Yeah, but he doubled our hours!
• Destructive Saviors
• Devil in Plain Sight: The Vampires of Bakertown High, who masquerade as the school's cheerleading team and student council.
• Dhampyr: J.C. Summerfield
• Distressed Damsel: Katie gets kidnapped by Theo and has her chained to a bed so that he can have his way with her. Subverted: She manages to defend herself and knock him out by the time the rescue arrives.
• Eldritch Abomination: this guy
• Expressive Accessory: Steph's hairpin is the sister to Layla Delacroix's.
• Eye Scream: Stephanie stabbed one of K'AAN'NGUA's Eyes
• Fan Convention: The Squad has to do community service in the form of an appearce at ParaCon, which are full of people who consider the crew as evil hunters.
• Fantastic Racism: Steph's attitude towards all 'cryptids'. Then her sister became one.
• Fun with Acronyms: It is no accident that they are known as ‘’PMS’’.
• Gag Penis: Used to test if certain feelings still cause Katie to change into her werewolf form.
• Goth: Stephanie.
• Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: At the beginning of Volume 2.
• Idiot Hair: Katie has one sticking up in the back. Reflects her tendancy to act without thinking.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Just short of a fight with Katie as she goes through her first change.
• Jerkass: Steph who's always so quick to point out someone else's flaws.
• Just For Pun
  Katie: And I'm Yiffing Mad!
• Mark of the Supernatural: Charlotte has heterochromia with one blue and one green. There are hints that this is a hallmark of her magical affinity.
• Mercy Kill: How Steph views slaying monsters that were born human. She initially plans to do this with her sister, but is talked down by JC and Charlotte.
• Monster Wrongs Group: Steph finds herself butting heads with PETM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Monsters), who demand that ‘cryptids’ be captured alive and unharmed.
  • A notable subversion (especially when compared to PETA) is that PETM are well aware cryptids are dangerous and even have standard issue tasers. As Summerfield put it, they're naive, not stupid.
  • O'Keefe takes the entire thing to ridiculous extremes, such as refusing to let the army bomb an "innocent cryptid" who mind-controlled half the county (there are good reasons not to drop a bomb on a bunch of people, but that isn't one of them) and later gets the president to declare a Kaiju that's about to destroy the city and possibly the world an endangered species, forbidding the military from attacking. Well, the Squad is forbidden too, but they ignore it.
• Near-Rape Experience: The reason Mr. Campbell summoned the team to his farm not to investigate, but to be breeding stock for his son. The climax of volume one begins when the son kidnaps Katie in order to try again.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. Katie seems to delight in using her teenaged PMS as an excuse to ignore diplomacy (and propriety).
  • It later becomes a plot point as the now werewolf Katie ends up being in heat as a result.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: O'Keefe has the President order Briggs to stand down his forces because it would violate Congressional law to attack K'aannl'ngua, an endangered Cryptid species. The military then pulls out, allowing the demon to wreck UsefulNotes/LasVegas.
• Off with His Head!: Steph is quite effective with that sword.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone's reaction to Mr. Campbell going openly hostile, but especially Katie when Theo changes.
  • A more comic version when the sea monster Steph just speared swam off rapidly. "Oh Frak...!" Yank!
• Parental Abandonment: Stephanie and Katie’s parents were killed about a year before the story starts (and after Steph’s appearance in Aoi House).
• Paranormal Investigation
• Playing Card Motifs: During the Blazing Man arc, soldiers have been issued with most-wanted playing cards. Charlotte is the Queen of Diamonds.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The general put in charge the incident in Volume 2 comes off sympathetic to the PMS crew, and most definitely does not like O'Keefe's presence and interference.
  • When they kill the Kaiju rampaging around Vegas (which O'Keefe got named an endangered species), he gets them issued a full pardon, and the 4,000 hours of community service fully commuted.
• She Who Fights Monsters: Steph’s hatred of cryptids has some unfortunate levels.
  • She's mellowed out considerably since the beginning though. When Maria expresses her concerns about Steph's bloodthirsty history she admits that she was in a pretty dark place at the start of the series as her parents had only just died.
  • This later serves her in good stead as the Moth Queen must have a rather utilitarian view of her own offspring.
• Spit Take: during the VC/PMS crossover Katie has one over The Reveal that O'Keefe is a lesbian.
• Stockholm Syndrome: When Katie finally locates Steph after her kidnapping by the Mothmen she's quite squicked to discover that Steph has enthusiastically embraced her new role as the Moth Queen.
• Theme Naming: Many Batman (and the wider DCU) references are made in the names for the various characters.
• The One Guy: J.C. Summerfield
• Trash the Set / Throw It In: the final arc "Vampire Cheerleaders In Space and Time" starts out as a bizarre fusion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Mothman Prophecies and quickly snowballs into a gloriously gonzo space opera with Shout Outs to every urban legend or paranormal story imaginable. By the time they're done they've gleefully trashed the setting to the point where nothing less than a full Continuity Reboot could restore the status quo.
• The Unfair Sex: Steph as per most of her jerkass tendencies, for example she blames the whole Katie turning into a werewolfincident on J.C. when really Katie had wandered off on her own. J.C, despite being a nice guy, thankfully isn't a doormat and more then willing to call her out on this.
• Unusual Euphemism: You were "double-clicking your mouse," weren't you?
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: "Cryptoslaughter" has only recently been made illegal, and appears to remain a civil offense.
• Whole Costume Reference: After being defeated by Lita in Volume 2, Char finds herself dressed up as Zatanna, Steph as Alice from the Resident Evil: Extinction and Katie as Claire from Resident Evil: Afterlife.
• Van Helsing Hate Crime: Steph who believes all cryptids are evil roughly stemming what happened to her parents. Things gets complicated when her sister is turned into a werewolf and the newest member of their team is revealed to be a Dhampyr.

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