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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.


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:
  • 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)

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


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