Charby the Vampirate

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Go ahead, guess which one is Charby!

Charby the Vampirate is a webcomic that has been hosted on the webcomic site Drunk Duck since 2004. Though it preceded the other two "Vampirates" by a year, it wasn't terribly notable until the art improved. It started off as a loosely linear, dark comedy, based on horror movie send ups and a Take That of the Spinoff Babies phenomenon but revealed later that it actually has a plot.

The title is a bit deceptive because while the titular character is a main character, he's not THE main character. The comic revolves around the trials and tribulations, lives and unlives of the various denizens of an isolated tourist town named "Kellwood". The comic typically focuses on the residents of a bizarre cabin in the woods, where Charby (the aforementioned vampirate) and his werewolf best friend Menu have accumulated a crowd of friends that now live there too. It also follows the goings-on of a somewhat amateur monster hunting organization that is keeping the evil beasties living in Kellwood's dense, mountainous forests from snacking on the town's residents. Currently the cast amounts to 95 named characters, all with their own personalities.

The "Vampirate" bit is addressed within the first few revamped (ha! pun!) pages of the character's origin, and is referred to in some of the character's traits (his weapon of choice is two hooks, and his battle cry is "Yarrr!" and he wears a lot of stripey pirate shirts).

Despite some instances of gratuitous blood spilling (it is paying homage to monster movies after all) the comic is actually pretty tame beyond that, as there's no swearing, nudity, sex or obvious fan service. A few cheeky jokes here, and there but nothing offensive. It's rather more like a hyperviolent children's Saturday morning cartoon, if anything.

Tropes used in Charby the Vampirate include: