School Bites
School Bites is a fantasy/comedy webcomic by Holly Golightly (letterer and colorist to Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose which her husband writes). SB tells the story of Charlotte Webb who, as the story opens up, is shown in the aftermath of being a vampire victim. Now a vampire herself, she quickly invited to join Shadow Academy to learn how to be a proper bloodsucker. Once there she meets her roommates, some recent undead like herself others inherently monsters, And re-christen Cherri Creeper (as being turned is considered a "new birth"). Thus begins her semester in a world of monsters and magic.
SB was actually started in 2004 as a self published title part of the Broadsword Comics line before being converted to a webcomic. So far three volumes of the series have been made as of yet with more in development. Additionally the comic started on Keenspot when it moved to the web. But since then has moved onto its own site that has partnered with Pixie Trix.
SB updates Mondays and Wednesdays (save for events such as cons or holidays). Fridays are reserved for filler about Holly's pet cat.
Now has a Character page. Please contribute.
Tropes used in School Bites include:
- Adaptation Expansion: The webcomic features a few new comics not seen in the books.
- All-Ghouls School
- Animesque: A cross between anime, Bratz, and rainbow glitter
- Art Evolution: Compared to the first few chapters, the art has become less and less deformed as of late.
- Art Shift: Just one example of many - No, the upper left panel is not supposed to be a flashback to her past.
- Attentionn Deficit- Ooh! A Bug!: CHOMP
- Attractive Bent Species: Fujiko's "talent".
- Author Appeal: As the comic goes on it becomes increasingly obvious Holly G loves her Bishonen designs.
- Also, Holly G made it clear on the forums that she wishes she were a vampire like this.
- The Friday guest strips have become almost entirely Holly's stories about her cat.
- Bi the Way: Possibly Kyoko AKA Fujiko
- Biting the Handkerchief: Here.
- Boarding School
- Catgirl: Kyoko a.k.a Fujiko
- Cool Big Sis: Cleo to Cherri.
- Cute Ghost Girl: This one is a mystery
- Cute Monster Girl: A good majority of the cast
- Cuteness Proximity: Cherri. Especially if Anarchy Bunny is around.
- Dhampyr: Cleo reveals her mother is a vampire while her father is a human.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The students are given a potion to "curb their bloodlust", so they only have to drink blood once a month.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Dante
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Has this in spades
- Eyes Always Shut: Regina Sharp a.k.a Cleobatra
- Well in the first few chapters anyway. Recent chapters have seen her with them fully open.
- While using her talent, Fujiko often has her eyes closed.
- Fan Service: If these pages are any indication.
- But notably averted later when the girls go skinny-dipping (#160 - #169).
- And back with a vengeance for the other gender.
- Fantastic Racism: Fujiko firmly believes all humans are just food to her and doesn't seem to really like Imp (though the latter may have just been his initial portrayal as a pervert). There are some indication that many 'born into vampirism' vamps are like this.
- First-Episode Resurrection
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Professor E early on.
- Genki Girl: Jenny a.k.a Sugar Shock
- Goth: Leila a.k.a Annie Mia as well as Master Le Bon and his entourage.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Hmmmm...
- Has Two Mommies: Cleo has two mothers and one father
- I Will Find You: What Christopher promises Cherri if she can't return to the human world.
- Love Triangle: ChristopherxCherrixDante, though Dante hasn't won her heart. Yet.
- Meaningful Name: Upon initiation into Shadow Academy (and presumably the underworld in general), everyone is given a new name that fits their personality. Cherri and her favorite food, Annie Mia is a Vegan, and Sugar Shock is a Genki Girl. Mind you, if the pattern established with Cherri follows, none of these are their given names. (Cherri's real name is Charlotte Webb, but she isn't very spidery...)
- Meganekko: Cleobatra again.
- Naked Apron: The 2010 Valentine's Day filler crams in the fanservice tropes.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In this case a Vampire Catgirl
- Older Than They Look: Hardly anyone in the strip is under twenty. However, pre-transformation Cherri (even in flashbacks to when she was fifteen) looks more grown-up than the current version. The fact that the first five and a half chapters (though none of pre-transformation Cherri/Charolette) are almost all Chibi probably has something to do with it.
- Older Than They Look and act. They're stated in the cast page to be 18-"Early 20s", and yet they're all giggly and such over seeing a guy naked. Yes, the guy is their substitue teacher, but still...
- Only Sane Woman: Annie Mia prefers to not join in such girly things like Squeeing at the naked guys in the boys' locker room, or the pillow fight afterward.
- Our Angels Are Different: Professor Seraphis and apparently Annie Mia are "Dark Angels" rather than normal vampires. As Anne backstory shows that she willingly became one while trying to save her ailing boyfriend. This invovled doing a spell that allowed her to meet an angel of death, take one of his feather before being sapped her lifeforce, and, I'm guessing, turned her into a vampire as sort of a incubation period. It wasn't until Annie tasted blood for the first time that her vampire features disappeared and she gained the black wings.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Justified as Cherri finds out when she meets Professor E. Most of the vampires look somewhat human while others like Cherri have pale skin and bat wings on their backs, heck a few don't even look human at all case in point of Imp, a Nosferatu.
- Fujiko looks less human, probably, with the fur, cat anatomy features, and such.
- Parental Abandonment: Going by her description, Cherri's parents during her human life weren't exactly the best in town. Especially saying something if you've been on you own since you were fifteen!
- Pen Name: Holly Golightly I'm sure has no relation to the character with the same name from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
- Perky Goth: Cherri.
- Pointy Ears: Which doesn't distract from the designs. Good call Holly.
- Power Gives You Wings: Annie Mia when she gets her first taste of blood.
- Punny Name: Before and after re-christening.
- Quite the meaningful ones, too. Especially after the name change.
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Due to the fact Cherri and Le Bon are connected to each other now. Hes the one that turned her after all.
- Shaggy Dog Story: Annie's backstory in which she willingly turned herself into a vampire to save her boyfriend from a fatal disease. However once she had the means to cure him, he requested to leave it be and die peacefully. Annie respected his wishes, staying by his side till he passed on.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians: Fujiko again, that or she just "very affectionate".
- Judging by her reaction to Professor Seraphis, Anything That Moves seems more likely.
- Well, she seems mostly Cherri-sexual. All the girls like Professor Seraphis. All. Even Annie had a goofy grin on her face.
- Shout-Out: Harry Potter which one can tell is an inspiration to the series, as well as Anne Rice. There are also a few nods to musicians as well.
- Shower Scene: Beginning here and lasting for nine pages
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Here
- Squee: Fujiko
- Super-Deformed: The vast majority of chapters two through five. Almost unused in the (first half of the) first chapter. Cut back to none halfway through the sixth.
- Sweet Tooth: So far, Imp is the only exception. And he can cook them sweets.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cherri. Guess.
- Twofer Token Minority: Cleobatra again; half African American, half Jewish.
- Ugly Cute: Imp is supposed to be "ugly" in-universe (being a Nosferatu), but is actually kind of cute; IMHO, he looks like a green-skinned, pointy-eared Aang.
- The Unfavorite: Imp among his family.
- Wall Crawl: The end of this page. Must come natural to vampires since this is the first time Cherri does it.
- Worth It: When Cherri is called to the principal's office for detention:
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Annie: Just remember Cherri, whatever happens, it was worth it. |
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- Turns out she's speaking from experience as her back story shows.
- Write Who You Know: Holly admitted one of the teachers in the second volume is based off one of her favorite teachers in college. In addition, she says she had a dormmate who was an overly energetic cheerleader.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Annie Mia and Professor E. Cherri gets close at times and gets all the way there in the Valentine's Day 2010 filler.