Victor: I belong to an elite team of hunters, a secret society that keeps the darkness at bay. A higher calling than any of the yuppies living in this tourist-trap of a town will ever know.
Blaine: Alright, who turned in the report that was nothing but xeroxed butts?
Blaine: Alright, who turned in the report that was nothing but xeroxed butts?
Here There be Monsters
is a webcomic offshoot of long-running webcomic Charby the Vampirate based in the human city of Kellwood and following some of its inhabitants.
The main focus of the comic is Kellwood City Animal Control, a front for a group of monster hunters, and their relation to the Mayor in a city with a tourist driven economy where humans regularly become monster chow. The mayor finds dealing with the head of "Animal Control" Blaine VanJulivan incredibly stressful as he doesn't really like even knowing about the supernatural creatures that plague his city and his ideas for combating with the monsters are not well received by those who actually have to deal with them.
On the night on which the comic begins one of the city's best hunters is badly injured and after the mayor's assistant Marcus is flagged down and forced to drive him to the hospital Marcus runs over a dog that is perhaps not a dog at all.
HTBM shares a tumblr and Patreon account with Charby and Unlife is Unfair which both take place in the same 'verse.
For characters look under Hunters and Other Kellwood Residents here.
Completely unrelated to the Shazam! fanfiction Here There Be Monsters.
Tropes:
- Action Fashionista: Lucia wears midriff showing outfits, off-shoulder shirts and skirts for fighting monsters in. It may look impractical but she is quite competent.
- The Alleged Car: Weston's mustang needs some work, it looks nice though.
- Ambiguously Brown: Wes, Marcus and Lucia, though Lucia has since been confirmed to be of Mexican decent.
- Badass Normal: Humans hunting vampires, werewolves, demons and whatever else comes out of the forest or lake that attacks humans.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Marcus would really like to be more appreciated by the mayor, unfortunately his attempt to make himself more relevant is going to put him in closer contact with some of Kellwood's more unpleasant secrets.
- Boom, Headshot!: Cyrus places a well aimed shot through a vampire's eye when she takes the time to turn around and taunt him while running away.
- Changing of the Guard: There are a lot of new hunters in town and about one older one since most of them were massacred several years ago.
- Cheek Copy: Wes turned in a report alongside scans of a butt, in his defense it was all that was left of the monster to photograph after he finished killing it.
- Cold Iron: The dog Marcus brought home is outraged that he would dare put iron on it and weakened by it. Unfortunately for it Marcus is quite far from being a mind reader.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Victor is capable of shooting the fingers off a charging werewolf, while this is an impressive feat it does approximately nothing to slow down a werewolf and those same fingers end up growing back in short order regardless.
- Creature-Hunter Organization: The webcomic follows the city funded but secret monster hunters Blaine leads in the city of Kellwood.
- Drives Like Crazy: Marcus manages to run over a dog and later over a curb and into someone's yard in the same night. Bert is lucky that standing in front of Marcus' car to stop him worked out as well as it did.
- Eye Scream: The manner in which Victor of Charby the Vampirate lost the use of his left eye is depicted gorily in this comic.
- Facepalm of Doom: Victor Marlowe loses an eye when a werewolf shoves it's clawed hand into his face trying to kill him.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lucas is the Jerkass foolish sibling to Cyrus' responsible sibling.
- Heroic BSoD: Victor is nearly driven to suicide after a werewolf manages to bloody him up only being stopped by Bert grabbing his gun from him. Luckily the lycanthropy didn't stick.
- Hunter of Monsters: Most of the cast hunts monsters for a living.
- Idiot Ball: Victor realizes that giving all but one of his silver bullets to Lucas while they were goading each other before setting out on a hunt was a mistake when he reflexively shoots an ursipede with it and then runs into a werewolf. The night nearly ends with him putting a bullet in his own head when he notices it bit him in the ensuing encounter.
- Instructional Film: Blaine made an incredibly cheesy video as a teenager to educate new hunters about the dangers of Kellwood.
- Lunacy: Werewolves are forced to change forms under the full moon, and the nights directly preceding and following it.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Lucas managed to goad Victor into giving away all but one of his silver bullets before leaving to hunt a werewolf. That worked out about as well as can be expected.
- Older Than They Look: While it's not readily apparent Lucas is Cyrus' younger brother. Lucas just looks more haggard due to his drug addiction and personal hygiene routine.
- Raising the Steaks: Bert started seeing through the glamor around Kellwood when his little corgi Lola tore her way back into his house as a zombie dog and wreaked his living room after being killed up by what he initially thought were coyotes.
- Rat Stomp: In a strange way, since Victor's hunt for a werewolf starts with him having to deal with a swarm of ursipede young, most of which he kills by literally stomping on their heads, before having to take out their significantly larger mother prior to being able to hunt the thing he set out to hunt in the first place.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The poisonous vermin with too many eyes the hunters have taken to calling "Rat Beasts" due to their similarity in appearance.
- Rule of Three: Werewolves in this verse spend three nights transformed under the moon's influence.
- Selective Obliviousness: Marcus picked up and took home a dog that spoke to him. By morning he has decided that he dreamed that bit of the previous night's events.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Kelly and Jerry seem to think so. At the very least sleeves make it harder to show off the work one's put into strengthening their arms.
- Swarm of Rats: When Victor accidentally steps through the covering to a nest full of young ursipedes their swarming out of it and up his leg invoke a swarm of rats quite well.
- Vampire Hunter: While the hunters take down other supernatural threats Vampires are a constant problem in Kellwood and it was witnessing the vampire attack that killed his parents that got Blaine started towards becoming a hunter.
- Vanity License Plate: The hunters have a van with a HUN-TR license plate.
- Weirdness Censor: Kellwood City is under a super-strength one that ensures very few humans become aware of the monsters lurking there even if they happen to encounter one face-to-face. The hunters are all individuals who have had this censor broken for them, usually in traumatic ways.
