''Scare Tactics'' is a

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. A total of twelve issues were published, dated from December 1996 to March 1998. The series, written by Len Kaminski, was a part of DC's

Weirdoverse The Weirdoverse is a group of semi-related comic book series published from late 1996 to 1998 by DC Comics. The idea of Dan Thorsland (the editor of all four series), the Weirdoverse titles were connected by the fact that they all fell into the my ...

group of titles.

Fictional biography

The series focused on the band Scare Tactics, teenage monsters who escaped from government custody and decided to hide in plain sight by becoming traveling rock and roll musicians, trying to escape their pasts while encountering supernatural adventures on the road. The band members consisted of: * Arnold Burnsteel (manager/bus driver) - A conspiracy theorist who rescued the rest of the cast from the top secret R-Complex facility in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

with the help of his friend

Jared Stevens Sabbac Vic Sage Salem the Witch Girl Salem the Witch Girl (Salem Nader) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is the sidekick and apprentice of the original Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson), Doctor ...

. * Fang (lead guitarist Jake Ketchum) - A hard-rocking

hillbilly ''Hillbilly'' is a term historically used for White people who dwell in rural area, rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks. As people migrated out of the region during the Great Depression, ...

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

fleeing from an

arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of Marriage, marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaki ...

meant to end a long-running feud between two

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

n creature clans. * Gross-Out (drummer Philbert Hoskins) - A bullied fat kid obsessed with

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

who was mutated by

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

radiation into a grey sludge monster. Despite his revolting appearance and inability to talk clearly, he is intelligent, goodhearted and extremely loyal to his bandmates. Philbert eventually evolves into a god-like being and flies off to be among the stars. * Scream Queen (lead singer Nina Skorzeny) - A cynical

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

from

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who came to the United States to escape the "ethnic cleansing" of her kind. She can transform into a

black cat A black cat is a Cat, domestic cat with black fur. They may be a specific Purebred, breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular or mixed breed. Most black cats have golden iris (anatomy), irises due to their high melanin pigment content. Bl ...

. * Slither (bass guitarist James Tilton) - A human-reptile hybrid created by his scientist father as part of his medical experiments. He secretly has a crush on Nina, but fears hurting her and his friends.

Promotion

In an attempt to promote the series, Kaminski planned to organize a "real-life ST fan club package", which would've included, among other things, a cassette recording of a song by the fictional band. Though he went as far as hiring a band and producing cassettes out-of-pocket, DC put a stop to his unlicensed plan before distribution took place. DC Comics promoted the book in the middle of the series’ run through their "Plus" line, a series of one-shots that paired the characters with other notable DC characters: * ''

Catwoman Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman' ...

Plus'' #1 (featuring Scream Queen) * ''

Impulse Impulse or Impulsive may refer to: Science * Impulse (physics), in mechanics, the change of momentum of an object; the integral of a force with respect to time * Impulse noise (disambiguation) * Specific impulse, the change in momentum per unit ...

Plus'' #1 (featuring Gross-Out) * ''

Robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

Plus'' #2 (featuring Fang) * ''

Superboy Superboy is an identity used by several fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. These characters have been featured in several eponymous comic series, in addition to ''Adventure Comics'' and other series ...

Plus'' #2 (featuring Slither)

References

External links

* 1996 comics debuts DC Comics titles Fictional musical groups Horror comics Music-themed comics Vampires in comics Werewolf comics {{DC-Comics-stub