ALL KINDS OF SCARY…
Whenever someone finds out about the book, the first thing they think is- Oh, it’s not that scary.
And well, that depends on how much scary you can handle. Look as much as I LOVE Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, Gravity Falls and The Goonies, as this book is a totally love letter / homage to those kinds of stories, they’re not the the only influences. As an 80’s - 90’s era kid, also I grew up watching stuff like Gremlins, The Gate, Monster Squad, IT (Which are all reasons I’m also a fan of Stranger Things) and they’re all great!
And even though most of them are considered “FOR KIDS” it’s really because when they’re funny, it helps make you forget how scary of a situation they’re actually in. Monster Squad, in my opinion, has one of the scariest werewolves in movie history, that is until he gets kicked in the junk with one of the kids seeing this in disbelief saying, “Wolfman’s got nards.” Now I could go on and keep giving more and more examples to hammer in my point, but if you know, you know. (And if you don’t know, go watch these movies and TV series, THEY ARE GREAT.)
But let’s stick with punting a werewolf’s pork and beans, for this point. That one moment has become the standard bearer to the feel of D.A.N.G.E.R!!! SQUAD. When coming up with every story, the very first mandate is, that it has to be is fun. The second requirement is, the danger has to be scary. Then the third check mark needs to be, what’s the angle that this scary- can be funny. Sometimes it can be as simple as as figuring out a funny take on the scary’s name. Or flipping the concept of why the scary is scary in the first place. And then doing that with every kind of scary. Monsters! Aliens! Magic! Sci-Fi! It all works and it’s all game!
Which is why the best feed back the book always gets is: ‘That thing legit creeped me out’ and ‘I’m giggling to myself way more than I expected’
So if you think you know know what you’re going to get with D.A.N.G.E.R!!! SQUAD before reading the book, we promise you, you don’t. And when you do read it, you like it more than you expected.