Jim Thiesen

Jim Thiesen is a cover artist for the Goosebumps book series, having contributed a single piece of artwork for the Original Series, the original cover art for the second book, Stay Out of the Basement.

History
Jim Thiesen first entered the art industry when he studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League in New York. His first notable illustration work was in 1983 with a three page comic for Heavy Metal Magazine. He would follow that by taking jobs illustrating packaging for action figures and helping design new toy lines. In 1987, Thiesen, with the suggestion of his agent, Sal Barracca, began to illustrate book covers, notably for horror and fantasy books. He would soon be pigeon-holed as "The Horror Guy", but given his love for the genre, he wasn't completely against it.

In 1992, as early development on the Goosebumps book series was underway, Scholastic commissioned two artists with creating artwork for the covers for the first books in the series. Jim Thiesen was one of the names chosen while Tim Jacobus was the other. Thiesen would create the artwork for the second book in the series, Stay Out of the Basement. The artwork featured a leafy green hand gripping the side of a door.

While Scholastic and R.L. Stine loved the artwork (Stine considers it one of his favorite works) and would use the art for the cover, they felt that Theisen's more realistic rendering and perspectives didn't fit the vision of Goosebumps compared to Jacobus' more ultra-saturated and cartoonish scenes. Thiesen parted ways on the project after finishing the cover art and continued working on other cover works for other horror authors such as Stephen King and Richard Matheson.

Legacy
In 2003, when Goosebumps was revived through a new series of rereleases, new cover art would be used for Stay Out of the Basement. This time from Tim Jacobus as Jacobus was now able to add his own fresh art to the two books he never did art for in the first run, both Stay Out of the Basement as well as Be Careful What You Wish For..., which was first illustrated by Stanislaw Fernandes.

When the book was reprinted again in 2011 as part of the Classic Goosebumps line, new art was once again used, this time by current cover illustrator Brandon Dorman, who designed his cover in the style of Thiesen's original work. In 2020, when Stay Out of the Basement was once again given the classic reprint treatment as part of the Retro Fear Set collector's tin, the cover featured the original Thiesen artwork for the first time since the original run of the books. Jim Thiesen was also referenced and credited in 2021's The Art of Goosebumps.