Curly the Skeleton

Curly the Skeleton is the former mascot of the Goosebumps franchise. He has been featured on a number of Goosebumps memorabilia. On most memorabilia, he is depicted with round glasses, a scarf, a pink Mohawk, and red eyes. On book covers and calendars, he is depicted with a white buzz-cut and black pupils. He is also often depicted alongside his pet bulldog, Drool on these covers.

Curly's white buzz-cut look was designed by Goosebumps illustrator, Tim Jacobus, and his pink Mohawk and red eyes look was designed by Scholastic. In addition, Curly appeared on the covers of all six Tales to Give You Goosebumps books, three Goosebumps Monster Edition books, and on the cover for the Goosebumps Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Scholastic's website referred to Curly as "The coolest skeleton in the graveyard."

Creation


When the Goosebumps series first began, its publisher, Scholastic, had difficulty finding merchandisers who were willing to promote the books. This was because, although the series did eventually introduce recurring monsters, it never had a fixed cast of main characters.

In an interview with former Goosebumps cover artist Tim Jacobus, Tim discussed the creation of Curly. Jacobus had been asked by Scholastic to create a mascot for the series, so he designed a long haired skeleton-ghost for the cover of the book Tales to Give You Goosebumps. Many people, including Jacobus, did not like the skeleton's initial design. In order to improve the character, it was given a new haircut and a full body. This character soon became known as Curly the Skeleton.

Since his creation, he has appeared on many of the book covers and products involving the series.

History
Curly made his debut on the cover of Tales to Give You Goosebumps in 1994. On the cover (illustrated by Tim Jacobus), Curly is depicted as a ghostly figure with long curly hair (hence the name "Curly"). Scholastic wanted Curly to become the mascot of the Goosebumps franchise, so he was a given a more marketable design in subsequent covers. He appeared on all of the covers to the Tales to Give You Goosebumps and Goosebumps Monster Edition books with a human skeleton body, blue eyes, and a white buzz-cut. Scholastic, however, changed aspects of his design for merchandising, such as giving him red eyes, glasses, a scarf, and a pink Mohawk. Curly was considered the official mascot for the franchise starting in 1995, appearing on many forms of merchandise and even appearing as the narrator at the beginning of the two Goosebumps Collector's Caps Books. His status as a mascot came to end when the Goosebumps franchise halted in 2000.

Curly returned to the Goosbumps franchise in 2009 through minor appearances. He appeared in the book How to Draw Goosebumps and in a flash game on the Goosebumps website titled Ghost Hotel. Curly, along with other Goosebumps monsters, was supposed to be featured in a new Goosebumps merchandising line made by Mezco, which was showcased in a Toy Fair 2009 press-kit. Curly was to be featured on a 3D bookmark and released as a mini-figure a part of the Goosebumps Pocket Horrors series. However, nothing has been heard of the line since, so it was presumably canceled.

While Curly did not make an appearance in the 2015 film Goosebumps, he appeared on the special edition cover of Goosebumps Original Motion Picture Soundtrack using the Jacobus design, which hadn't been used in seventeen years.

Two years later, Curly appears in the second issue of Monsters at Midnight, a Goosebumps comic book series. He first appears as a sticker option in the Tickled Pink filter available on the mysterious phone found by the protagonist, Mitra. He later appears in a hospital inside a display case labelled "The Human Skeleton" while Mitra is visiting her injured brother. He taps the case from within, but only manages to make Mitra feel like she vaguely recognizes him from somewhere.

Curly also appears in the second arc of the comic series, Download and Die!, which was released the following year. He seems to play a bigger role compared to Monsters at Midnight.

Shortly thereafter, Curly makes a brief cameo in the book Slappy's Return, a loose adaptation of the film Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. He appears as a rubber mask on an ad advertising Goosebumps merchandise. It appears to be the same mask of Curly that was produced in the 1990s.

Trivia

 * R.L. Stine has a replica of Curly which he puts outside his apartment on Halloween.
 * According to the Goosebumps Fan Club's newsletter, Curly's birthday is in April.
 * Some pieces of merchandise misidentify the skeleton chef on the cover of Say Cheese and Die! as Curly. According to artist Tim Jacobus, Curly's first appearance was on the cover of Tales to Give You Goosebumps.