Goosebumps (original series)

Goosebumps (commonly referred to as "the original series") is a series of children's horror fiction books created and authored by R.L. Stine. Within just a few years of being on the market, Goosebumps became the best selling children's book series of all time. The series would inspire multiple spin-off book series, a television show, video games, comics, and films.

A Goosebumps fan club subscription service was created in 1995, with pages in the back of the books detailing a forum to sign up for the service. Signing up for the fan club would gain you a monthly newsletter and various forms of merchandise. The books themselves would even contain various goodies, such as cardboard cut-out masks, fake tattoos, bookmarks, calendars, posters, trading cards, and more.

During the series original run, certain Goosebumps books included tear-out items inside the books. These items varied from stickers, trading cards, bookmarks, iron-on decals, masks, posters, tattoos, and more.

Conception
After R.L. Stine's success with his best-selling Fear Street books in the early 1990s, it was suggested to Stine that he should write a horror series for a younger demographic, which was an untapped market. Stine was hesitant on the idea, as he didn't want it to interfere with his Fear Street auidence, but he agreed to the write the series if he could come up with a good title for it. Eventually he decided to name the series Goosebumps after seeing an ad in a TV Guide that read "It’s ‘Goosebumps Week’ on Channel 11!"

Scholastic agreed to publish the series and the first two books debuted in July 1992. Stine reportedly didn't have high-hopes for the series and claims no one expected much success from it. Sales were initially sluggish and there were talks of ending the series after the sixth book. However, sales picked up soon after and demand for the series increased, leading to the books being published bi-monthly by the ninth book. Due to the lack of initial advertising for the series, Stine attributes the series finding success to positive word of mouth from children.

Writing
Often, R.L. Stine is able to come up with plots for the books by first thinking of a title. An outline for the book is then created before he goes on to write a draft of the story. Stine claims he was able to write a single Goosebumps book in just under ten days. Stine described the first book, Welcome to Dead House as being the scariest in the series due to the intensity of certain scenes and lack of comedic elements. Stine says this was due to the series not having an enstablished formula yet. He would go on to write later entries to not be as intense.

The vast majority of books in the series are written in the first person. However, some of the earlier books in the series were written in the third person, such as Stay Out of the Basement, Say Cheese and Die!, Night of the Living Dummy, The Ghost Next Door, The Haunted Mask, Go Eat Worms! and all four Monster Blood books.

Of the sixty-two books in the original series, there are sixteen books where the title appears as a line that's worked into the story when ignoring punctuation and capitalization.

Books

 * -|Table=

For international releases, please click on one of the following:




 * -|Gallery=


 * -|Text=
 * 1) Welcome to Dead House
 * 2) Stay Out of the Basement
 * 3) Monster Blood
 * 4) Say Cheese and Die!
 * 5) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
 * 6) Let's Get Invisible!
 * 7) Night of the Living Dummy
 * 8) The Girl Who Cried Monster
 * 9) Welcome to Camp Nightmare
 * 10) The Ghost Next Door
 * 11) The Haunted Mask
 * 12) Be Careful What You Wish For...
 * 13) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
 * 14) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
 * 15) You Can't Scare Me!
 * 16) One Day at HorrorLand
 * 17) Why I'm Afraid of Bees
 * 18) Monster Blood II
 * 19) Deep Trouble
 * 20) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
 * 21) Go Eat Worms!
 * 22) Ghost Beach
 * 23) Return of the Mummy
 * 24) Phantom of the Auditorium
 * 25) Attack of the Mutant
 * 26) My Hairiest Adventure
 * 27) A Night in Terror Tower
 * 28) The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
 * 29) Monster Blood III
 * 30) It Came from Beneath the Sink!
 * 31) Night of the Living Dummy II
 * 32) The Barking Ghost
 * 33) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam
 * 34) Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
 * 35) A Shocker on Shock Street
 * 36) The Haunted Mask II
 * 37) The Headless Ghost
 * 38) The Abominable Snowman Of Pasadena
 * 39) How I Got My Shrunken Head
 * 40) Night of the Living Dummy III
 * 41) Bad Hare Day
 * 42) Egg Monsters from Mars
 * 43) The Beast from the East
 * 44) Say Cheese and Die — Again!
 * 45) Ghost Camp
 * 46) How to Kill a Monster
 * 47) Legend of the Lost Legend
 * 48) Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns
 * 49) Vampire Breath
 * 50) Calling All Creeps!
 * 51) Beware, the Snowman
 * 52) How I Learned to Fly
 * 53) Chicken Chicken
 * 54) Don't Go To Sleep!
 * 55) The Blob That Ate Everyone
 * 56) The Curse of Camp Cold Lake
 * 57) My Best Friend Is Invisible
 * 58) Deep Trouble II
 * 59) The Haunted School
 * 60) Werewolf Skin
 * 61) I Live in Your Basement!
 * 62) Monster Blood IV

Boxed sets
While the original series was still in print, various four-book boxed-sets were produced.

A three-book set featuring the first three Monster Blood books and a container of green slime was released as Monster Blood Pack in September 1995. The official description reads: This Halloween won't be complete without this totally cool Goosebumps special item, which includes three top titles from the #1 bestselling kids' series—Goosebumps #3: Monster Blood, #18: Monster Blood II and #29: Monster Blood III—plus a container of green slime.

2003 - 2007 series
From 2003 to 2007, fifty-seven out of the sixty-two of the original Goosebumps books were reprinted with a new cover base and used different colors. Some of the covers were also mirrored and given new taglines. Two books, Stay Out of the Basement and Be Careful What You Wish For..., were given new cover art created by Tim Jacobus, as he did not make the originals for the two. The series of reprints were discontinued shortly after Classic Goosebumps was introduced in 2008.

Phantom of the Auditorium, Legend of the Lost Legend, Werewolf Skin, I Live in Your Basement!, and Monster Blood IV were the only books not reprinted in this series. However, Werewolf Skin did receive a digital rerelease, Phantom of the Auditorium was later reprinted in the Classic Goosebumps series, and Legend of the Lost Legend is included in the Goosebumps 25th Anniversary Retro Set. I Live in Your Basement! and Monster Blood IV are the only books in the original series that have yet to receive a reprint.

Classic Goosebumps

 * Main article: Classic Goosebumps

Classic Goosebumps is a series of reprints originally made to coincide with the release of Goosebumps HorrorLand books. All of the Classic Goosebumps books feature new cover art by Brandon Dorman and a new Goosebumps logo. In addition, the font used for numbering chapters is redesigned and the books' entire covers are raised. Bonus features are also present in the first twenty-two books, but later books which were made to coincide with the Goosebumps films omitted the bonus features. These covers are no longer raised and the series began also reprinting books from Give Yourself Goosebumps and Goosebumps Series 2000.

Goosebumps Monster Edition
Between 1995 and 1997, Scholastic Inc. released four hardcover books under a series titled Goosebumps Monster Edition. Each book contained three Goosebumps books. The books also included special features, such as a greeting sound when opening the book, as with Monster Edition #1 and #3.

Monster Edition #1 and #3 were reprinted in 2003. The covers shown on the back of the books were updated to match their 2003 reprints look. Oddly enough however, the Monster Edition books' front covers were not updated to reflect the 2003 - 2007 reprints look.

Goosebumps Collection
Four hardcover books under a series titled Goosebumps Collection were released between 2003 and 2005. Each book contained three books from the Goosebumps franchise. The Campfire Collection, Monster Blood Collection, and Living Dummy Collection contained three stories from the original series. While the third book, 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps, featured the first three books in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series.

Goosebumps Bind-Up
Goosebumps Bind-Up is similar to the Goosebumps Collection series, in that they are collection books that contain three Goosebumps books. However, these books are only available in paperback, and the cover design is the same used for the 2003 - 2007 reprint series.

Goosebumps Retro Collector's Tins
The Goosebumps Retro Collector's Tins include five of the all-time best selling books in the series. The lids of the tins features a raised, Goosebumps logo, with the cover art from three of the books included behind it. The sides of the base of the tin feature the covers of the books repeated throughout. Under the base of the tins features the splat.

While the books do sport the original cover art and design, there are some differences from the original prints, which include the following:
 * The Goosebumps logo on the front covers is not raised.
 * The logo and chapter designs in the books use the Classic Goosebumps designs, rather than the originals.
 * The blurbs for these prints are in bold, unlike the original books' blurbs.
 * The back covers for these prints don't feature the next book in the series.
 * The books are thinner and more "floppy" than the originals.
 * The Scholastic logo is featured under the book title instead of being at the bottom left.
 * A little more of the cover art is shown in these prints than the originals.
 * The cover art of these prints is significantly darker than the originals'.
 * The cover for Why I'm Afraid of Bees uses white text for the tagline. The original cover used black text.
 * Legend of the Lost Legend's front tagline is no longer in italics.
 * Books from the first nineteen releases now have the Goosebumps logo on the spine.
 * There are no book numbers on the spine.
 * The text is changed to reflect the differences found in the Classic Goosebumps reprints and ebook versions.

Design
The first six books in the series originally featured no number on the spine. The books started being numbered starting with Night of the Living Dummy as the series grew in popularity, and the first six books were reprinted to feature their respective numbers. The spines of the first nineteen feature the Goosebumps title in a standard font. From book twenty onward, this was replaced with the Goosebumps slime logo and the top of the spine would also feature ooze in the color of the secondary color of the book cover.

The front of the covers feature a raised Goosebumps logo with textured bumps. In an interview, Stine complained about how "cheap" his publishers are by not having bumps on the covers anymore.

Artists
The first two books in the Goosebumps series were illustrated by separate artists. The first book cover, Welcome to Dead House, was illustrated by artist Tim Jacobus. The next book cover, Stay Out of the Basement, was illustrated by artist Jim Thiesen. Scholastic Inc. eventually chose Jacobus as the main series artist because of his use of saturated colors. The only other book to not be illustrated by Jacobus was the book Be Careful What You Wish For..., which was illustrated by Stanislaw Fernandes. Of the sixty-two books in the original series, Jacobus illustrated sixty of the covers. The covers started out as simple concept sketches before going on to be painted with an airbrush.

The first reprints of the Goosebumps series reused Jacobus' artwork. In addition to this, Jacobus illustrated new covers for the books Stay Out of the Basement and Be Careful What You Wish For.... Unlike the original series covers which were hand-painted, these covers were created digitally.

The Classic Goosebumps reprints use new, digital cover art created by Brandon Dorman. Some of the new covers created by Dorman are based on Jabous' work from the original series.

Unused titles and early ideas
Several books went under working titles before a final name was decided. Stine revealed in Goosebumps Holiday Collector's Caps Book that The Horror at Camp Jellyjam originally went by Smelly Summer. The Curse of Camp Cold Lake reportedly went under the working title The Ghost of Camp Cold Lake. And perhaps most notably, Werewolf Skin was advertised as I Want to Be a Werewolf for Halloween in early printings of certain books before it was published.

The title of Brain Juice was first teased in 1996 — prior to the release of Beware, the Snowman. However, at the time, Stine had difficulties coming up with a plot. The book was reportedly finished by March 1998, making it a part of Goosebumps Series 2000 rather than the original series. Another Series 2000 book which was conceived during the original series was Cry of the Cat, which was originally intended to be the sixty-third and final book of the original series.

In 1997, Stine revealed several titles for books that he didn't have story ideas for yet. These titles include: The Good, The Bad, And The Very Itchy, Feeding Frenzy, and 43 Freakout Street. These stories ended up never coming to fruition.

Sequels
Books in the original series recived direct follow-ups in later Goosebumps series. One Day at HorrorLand was followed up by Return to HorrorLand, and Ghost Camp received a spiritual succesor in the form of Return to Ghost Camp in Goosebumps Series 2000. A Night in Terror Tower received a gamebook sequel as Return to Terror Tower in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series.

Goosebumps HorrorLand features direct sequels to Deep Trouble and The Haunted Mask as Creep from the Deep and The Scream of the Haunted Mask, which retcon the events of the original books' sequels from the original series. Books in the Monster Blood and Say Cheese and Die sagas also received new entries as Monster Blood for Breakfast! and Say Cheese — and Die Screaming! respectively, though they do not feature characters from the previous entries.

The Haunted Mask II and Welcome to Dead House were originally supposed to receive sequels as The Haunted Mask Lives! and Happy Holidays from Dead House in the Goosebumps Gold series set to release in late 2000, but the series was canceled and the books were never written.

The Living Dummy books would go on to receive more than a dozen new entries starring Slappy in various Goosebumps series.

TV series

 * Main article: Goosebumps (television series)

Goosebumps would inspire a television anthology series of the same name, which premiered its first season on October 27, 1995, with a two-part adaptation of The Haunted Mask. Most of the episodes made for the show are based on the original series, with forty-three books receiving adaptations. The show ceased production with its fourth season in late 1998, with a total of seventy-four episodes made (fifty-eight if two-part episodes are counted as one). Only nineteen books from the original series didn't receive a TV adaptation.

Audiobooks

 * Main article: Goosebumps audiobooks

Walt Disney Records released six abridged Goosebumps audiobook cassette tapes in late 1996 and one in 1997. Other than a few UK Audiobooks, these were the only original series audiobooks available until 2015 when Scholastic released fifteen new unabridged Goosebumps audiobooks based on the Classic Goosebumps series in anticipation of the first Goosebumps film's release. The Scholastic audiobooks are available digitally, and can be streamed from services such as Spotify.

Graphic novels

 * Main article: Goosebumps Graphix

In 2006, Scholastic launched a series of graphic novels titled Goosebumps Graphix. The series adapts books from the original series into graphic novel format. Ten stories have been adapted across four books.