FBX was a magazine published by the BBC. It was a magazine exclusively for boys (For Boys eXclusively - FBX). The magazine included sports articles, comics, a free toy, pull out posters, video game stories, clothing and toy reviews, puzzles, jokes, and word search brain teasers.
In 1999, 17 issues of the magazine included two-page long comic-adaptations of select Goosebumps stories, specifically from the original series and the Tales to Give You Goosebumps.[1]
History[]
Details of the comic strips are vague and generally unknown, though it's known that the comic series was published in the U.K. male targeted magazine FBX sometime during 1999. The artist behind most of the stories was John Ross, an illustrator who began his career in 1996 and worked on previous comic such as Masked Rider, Action Man and 'Spectacular Spider-Man.[2] This was the second time Goosebumps was adapted into mini comics, following the previous Funday Times' Comic Adaptations of Night of the Living Dummy II and A Night in Terror Tower. While 17 were produced, only 9 remain known.
The existence of these comics wasn't properly documented and as such, became lost media for a remainer of two decades as the magazine was presumed to have gone out of print entirely and stopped making more Goosebumps comic strip adaptations. 1999 was around the time of R.L. Stine's fallout with Scholastic, which temporarily placed the Goosebumps franchise on hold and could've been the reason the comics weren't continued afterwards.
During the 2000s and 2010s, the FBX comics became relatively obscure and as such, more hidden from the general public. During this time, Goosebumps Graphix released, which many believed to be the first ever time Goosebumps was adaptated into a comic format, unaware of the lesser known FBX and Funday Times comic strips due to their lack of availablity. In 2022, a comic adaptation of Egg Monsters from Mars and The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb would be discovered, giving a resurgence to the existence of the comics. With these stories re-discovered, more comic strip adaptations would be uncovered by YouTuber Goosebumps Completionist, who posted images of these comics on his YouTUbe channel and Twitter account. The rediscovery of these formerly lost comics has helped brought attention to them.
Stories adaptated[]
From the original series[]
- The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
- Egg Monsters from Mars
- Stay Out of the Basement
- My Hairiest Adventure
- Welcome to Camp Nightmare
Tales to Give You Goosebumps stories[]
- Dr. Horror's House of Video
- Poison Ivy
- Pumpkin Juice
- I'm Telling!
- Don't Sit on the Gronk
- The Ice Vampire
Gallery[]
Original Series[]
Tales to Give You Goosebumps[]
Trivia[]
- This series notably introduces the first ever visual depictions of multiple Goosebumps characters in media, as it adapts certain stories that had not been previously adapted yet.
- This is the first time Stay Out of the Basement was adapted into a comic, with the Graphix adaptation releasing in 2026.
- This is the second piece of lost media in the Goosebumps franchise, with the first being the Funday Times' own comic strips being temporaily lost.
- With that, these two are the first pieces of lost Goosebumps media to be found again.
- The Funday Times and FBX mini-comics are the first and only time Goosebumps has been adapted outside the United States, due to these comics being produced by British publishers.