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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.[1] 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!"[2]

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.[3] 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

Generally, R.L. Stine is able to come up with plots for books by first thinking of a title. He uses this as inspiration to create an outline before a draft of the story is written. Stine claimed he was able to write a single Goosebumps book in just under ten days.[4] Worthy of note, series packager Parachute Press once admitted that, commencing with book 17, Stine would allow freelancers to adapt his detailed 10-12 page outlines into draft manuscripts for him; Stine reportedly exercised both initial and final creative control, often rewriting or discarding drafts.[5] (Years later, Stine would claim: "I wrote all the GB books myself, believe it or not. Sometimes I had writers help me with the outlines. But all books were by me."[6] Assuming that his words aren't contradicting Parachute, he likely meant that freelancers helped turn his story outlines into manuscripts.)

Stine described the first book, Welcome to Dead House as being the scariest in the series[7] 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.[8]

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

No. Book Publish date Pages
1 Welcome to Dead House July 1992 123
2 Stay Out of the Basement July 1992 122
3 Monster Blood September 1992 128
4 Say Cheese and Die! November 1992 132
5 The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb January 1993 132
6 Let's Get Invisible! March 1993 139
7 Night of the Living Dummy May 1993 134
8 The Girl Who Cried Monster May 1993 137
9 Welcome to Camp Nightmare July 1993 136
10 The Ghost Next Door August 1993 124
11 The Haunted Mask September 1993 121
12 Be Careful What You Wish For... October 1993 121
13 Piano Lessons Can Be Murder November 1993 124
14 The Werewolf of Fever Swamp December 1993 123
15 You Can't Scare Me! January 1994 120
16 One Day at HorrorLand February 1994 123
17 Why I'm Afraid of Bees March 1994 117
18 Monster Blood II April 1994 121
19 Deep Trouble May 1994 117
20 The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight May 1994 122
21 Go Eat Worms! July 1994 119
22 Ghost Beach August 1994 119
23 Return of the Mummy September 1994 118
24 Phantom of the Auditorium October 1994 126
25 Attack of the Mutant November 1994 117
26 My Hairiest Adventure December 1994 122
27 A Night in Terror Tower January 1995 129
28 The Cuckoo Clock of Doom February 1995 118
29 Monster Blood III March 1995 126
30 It Came from Beneath the Sink! April 1995 126
31 Night of the Living Dummy II May 1995 120
32 The Barking Ghost June 1995 117
33 The Horror at Camp Jellyjam July 1995 128
34 Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes August 1995 119
35 A Shocker on Shock Street September 1995 117
36 The Haunted Mask II October 1995 124
37 The Headless Ghost November 1995 113
38 The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena December 1995 127
39 How I Got My Shrunken Head January 1996 119
40 Night of the Living Dummy III February 1996 125
41 Bad Hare Day March 1996 117
42 Egg Monsters from Mars April 1996 115
43 The Beast from the East May 1996 118
44 Say Cheese and Die — Again! June 1996 115
45 Ghost Camp July 1996 118
46 How to Kill a Monster August 1996 112
47 Legend of the Lost Legend September 1996 123
48 Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns October 1996 113
49 Vampire Breath November 1996 114
50 Calling All Creeps! December 1996 116
51 Beware, the Snowman January 1997 113
52 How I Learned to Fly February 1997 125
53 Chicken Chicken March 1997 112
54 Don't Go to Sleep! April 1997 118
55 The Blob That Ate Everyone May 1997 114
56 The Curse of Camp Cold Lake June 1997 114
57 My Best Friend Is Invisible July 1997 114
58 Deep Trouble II August 1997 113
59 The Haunted School September 1997 120
60 Werewolf Skin October 1997 125
61 I Live in Your Basement! November 1997 111
62 Monster Blood IV December 1997 118

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

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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.

Reprints

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. In 2024, the Classic Goosebumps line returned, with new releases now featuring the original Tim Jacobus art.

Collections

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.

Monsteredition1 Monsteredition2 Monsteredition-frightlightedition
Title: Monster Edition #1
Release date: October 1995
Feature: Greeting wail
Stories:
Welcome to Dead House
Stay Out of the Basement
Say Cheese and Die!
Title: Monster Edition #2
Release date: October 1996
Feature: Light-up eyes
Stories:
Night of the Living Dummy
Night of the Living Dummy II
Night of the Living Dummy III
Title: Fright Light Edition
Release date: May 1997
Feature: Booklight
Stories:
Welcome to Camp Nightmare
The Horror at Camp Jellyjam
Ghost Camp
Monsteredition3
Title: Monster Edition #3
Release date: September 1997
Feature: Greeting wail
Stories:
The Ghost Next Door
Ghost Beach
The Barking Ghost

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.

The Campfire Collection Monster Blood Collection 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps
Title: The Campfire Collection
Release date: August 2003
Stories:
The Curse of Camp Cold Lake
Ghost Camp
Welcome to Camp Nightmare
Title: Monster Blood Collection
Release date: August 2003
Stories:
Monster Blood
Monster Blood II
Monster Blood III
Title: 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps
Release date: July 2004
Stories:
Tales to Give You Goosebumps
More Tales to Give You Goosebumps
Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps
Living Dummy Collection
Title: Living Dummy Collection
Release date: January 2005
Stories:
Night of the Living Dummy
Night of the Living Dummy II
Night of the Living Dummy III

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 Hair-Raising Collection Goosebumps Vanishing Collection
Title: Hair-Raising Collection
Release date: November 2004
Stories:
Welcome to Dead House
Stay Out of the Basement
Monster Blood
Title: Vanishing Collection
Release date: November 2004
Stories:
Say Cheese and Die!
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Let's Get Invisible!

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 Goosebumps g splat.

Goosebumps retro scream collection tin Goosebumps 25th Anniversary Retro Set 2 Goosebumps Retro Fear Set Limited Edition Tin
Title: Retro Scream Collection
Release date: October 27, 2015
Stories:
Welcome to Dead House
Say Cheese and Die!
Night of the Living Dummy
The Haunted Mask
One Day at HorrorLand
Title: 25th Anniversary Retro Set
Release date: September 26, 2017
Stories:
Monster Blood
Why I'm Afraid of Bees
A Night in Terror Tower
The Beast from the East
Legend of the Lost Legend
Title: Retro Fear Set
Release date: September 1, 2020
Stories:
Stay Out of the Basement
Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
The Haunted School

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.

Early ideas

Main article: List of scrapped and pre-release material

Several books went under working titles before a final name was decided. 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.[9] However, at the time, Stine had difficulties coming up with a plot.[10] The book was reportedly finished by March 1998,[11] making it a part of Goosebumps Series 2000 rather than the original series. Another Series 2000 book, Cry of the Cat, was originally intended to be the sixty-third and final book of the original series.[12]

List of characters

Villains/Enemies/Antagonists

Children/Protagonists

Other characters

Covers

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.[citation needed]

Artists

The first two books in the Goosebumps series were illustrated by separate artists. Tim Jacobus provided the cover art for the debut book, Welcome to Dead House, while Jim Thiesen illustrated Stay Out of the Basement. Scholastic Inc. ultimately chose Jacobus as the primary series artist because of his use of saturated colors. The only other book to not be illustrated by Jacobus was Be Careful What You Wish For..., which was illustrated by Stanislaw Fernandes while Jacobus was away on vacation. Jacobus created covers for sixty of the sixty-two books in the original series, starting 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.

Sequels

Books in the original series received 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.

Adaptations

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.[13]

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.

References

Not to be confused with the list of references and allusions in the Goosebumps franchise.
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