Goosebumps (commonly referred to as "the original series) is a series of children's horror fiction books created and authored by R.L. Stine.
The first three books in the series debuted in July 1992. Sales were initially slow, and there were talks of ending the series after the sixth book.[1] However, sales picked up soon after and demand for the series increased, leading to the books being published bi-monthly by the ninth book. R.L. Stine was able to write a single Goosebumps book in just under 10 days.[2] Within just a few years, Goosebumps became the best selling children's book series of all time.[3]
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, calendars, posters, trading cards, and more.
The series would inspire multiple spin-off book series, a television show, video games, comics, and films.
Books
Original series
For international releases, please click on one of the following:
- Welcome to Dead House
- Stay Out of the Basement
- Monster Blood
- Say Cheese and Die!
- The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
- Let's Get Invisible!
- Night of the Living Dummy
- The Girl Who Cried Monster
- Welcome to Camp Nightmare
- The Ghost Next Door
- The Haunted Mask
- Be Careful What You Wish For...
- Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
- The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
- You Can't Scare Me!
- One Day at HorrorLand
- Why I'm Afraid of Bees
- Monster Blood II
- Deep Trouble
- The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
- Go Eat Worms!
- Ghost Beach
- Return of the Mummy
- Phantom of the Auditorium
- Attack of the Mutant
- My Hairiest Adventure
- A Night in Terror Tower
- The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
- Monster Blood III
- It Came from Beneath the Sink!
- Night of the Living Dummy II
- The Barking Ghost
- The Horror at Camp Jellyjam
- Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
- A Shocker on Shock Street
- The Haunted Mask II
- The Headless Ghost
- The Abominable Snowman Of Pasadena
- How I Got My Shrunken Head
- Night of the Living Dummy III
- Bad Hare Day
- Egg Monsters from Mars
- The Beast from the East
- Say Cheese and Die — Again!
- Ghost Camp
- How to Kill a Monster
- Legend of the Lost Legend
- Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns
- Vampire Breath
- Calling All Creeps!
- Beware, the Snowman
- How I Learned to Fly
- Chicken Chicken
- Don't Go To Sleep!
- The Blob That Ate Everyone
- The Curse of Camp Cold Lake
- My Best Friend Is Invisible
- Deep Trouble II
- The Haunted School
- Werewolf Skin
- I Live in Your Basement!
- Monster Blood IV
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.
Timeline | |
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2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 |
Classic Goosebumps
- Main article: Classic Goosebumps
Classic Goosebumps was a series of reprints originally made to coincide with the release of Goosebumps HorrorLand books. All of the Classic Goosebumps books featured new cover art by Brandon Dorman and a new Goosebumps logo. In addition, the font used for numbering chapters was redesigned and bonus features were added to the end of each book.
Collections
Monster Blood Pack
Monster Blood Pack is the first Goosebumps book collection ever released. It contains Monster Blood, Monster Blood II and Monster Blood III, plus a container of green slime. It was released 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.
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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.
No. | Book and feature | Publish date | Blurb |
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1 | Monster Edition #1 Greeting wail |
October 1995 | IT'S THREE SCREAMS IN ONE! This GOOSEBUMPS MONSTER EDITION includes three of the very GOOSEBUMPS books ever. In Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps #1) Amanda and John moves to the town of Dark Falls where the kids in the neighborhood aren't exactly alive... In Stay Out of the Basement (Goosebumps #2) Margaret and Casey's dad is conducting a strange experiment in the basement. Could he really be turning people into plants? In Say Cheese and Die! (Goosebumps #4) Greg's new camera is taking some awfully weird pictures — pictures that predict a horrifying future! |
2 | Monster Edition #2 Light-up eyes |
October 1996 | IT'S THREE DUMMIES IN ONE! This GOOSEBUMPS MONSTER EDITION includes three GOOSEBUMPS books starring the scariest dummy ever. In Night of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps #7) Lindy names the old ventriloquist's dummy she finds in the trash, Slappy. He's lots of fun. Until all kinds of nasty things start happening... In Night of the Living Dummy II (Goosebumps #31) Amy's dad finds Slappy in a local pawnshop. Now Amy's about to learn a very important lesson — you can't teach an old dummy new tricks! In Night of the Living Dummy III (Goosebumps #40) Trina O'Dell's dad has a dummy museum in his attict. He's got tweleve dummies to be exact. But now Mr. O'Dell's brought home dummy number thirteen. This dummy's got a cracked head. And his real name is Slappy! |
3 | Fright Light Edition Booklight |
May 1997 | IT'S THREE FRIGHTS IN ONE! This GOOSEBUMPS FRIGHT LIGHT EDITION includes three spooky GOOSEBUMPS books -- all about camp! In Welcome to Camp Nightmare (Goosebumps #9) Billy's off to camp for the first time. He's pretty excited, until his fellow campers start disappearing. One by one... In The Horror at Camp Jellyjam (Goosebumps #33) Wendy and her brother, Elliot, discover that winning at sports camp isn't everything. Staying alive is! In Ghost Camp (Goosebumps #45) Harry and Alex see a lot of strange things at Camp Spirit Moon. But what they don't see is even worse! They're camping out with ghosts! |
4 | Monster Edition #3 Greeting wail |
September 1997 | IT'S THREE WAILS IN ONE! This GOOSEBUMPS MONSTER EDITION includes three chilling GOOSEBUMPS ghost tales. In The Ghost Next Door (Goosebumps #10) Hannah just made friends with the new kid on the block. Weird thing is, he keeps disappearing right before her eyes! In Ghost Beach (Goosebumps #22) Jerry and Terri can't wait to explore the dark old cave they found by the beach...until they find out it's haunted! In The Barking Ghost (Goosebumps #32) scardey-cat Casper is being chased by two evil-looking dogs. What could be worse? Finding out the dogs are really barking ghosts! |
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.
No. | Book | Publish date | Stories contained |
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1 | The Campfire Collection |
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2 | Monster Blood Collection |
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3 | 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps |
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4 | Living Dummy Collection |
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.
No. | Book | Publish date | Stories contained |
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1 |
Hair-Raising Collection |
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2 |
Vanishing Collection |
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 through out. Under the base of the tins features the splat.
No. | Book | Publish date | Books contained |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Retro Scream Collection |
October 27, 2015 | |
2 | 25th Anniversary Retro Set |
September 26, 2017 | |
3 | Retro Fear Set [4] |
September 1, 2020 |
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.
- Books from the first nineteen releases now have the Goosebumps logo on the spine.
- There are no book numbers on the spine.
- The slime border for Stay Out of the Basement is dark blue instead of its original purple.
List of characters
Villains/Enemies/Antagonists
Children/Protagonists
Other characters
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Cover 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. Of the 62 books in the original series, Jacobus illustrated 60 covers. With the exception of Stay Out of the Basement, 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.
The first reprints of the Goosebumps series reused Jacobus's art. In addition to this, Jacobus illustrated new covers for the books Stay Out of the Basement and Be Careful What You Wish For....
The Classic Goosebumps reprints used new, digital cover art created by Brandon Dorman. Some of the new covers created by Dorman were based on covers from the original series.
Adaptations
TV series
- Main article: Goosebumps (television series)
Goosebumps would inspire a television anthology series of the same name, which permiered 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 43 books receiving adaptations. The show ceased production with its fourth season in late 1998, with a total of 74 episodes made (58 if two-part episodes are counted as one). Only 19 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.[5]
Graphic novels
- Main article: Goosebumps Graphix
In 2006, Scholastic laucnhed 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.
Trivia
- During the 1990s, Stine revealed several titles for books that never ended up coming to fruition. These titles include: The Good, The Bad, And The Very Itchy, Feeding Frenzy, and 43 Freakout Street.[6]
- The title of Brain Juice was first teased in 1996 — prior to the release of Beware, the Snowman.[7] However, at the time, Stine had difficulties coming up with a plot.[6] The book was reportedly finished by March of 1998,[8] making it a part of Goosebumps Series 2000 rather than the original series.
- Early first edition copies of books 1-6 feature no number on the spine.
- The spines of the first 19 books in the series feature the Goosebumps title in a standard font. From book 20 onward, this was replaced with the Goosebumps slime logo.
- When ignoring punctuation and capitalization, there are 16 books in the original series where the title appears as a line that's worked into the story.
References
- Not to be confused with the list of references and allusions in the Goosebumps franchise.
- ↑ Goosebumps Illustrator Tim Jacobus (Live Panel, Astronomicon) (2:48)
- ↑ CNN - "R.L. Stine - A chat with the best-selling children's author" (October 28, 1999)
- ↑ Publishers Weekly - "Outsourcing the Books" (April 17, 2000)
- ↑ Amazon: Goosebumps Retro Fear Set: Limited Edition Tin listing
- ↑ Goosebumps Wiki - Thread:37915: "Goosebumps audiobooks free on Spotify?"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "The Bumps" — "Ask R.L. Stine!" October 14 (archived)
- ↑ "The Bumps" — "Brain Juice, but that will be something over #60." (archived)
- ↑ "The Bumps" — "Ask R.L. Stine!" March 16 (archived)
Goosebumps series | ||
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Main series | Original series • Series 2000 • HorrorLand • Hall of Horrors • Most Wanted • SlappyWorld | |
Spin-off series | Tales to Give You Goosebumps • Give Yourself Goosebumps • Goosebumps Presents • Triple Header | |
Other series | Collector's Caps books • Goosebumps Gold • Classic Goosebumps • Goosebumps film books |