Goosebumps is a series of children's horror fiction novellas created and authored by R. L. Stine. Sixty-two books were published under the Goosebumps umbrella title from 1992 to 1997, the last one being Monster Blood IV.
The signature cover illustrations for the Goosebumps, Goosebumps 2000 & Goosebumps Gold were done by artist Tim Jacobus. The covers for the later Give Yourself Goosebumps series (#25 onwards and all Special Editions) were done by Craig White.
The Goosebumps series was often challenged in American libraries for their sometimes-violent content; the novels were fifteenth on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 1999.[1] They are based on scary stories for children aged twelve and under, and include references for adults to enjoy.
The series spawned several spinoffs, also written by Stine, including Give Yourself Goosebumps and Goosebumps: Series 2000 which appeared in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
The series inspired two board games produced by Milton Bradley, "Terror in the Graveyard" and "Escape from Horrorland", a 1996 PC game produced by DreamWorks Interactive also entitled, "Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland" like Milton Bradley's board game and another book-based PC game entitled "Attack of the Mutant", several direct-to-video movies and a TV series.
During the height of the series popularity, two parody books were released by an author going by the penname R.U. Slime called Gooflumps: Eat Cheese and Barf! and Stay Out of the Bathroom.
Inspirations
A lot of Stine's plots are, by his own admission, based on classic sci-fi/horror movies, TV shows, and stories. For instance, one of the most popular books in the series, Night of the Living Dummy, was inspired by Stine's reading of the original Italian version of Pinocchio, while taking its title from the film Night of the Living Dead. The book It Came From Beneath The Sink! took its title from the 1955 science fiction film It Came from Beneath the Sea, though plotwise there is little resemblance between the two. The two-part Series 2000 book Invasion of the Body Squeezers is an obvious parody of the classic science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Phantom of the Auditorium is a clear parody of the french novel The Phantom of the Opera. Many books also resemble episodes of the original television series, The Twilight Zone, including Say Cheese And Die, Welcome To Camp Nightmare, Be Careful What You Wish For, and The Haunted Mask and its sequel, to name a few. A Give Yourself Goosebumps book, Welcome to the Wicked Wax Museum, was based on the film House of Wax. Another Give Yourself Goosebumps book, Zombie School, is based on the movie They Live, and features the same subliminal advertising as the movie.