Goosebumps is a series of children's horror fiction books by creator and author R. L. Stine. It is the second best selling book series of all time, selling 400 million books worldwide in over 32 languages.
It shares its name with a condition of the same name also known as 'goose pimples', a symptom of fright.
Books
Original series
For the UK editions, please see: UK Releases.
Reprints: 2003-2007
From 2003 to 2007, 57 out of the 62 of the original Goosebumps books were reprinted. Each reprint received a new cover base and used different colors. Two books, Stay Out of the Basement and Be Careful What You Wish For..., were given new cover art. This series of reprints were discontinued shortly after the Classic Goosebumps were introduced.
Reprints: Classic Goosebumps
Classic Goosebumps was a series of reprints 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 materials were added to the end of each book.
Collections
Between 1995 and 1997, Scholastic Inc. released four Goosebumps Monster Edition books. Each book contained three Goosebumps books. The first three Monster Edition books were simply numbered while the fourth book was titled Fright Light Edition.
Four hardcover Goosebumps Collection books were released between 2003 and 2005. Each book contained three books from the Goosebumps franchise. Living Dummy Collection, Campfire Collection, and Monster Blood Collection, and 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps. The book 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps featured the first three books in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series, but it was released at the same time as the other books.
Two paperback books collection books Hair-Raising Collection and Vanishing Collection, were released in the early 2000s. The covers on these books were similar to the covers on the reprints released between 2003 and 2007.
Graphic novels
Ten Goosebumps books were adapted into graphic novels via Goosebumps Graphix. The three Goosebumps Graphix books were title Creepy Creatures, Terror Trips, Scary Summer, and Slappy's Tales of Horror.
List of characters
Villains/Enemies/Antagonists
Children/Protagonists
Other Characters
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Cover artists
The first book 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 a currently unknown artist.
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.
Follow-ups and spin-offs
After the success of the original series, various spin-off series were made. The first spin-off series debuted in 1994 with the release of Tales to Give You Goosebumps. It spawned five sequels, and each book featured 10 short stories. The other spin-off series was the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series, which debuted in 1995.
After the original series was discontinued in December 1997, it was followed up by Goosebumps Series 2000 the month after.
Other media
TV Show
Goosebumps was adapted into a TV series in 1995. The show started out adapting the original series of books, then eventually several stories from Tales to Give You Goosebumps, and Goosebumps Series 2000. The show ceased production in 1998 with a total of 58 episodes made, or 74 if you count the two-part episodes as separate episodes. R. L. Stine would sometimes make appearances at the beginning and end of some episodes, mainly the earlier ones.
Film
A feature film based on the Goosebumps franchise was released by Sony and Columbia Pictures on October 16th, 2015. The film includes many references to the original books, and various monsters and villains from the series make an appearance. Slappy the Dummy, the Abominable Snowman, Will Blake (werewolf form), the Lawn Gnomes and the Giant Praying Mantises are among the more notable monsters in the film.
Trivia
- R. L. Stine came up with the title of the series while looking at a TV guide, and he saw an ad that said, "It's Goosebumps week on channel 11!"
- At first, Stine didn't want to do Goosebumps, because he was afraid that fans of the Fear Street series would make fun of him for making a children's book series.
- At first, the Goosebumps books were not a hit. After first six months, the books became bestsellers. To this day, the Goosebumps franchise has sold 400 million copies worldwide.
| Goosebumps series | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |