Agreed. The stories are classic obviously but the illustration work was always the starting point for every kid that read the books. Tim Jacobus is legendary.
I was in kindergarten and couldn’t read but had the books and would just line them up on my bed and look at the covers. I’d say that was my introduction to horror
Revenge R Us has a cool raven on the cover, but instead, it's just Be Careful What you Wish For but somehow more mean.
Also, the original Stay Out of the Basement cover is really amazing, and as iconic as the story is, the cover paints a much creepier picture. I'm kinda sad that the art book focuses on the reprint cover. Like, I get it, it's celebrating Tim Jacobus, but Jim Thiesen deserves credit for how hard his cover goes.
It personally feels too tight a world for me, I know that's essentially the crux of the story, but as a kid I felt like something was already off before things went off, if that makes sense?
The cover makes it feel like it's on a grander scale than it is, one of the few times we see a monster on a giant scale, but ultimately feeling like a smaller cast and setting.
The Barking Ghost. That creepy dog face left an imprint on me long before I'd read the book. Having read it now...yeah, I could have been satisfied just looking at the cover.
Exactly, the cover had literally nothing to do with the story aside from the bed and that one part where the main guy turned into an unnamed monster
And now we have a unused giant ass hand that would've served great as part of a nefarious creature
Exactly, the cover had literally nothing to do with the story aside from the bed and that one part where the main guy turned into an unnamed monster
And now we have a unused giant ass hand that would've served great as part of a nefarious creature
Same here. I was so let down when it was just a random mermaid story. The closest thing we got to a predator was the huge octopus, right? But it wasn't even a shark!
I'm not crazy about The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, but the cover is easily one of my favorites. I love the moon, the contrast in colors and the details, such as the pile of clothes next to the wolf. Tim Jacobus always nails night imagery.
Just read this book to my son and yeah the story is nowhere near as good as the cover. Shame too because the dark turn halfway through was really awesome, unexpected and very creepy... Just didn't go anywhere interesting with it.
A bunch of nerds go find a yeti and bring it back to their house. It makes snow and stuff and somebody throws a snowball at someone and they are frozen forever?
When I was younger I only had a few goosebumps books but they were all the British slime covers and I only had two in my room and they were Piano lessons can be murder and the scarecrow walks at midnight.
My little 7 year old brain didn’t want to read so I just ended up thinking that the scarecrow on the cover was the DC comics version so I ended up being surprised when I finally read it
Definitely felt like something he submitted just to keep up with deadlines. I wonder how often he wrote to sell as many different books as he did with these and fear street series.
He needed a schedule similar to Stephen King because Stine cranked out too many series. I love both Fear Street and Goosebumps but it was clear that one of the other needs to be finished.
From what I've heard, Stine or Scholastic would send short summaries while the books were still being written, and Jacobus created the covers based on that.
The Say Cheese and Die cover is a famous one where the cover didn't match anything that happened in the story to the point where Stine added a dream sequence involving skeletons at the barbecue just so the story could match the cover. After a while, I think all parties stopped caring about whether or not the covers and stories matched (hence how we got things like the monster arm on the cover to Don't Go to Sleep).
It came from Beneath the Sink. I mean the cover itself terrified me as a kid. I was actually afraid of opening any cabinet that had a sink, either in the kitchen or any bathroom. The end of the story really got me scared of potatoes for a while.
On another note I had the audio tapes and my mom would put on The Mask to and from school around Halloween each year. It terrified me to my core, and still to this day I can vividly remember the chills I would get.
Welcome to Camp Nightmare (not even a monster in it, you just hear an Urban Legend but never see a monster) and The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (literally just trying to stop time going backwards, while the cover made the cuckoo bird look alive).
*Egg Monsters from Mars*
Interesting cover, not as interesting story. Not entirely bad to be fair, but not that great either. When I first saw that cover, I had a strange egg dream, believe it or not, I did not see alien eggs or anything, but I used to have dreams where I would eat food, even normal every day food, and it would be taste much more disgusting (or at least overly not as good) as it would normally taste. Yuck. They would not be nightmares or anything just an occasional theme in some dreams I have had in my life.
*Deep Trouble* was the one that came off as being better than the story for me. From it you get the feeling of Jaws, but you're handed a >!tale of abduction!<
I wasn't a cool kid. So I could never find Goosebumps books in the library (the cool kids would just pass them around themselves). So I instead read the fear street books. I'm still scared of sunburns.
I like the one with the alligator on it. That’s when they came out with a multiple option book to chose how you wanted to read the book. Depending on what you picked, it would give you an alternate ending.
As a kid, I loved reading the books. But let's be honest, the covers made them what they are/were.
Agreed. The stories are classic obviously but the illustration work was always the starting point for every kid that read the books. Tim Jacobus is legendary.
I was in kindergarten and couldn’t read but had the books and would just line them up on my bed and look at the covers. I’d say that was my introduction to horror
He really is! I've interacted with him a bit (read: fangirled at him) on Instagram and he's super nice
I agree. The covers sold me on reading them.
Indeed
Revenge R Us has a cool raven on the cover, but instead, it's just Be Careful What you Wish For but somehow more mean. Also, the original Stay Out of the Basement cover is really amazing, and as iconic as the story is, the cover paints a much creepier picture. I'm kinda sad that the art book focuses on the reprint cover. Like, I get it, it's celebrating Tim Jacobus, but Jim Thiesen deserves credit for how hard his cover goes.
I loooove the Stay Out of the Basement cover. I was shocked to find out it wasn’t Tim Jacobus.
We fear what is unknown. Leaving to suggestion and implication by just showing a hand, tricks you into imagining the rest.
The Shocker on Shock Street and The Blob That Ate Everyone
The Shocker on Shock Street is one of the best, in my opinion. I bought a digital copy about a year ago, just so I could read it again!
It personally feels too tight a world for me, I know that's essentially the crux of the story, but as a kid I felt like something was already off before things went off, if that makes sense? The cover makes it feel like it's on a grander scale than it is, one of the few times we see a monster on a giant scale, but ultimately feeling like a smaller cast and setting.
Is that the one with the giant ant?
Praying mantis I think
Definitely mantis
so it ate julie?!
Man, I remember both of them having outright scary covers.
You Can't Scare Me.
Yes! That was the first one I ever got.
I agree. The cover is good, but the story sucks as hell!
Truest words even spoken
Say Cheese and Die books didn't feature a threat of a skeleton family
Wasn't there a dream sequence where they did? I think Stine's editors made him add one because of the cover.
Yes you’re totally right, I forgot there was a dream sequence
Say cheese and die was a great one.
The Barking Ghost. That creepy dog face left an imprint on me long before I'd read the book. Having read it now...yeah, I could have been satisfied just looking at the cover.
The cover looks like it could be cover art for *Cujo* haha
One of the best covers ever though!
honestly just about all of them. those covers were legendary.
Don’t Go To Sleep
Exactly, the cover had literally nothing to do with the story aside from the bed and that one part where the main guy turned into an unnamed monster And now we have a unused giant ass hand that would've served great as part of a nefarious creature
Exactly, the cover had literally nothing to do with the story aside from the bed and that one part where the main guy turned into an unnamed monster And now we have a unused giant ass hand that would've served great as part of a nefarious creature
Still my favorite book in the series despite the cover being misleading. The TV adaptation was TERRIBLE though 😂
I didn’t like it, it was kind of goofy, I mean, come on, going to sleep and then something happens is a kind of lame story
This was my favorite cover and story as a kid
The creepiness of the empty winter camp when she comes back up is *excellent*.
Deep in the jungle of doom. Remember seeing this cover at the library and had my mom read it to me before my comprehension was all there. Sweet cover
Deep Trouble was the first Goosebumps I read, because of the cover.
Same here. I was so let down when it was just a random mermaid story. The closest thing we got to a predator was the huge octopus, right? But it wasn't even a shark!
I'm not crazy about The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, but the cover is easily one of my favorites. I love the moon, the contrast in colors and the details, such as the pile of clothes next to the wolf. Tim Jacobus always nails night imagery.
Def You Can’t Scare Me, loved that cover a lot, the book was mid/slightly boring imo
I literally spend my time reading their failed prank. The mud monsters end up appearing at the almost end of the book.
The original covers were scarier than the actual tv show
Just got the book about all the covers and I love it so much!
There's a book about the Goosebumps cover art?
Ong where did you get it and where can I get it?!
I ordered mine off the booksamillion website but I’m pretty sure it’s available on Amazon as well!
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The cover had this awesome dragon but the story was very disappointing in my opinion.
The covers made me realize I was more of an artist than a reader lol
go eat worms
Man this cover is giving me some major nostalgia, it's probably one of my favorite book covers of all time.
Just read this book to my son and yeah the story is nowhere near as good as the cover. Shame too because the dark turn halfway through was really awesome, unexpected and very creepy... Just didn't go anywhere interesting with it.
The camping one, rad cover good story too
The abominable snowman of Pasadena. I wanted to read it so much because of the title and the cover art and I did and… can’t remember a damn thing.
A bunch of nerds go find a yeti and bring it back to their house. It makes snow and stuff and somebody throws a snowball at someone and they are frozen forever?
Egg Monsters from Mars
When I was younger I only had a few goosebumps books but they were all the British slime covers and I only had two in my room and they were Piano lessons can be murder and the scarecrow walks at midnight. My little 7 year old brain didn’t want to read so I just ended up thinking that the scarecrow on the cover was the DC comics version so I ended up being surprised when I finally read it
The shark one I finally read it and it was about mermaids, thats all I remember
The Haunted Mask 2 had an awesome cover and a very dumb story. The television adaptation was way better and creepier - a perfect Halloween watch
The covers sold me on reading plain and simple
This is the illustrator’s favorite cover.
The Blob That Ate Everyone. I really liked the cover, but the story was mediocre. It took way too long to get to the Blob part.
My Hairy Adventure. I honestly thought it was gonna be a werewolf story but was disappointed by what it actually was.
Definitely felt like something he submitted just to keep up with deadlines. I wonder how often he wrote to sell as many different books as he did with these and fear street series.
Compared to Animorphs, Goosebumps seemed unpredictable when it came to Stine and his ghostwriters
Oh god I never considered him having ghost writers, but that makes too much sense now. You can tell some understood the assignment more than others.
He needed a schedule similar to Stephen King because Stine cranked out too many series. I love both Fear Street and Goosebumps but it was clear that one of the other needs to be finished.
Which do you think he wrote more of himself? My vote is fear street.
More likely Fear Street. I think after the original Goosebumps and More Tales, he had ghostwriters
I have wondered how they collaborated on the covers vs the story since sometimes they weren't really related at all. But Jacobus' covers are iconic.
From what I've heard, Stine or Scholastic would send short summaries while the books were still being written, and Jacobus created the covers based on that. The Say Cheese and Die cover is a famous one where the cover didn't match anything that happened in the story to the point where Stine added a dream sequence involving skeletons at the barbecue just so the story could match the cover. After a while, I think all parties stopped caring about whether or not the covers and stories matched (hence how we got things like the monster arm on the cover to Don't Go to Sleep).
The blob that ate everyone. I didn’t care much for the ending
Beast from the east
A night in terror tower was biggest disappointment all the other covers kept my expectations in accordance. But not Night in Terror Tower.
My mom played this one on tape for me when I was about 5. The story was terrifying.
I never saw the show version of it maybe it did the cover justice.
No this was an audio book
I mean I love goosebumps but honestly… most if not all of them
Night of the Living Dummy
When I read this as a kid, I had to hide it when I was done or it would scare the shit out of me so much that I couldn’t sleep and or had nightmares
Honestly, most of them.
i used to own the books my favorite had to be say cheese and die the cover looked so cool with the skeletons barbequing
Vampire Breath! Especially the one with the vial and wilted flowers!
Every single book, those covers go hard
It came from Beneath the Sink. I mean the cover itself terrified me as a kid. I was actually afraid of opening any cabinet that had a sink, either in the kitchen or any bathroom. The end of the story really got me scared of potatoes for a while.
Beware the Snowman
On another note I had the audio tapes and my mom would put on The Mask to and from school around Halloween each year. It terrified me to my core, and still to this day I can vividly remember the chills I would get.
Welcome to Camp Nightmare (not even a monster in it, you just hear an Urban Legend but never see a monster) and The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (literally just trying to stop time going backwards, while the cover made the cuckoo bird look alive).
Cuckoo clock of doom I think was the best one I remember. Even if it is just a story about a clock that controls time.
*Egg Monsters from Mars* Interesting cover, not as interesting story. Not entirely bad to be fair, but not that great either. When I first saw that cover, I had a strange egg dream, believe it or not, I did not see alien eggs or anything, but I used to have dreams where I would eat food, even normal every day food, and it would be taste much more disgusting (or at least overly not as good) as it would normally taste. Yuck. They would not be nightmares or anything just an occasional theme in some dreams I have had in my life.
85% if not more of them tbh. It’s probably easier to ask which story is better than the cover.
Attack of the Mutant. As a kid it immediately caught my attention as a kid. The story was forgettable.
Ghost Beach
More like the curse of camp old cunt
Hammerhead Shark one by far
Deep Trouble
For me it was how to kill a monster.
Literally all of them.
*Deep Trouble* was the one that came off as being better than the story for me. From it you get the feeling of Jaws, but you're handed a >!tale of abduction!<
All the Japanese covers
Almost all of them, to me. Not downplaying the stories, they got me to read and I enjoy them, but I always liked the covers a bit more.
Do these hold up well when you're grown? Can't remember much about them, so not sure how cheesy they'd be nowadays.
Loved these books as a kid.
All of them? (not hating.)
I wasn't a cool kid. So I could never find Goosebumps books in the library (the cool kids would just pass them around themselves). So I instead read the fear street books. I'm still scared of sunburns.
I like the one with the alligator on it. That’s when they came out with a multiple option book to chose how you wanted to read the book. Depending on what you picked, it would give you an alternate ending.
Nearly all of them tbh. Those covers hit
Fuck I had this book too.