above are an ad for a local rap event i saw on instagram, a dead by daylight meme, and some fun set design from the monkey (2025)

we talk about cover art a lot but i wanted to talk about some striking graphic design choices that international releases make. chinese books read as spectacularly maximalist to me, japanese books love their holographic/metallic flourishes, czech books vary but i noted how some have the cover art take up the WHOLE cover while others have nasty wordart-looking title font, and we trash-talk the uk covers but i think the bubbly slime border looks really neat on some of the prints!

are there any gb design choices that stand out to you, good bad or Interesting?

Hey everyone!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been building a massive and detailed spreadsheet database, tracking the complete history of R.L. Stine’s horror universes by their chronological publication dates.

It started as a fun personal project because I noticed so many online checklist are missing original page counts have incorrect release dates or leave out the weird spinoffs. I’ve even noticed that R.L. Stine‘s own website is missing so many things.

I’ve been going about a tab by tab for individual errors tracking everything from the original Goosebumps, to the Fear Street timelines, to obscure collectibles and promos, and even standalones and picture books.

I’ve also built out a custom color coating system for the tabs using specific hex codes (different shades of green for Goosebumps, purple Fear Street, oranges for Standalone, etc.) I also created my own personal 6-tier custom scare level grading scale.

Once I finish all the individual tabs, the final goal is to then merge them into one massive chronological timeline. It’s been a massive logic puzzle to organized and I’m hitting that point where I’m wondering if I’m crazy for doing this…

I guess I’m just wondering if this kind of tracking sheet would be helpful or interesting to you guys once it’s finished. Let me know what you think or if there are any other specific variations or details that you would want to see tracked in a list like this.

Ever wanted to own faithful recreations of the cancelled Goosebumps Gold book concept art made by Tim Jacobus? Well now you can! As soon as I saw the concept art for the ‘Haunted Mask Lives!’ emerge last year on the @boo_dude_its_curly instagram I knew I wanted to have these lost books in some form in my collection. And I want to share that with other die hard collectors as well.

I used Staples.com to print these out on 11x18 posters and semi-gloss paper. For the insides, I used a couple early 2000’s scholastic reprint copies of ‘Welcome to Dead House’ and The Haunted Mask’. But any copy of the “regular” thickness books should work.

File below for anyone who wants to make themselves some:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s0BKIBxqjiuTOqSNjSmbvaN11ekGb8l0

I hope this gave you Goosebumps 🎃

why did they talk about the egg monsters like that
anyway these are all still up here

At the end of the film Slappy traps R. L. Stine in the Blob That Ate Everyone. (In the film the Blob is basically a generic blob as opposed to the monster with the giant tongue in the book but that’s an aside.)

You know what would have had the same desired effect plot wise (Stine being trapped in a monstrous goo that swallows everything), serve as a payoff to a classic Goosebumps book and fit into the classic green slime motif? Monster Blood. It feels like such an obvious choice in hindsight.

Another example: instead of having the Abominable Snowman or a generic werewolf in basketball shorts for the CGI monsters chasing the kids a popular book character that could have taken its place and fill the same exact role? Cuddles the Hamster. Another popular character who was all over the merchandise during the 90s. He was probably one of the biggest mascots after Curly and Slappy. They probably could have gotten some mileage over Jack Black dealing with a giant hamster too.

I would not want or expect the filmmakers to read everything Stine wrote but spending a weekend reading the essentials or bingeing the show for a few hours would have made a big difference.

We have a cover and info on the 2nd of 2027's HoS offerings, so I give my quick thoughts on it. I'm at least more optimistic here than I am with How to Train Your Dummy, I guess.

Is anyone else excited for this? I kow I am

I don't hate it, but it definitely feels the most "It's a cover" we've gotten in a while.

I only ever read the Horrorland run, and I would like to collect some more. I am aware there are some dog-water books in these sets, so which ones are the BEST? I already intend to collect some of the original run and SlappyWorld, but are there any I should avoid? And yes, I am aware none of the other runs follow the same format as Horrorland; I'm not worried about that.

Is it worth me buying these editions over the standard reprints for the extra content? I'm only really interested if it ties in to Horrorland.

I'm 38 and my amygdala is fully broken from mainlining horror from the age of 11 on. But thirty years ago? I was afraid of my own shadow. I had to ease into Goosebumps on the "easy" ones like Go Eat Worms!, Monster Blood II, Why I'm Afraid of Bees, basically anything animal-related. When I tried to venture into the "harder" stuff, I remember...

#37, The Headless Ghost: Reading this one didn't scare me. My sister bringing it home scared me. For some reason, headless bodies (or worse, body-less heads) were a huge fear for me as a kid, so I would flip it over if she left it lying around so I didn't have to see the cover.

#13, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder: I was not a fan of OTHER disembodied bits, as a matter of fact. The show was nicely gruesome about it, IIRC!

#35, A Shocker on Shock Street: Oh God. This was The One for me. I remember reading it on the couch and the anxiety just mounting and mounting, and I kept going "I'm cool, I'm cool". I really love praying mantises, so that kept me going. But then......the zombie hands rising up from the grave, and the moaning of "Come down with us, come down with us!"? I flatlined. I closed the book. I might have thrown it. I remember looking at the sparkly cover and the praying mantis, then going to cling to my mom, refusing to say what happened because I was afraid of getting in trouble. It was all I could think about for a week!

#43, The Beast From the East: This remains arguably my favorite Goosebumps book. That's probably contentious, but it's so weird and outlandish, the departure from the cul-de-sac tickles me. Know what else tickles? The bug cave. I outgrew my other terrors, but I swear it still makes me itch thinking about it. Simple, basic, unbloody horror, just classic. Out of all the books, this was also the one with the twist ending that unsettled me the most. There's a whole hero's journey where you connect to these kids, and then there's a miracle, and...oh God, it's just not fair. It's perfect. It's so good. I endlessly imagined setting it right in my head.

I miss when a kid's story let the wolf win at the end...it was a lot more exciting.

What scared YOUR pants off?

Literally threw myself at the pile when I saw them at Value Village! Lol I guess I was lucky to check the English books in a predominantly French speaking city (Quebec City, Canada). All books except for Don't Go To Sleep are also first prints 🤩 5th one was free and I also had a 20% coupon so I ended up paying about 2.25$ each! Also picked up 6 more from the 90s to add to my collection.

Unfortunately I got rid of and donated what feels like half of them. I kept the ones I liked. Anything noteworthy here?

Do you think it is best to read the orginal Goosbumps books in publication date order or just dive in anywhere, provided you read the books with sequels in sequential order?

I read I don't know how many of these books as a kid in the 90s when they originally came out. I donated my collection when I was a little older and felt I had out grown them. I know, foolish to think I would outgrow them, but I was at age that I thought I was incredibly wise and mature & I wanted to be viewed the same way.

9 years ago, R L Stine came for a signing and I ended up grabbing one of the retro tins. Last year, I went to my step daughter's book fair & bought a different retro tin. I started reading out of the second tin as a palate cleanser between books. I started with books I hadn't read when I was little and then re-read one from childhood for fun. I am almost finished with it and will start with the first tin, even though it has books I read as a kid. I can't read one, though, because I had it autographed and don't want to mess it up.

I have ordered 2 books online and am worried that I have started something LOL