An illustrator talks about what it was like to spend a decade designing Goosebumps covers

REMEMBER Goosebumps books? Well, the New Jersey illustrator has talked about what it was like to spend a decade of his life involved with the series.

IF you were growing up in the 90s there is a good chance you were an avid reader of Goosebumps.

From Stay Out of the Basement to Say Cheese and Die to Night of the Living Dummy, the highly successful book series inspired a generation of children to read.

The tantalising tales of terror were such a hit, that Goosebumps sold over 350 million books worldwide and was published in 32 languages.

While the name R.L Stine is synonymous with Goosebumps’ success, a New Jersey native was also pivotal in bringing the books to life.

Illustrator Tim Jacobus spent just under a decade designing the covers of close to 100 books.

“The first I heard was that Scholastic were trying out four copies of children’s horror by a guy named R. L. Stine, but no one really thought they would work,” he told Vice.

“I did the cover for Welcome to Dead House and got the job because I used lots of colour.”

Egg Monsters from Mars

Welcome to Dead House.

Mr Jacobus said on average a single book cover would take him up to 40 hours to complete.

“I used a mixture of paint and airbrushing, which provided that sleek, finished look,” he said.

With various spin-offs, video games, merchandise and a television series born from the original book series, you could be mistaken for thinking Mr Jacobus was living the high life.

“They paid me fine, but my payment wasn’t attached to sales,” he told Vice.

“It didn’t make any difference whether they sold a million copies or ten. I don’t live in a mansion.”

However, the illustrator is quick to point out R.L Stine had a little more luck financially out of the series.

“I’ve been to his house and it’s a real nice place. He lives in Manhattan in a very nice place,” he said.

In the end it was a phonecall that advised Mr Jacobus his services were no longer required because the series was ending.

“I don’t want to call it depression, but yes, I was very sad … It was the early 2000s and Goosebumps was over,” he said.

When talking on the success of Goosebumps, Mr Jacobus thinks it was all to do with timing and luck.

“I’m not diminishing what R. L. Stine did, but it was just hitting the right thing at the right time,” he said.

“I don’t even believe that if we got together again it would be close to successful. You need the skill and the dedication to get lucky, but in the end there’s an element of magic.”