Columbus-born author R.L. Stine talks 'Goosebumps,' Netflix films, more

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Despite his ability to raise your neck hairs and induce nightmares, R.L. Stine is not a scary guy.
In fact, the Columbus-born author who made "Goosebumps" a household name in the 1990s never aspired to become a master of horror.
"I never planned to write scary books. I was always funny rather than scary," Stine said during a recent chat with The Dispatch.
Stine's childhood goal was to be a cartoonist. Unfortunately, reviews of his work by his buddies were less than stellar.
"My friends said, 'Bob, your drawings suck,'" he recalled.
Instead, the author said he "became the 9-year-old weird kid in my room typing my stories."
If Stine's zany sense of humor is a surprise, you probably never encountered the work of Jovial Bob Stine at a Scholastic book fair as a kid.
Under that moniker, he created and wrote for Bananas magazine, the wackier, teen-targeted cousin of MAD magazine. Bananas was spawned from the powerhouse Scholastic children's magazine Dynamite, for which Stine also had written.
A conversation with Jean Feiwel, then editorial director at Scholastic, steered Stine away from the hilarious to the horrifying.
"She was angry at a guy who wrote teen horror and said she was never working with him again. She said to me, 'You could write good horror. Write a teen horror novel called 'Blind Date,'" Stine recalled.
The 81-year-old author said he wasn't deterred by his unfamiliarity with the genre. "I never said no to anything, so I said, 'Yeah, sure,'" he said.
"I wrote 'Blind Date' and it came out a No. 1 bestseller. I'd never been on the list with my funny stuff before. I've been scary from then on."
That was 1987. Two years later, Stine launched "Fear Street," a successful series of teen slasher novels. Then, in 1991, his wife and editor, Jane Waldhorn, challenged him to write for even younger fans of terrifying tales.
Though an avid horror comic reader as a kid himself, Stine was reluctant. But thumbing through the TV Guide one day, he came across a word he thought would make a great series title: "goosebumps."
"Goosebumps" took off like a shot in 1992, really putting Stine's name on the literary map. At the series' peak of popularity, the writer was churning out a book every month for nearly five years.
"I was writing a 'Goosebumps' every month and 'Fear Street,' so I didn't get out much. I have no idea how I had the energy for that," Stine said.
"I'd been writing for 20 years and nobody really noticed. To have that incredible success was so exciting."
"Goosebumps" has sold more than 450 million copies in 35 languages, making it the second highest-selling children's book series in history, after the "Harry Potter" saga.
Aimed at a tween audience roughly 9 to 12 years old, the books have inspired films, TV shows, video games, toys and more. Even the Columbus Crew will be sporting neon-accented secondary uniforms honoring "Goosebumps."
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Stine has been a regular on bestsellers lists, not only for "Goosebumps," but other series including "Rotten School," "Mostly Ghostly," "The Nightmare Room," "Dangerous Girls" and "Fear Street."
Netflix released a trio of original movies in July 2021 based on the first three installments of "Fear Street." The high school horrorfest will continue with "Fear Street: Prom Queen," scheduled for release on May 23 of Netflix.
Stine said he feels flattered and grateful for the attention to his work, though he was surprised by the movies' R rating.
"I love having the movies made. It's a wonderful thing. I have to admit I was shocked because they're R-rated. Even my life isn't R-rated," he said.
"I was really shocked because they have heightened scares in the movies. 'Fear Street' is about teens and terror. Why do people like it so much?"
One would think a writer as prolific as Stine, who's penned more than 350 books, must have a meticulously detailed writing process and a vast database of stories in his brain. One would be mistaken.
"My main talent is thinking of titles. I always think of the title first. When I get a good title, that leads me to the story. I'm backward from most authors," he said.
An example is the book Stine just finished writing, "One Night at Camp Bigfoot," the sixth entry in the "Goosebumps: House of Shivers" series, due out in early March 2026.
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While he didn't pursue that cartooning gig, Stine was nonetheless impacted by the comics he devoured as a boy.
"When I was a kid, there were great horror comics like 'Tales from the Crypt.' I loved them; they were very influential. They were these gruesome, horrible stories, often with funny endings," he said.
Other than comics, Stine said he wasn't much of a reader until a librarian introduced him to the writing of Ray Bradbury.
"It was so beautiful, so imaginative. His stories all had twist endings. It changed my life and turned me into a reader, thanks to her," he said.
Though his pace is less frenetic than these days, Stine is hardly out of the game. He still tours and the books keep coming, along with movies and TV shows.
Recent offerings include the March release of "Say My Name! Say My Name!" and a graphic novel, "The Graveyard Club: Fresh Blood," which came out in April.
In fact, before "One Night at Camp Bigfoot," another installment of the "House of Shivers" collection called "The Last Sleepover" is set to arrive on Aug. 5.
A reboot of "Goosebumps" was released on Disney+ and Hulu in 2023. Instead of the episodic format of the first series in the 1990s, the newer show's storylines change from season to season.
The series' second season, "Goosebumps: The Vanishing," premiered in January and stars David Schwimmer.
Reflecting on his career trajectory, Stine is appreciative, if still a bit in awe, of the love readers have expressed for him and his books. When asked to describe his life, he summed it up in one succinct word:
"Lucky."
Entertainment and Things to Do reporter Belinda M. Paschal can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: R.L. Stine on 'Goosebumps,' Netflix films and growing up in Columbus