Artwork Review: Series 2000 (bad review)

It's late 1997, and Goosebumps sales are on the decline. Which is odd, considering 1996 was probably the peak year for Goosebumps. But anyway, what brilliant idea did the folks over at Scholastic come up with to "boost" sales? Make everything edgier!

No. The TV series isn't "Goosebumps", it's "ULTIMATE Goosebumps!", and the intro is a million times scarier! And oh wow, the Give Yourself Goosebumps covers are so cool! They boast a metallic-holographic prism effect involving a single abstract design repeated on the cover that change shape or form when it was exposed to different areas of light (I totally didn't copy and paste that). But it isn't edgy enough. Let's get rid of it, and replace it with this really dull looking squared template thing. Oh, and the original Goosebumps series? The amazing, spooky, vibrant cover art? The cool and unique slime template? Let's throw all of that out the window, and call it Series 2000! It's 2000 times the scares! Featuring dynamic cover art with dull color schemes and a serious lack of attention to detail. What could POSSIBLY go wro--

Goosebumps Series 2000 and Give Yourself Goosebumps have been canceled.

As you can probably tell from the stuff you just read, I'm not a huge fan of the phase Goosebumps went through from late 1997 - 2000. They completely got rid of the slime template for all of the series. Why. That was part of the reason Goosebumps was successful. Why get rid of it? The cover art was also pretty lame. Series 2000 in particular. So... let's review the covers.

Cry of the Cat:

One of the better covers in the series. It has nice use of saturated colors, and the cat looks kinda scary.


Bride of the Living Dummy:

Slappy sort of got a redesign in Series 2000. He doesn't look nowhere near as scary as he did in the original series. But still, a cute cover. I just hate how zoomed-in it is. It looks much better in its original form.


Creature Teacher:

Never found this one appealing. I think it's the teeth. They just look so... fake looking for whatever reason. This cover just doesn't do it for me.


Invasion of the Body Squeezers: Part 1 & 2:

I find it cool how you can connect to the two covers together, and they become one. It's pretty neat. The attention to detail is also very nice. But I dunno. I just don't get a Goosebumps vibe from this. I feel like it belongs to something else.

I Am Your Evil Twin:

A pretty unique cover. But again, it just doesn't do it for me.

Revenge R Us:

This one's cool I guess. I really like how the bird looks. It looks pretty menacing.

Fright Camp:

So we got this crazed racoon peaking out of a glowing trash can. You can tell these covers are trying to be more "scary" than creepy, which doesn't appeal to me. So this one's meh.

Are You Terrified Yet?:

You have this weird looking tarantula leaking green stuff out of its mouth. Again, it's trying to be more "scary" than creepy. But I don't find them scary, and they're not creepy. The backgrounds are also extremely bland. So a lot of these covers are just boring to me.

Headless Halloween:

Ugly head makes for an ugly cover. Next.


Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls:

The color scheme is pretty bleak, but I'd say it's a cool cover. It feels more "complete" than a lot of the other covers (no bland background), and the graveyard looks spooky. So yeah. Good cover.

Brain Juice

It's juice coming out of a brain. Yawn. Next.

Return to HorrorLand:

How can you make a cover about HorrorLand look boring? Seriously, nothing's going on here. Compare it to One Day at HorrorLand's. At first glance there appears to be nothing going on, but that's kind of the point. In the background is a creepy looking abandoned amusement park, and in the front is the HorrorLand sign. Not only does it the Horror look creepy, but so is the text. It's also surrounded by dead trees. The whole cover gives off an unsettling and eerie vibe, which is why I think it's the best cover in the original series. But this? Heck no. The color scheme is dull and lifeless, and the horror's design just sucks. The best part of the cover is the ice cream. The freaking ice cream.

Jekyll and Heidi:

There's not much to say about this one. It's just some guy transforming into an ugly beast, as a kid looks on. "Ugly" seems to be a running theme with these covers. It's not appealing. Stop.

Scream School:

Lemme quote myself from literally a second ago: "Ugly" seems to be a running theme with these covers. It's not appealing. Stop.

The Mummy Walks:

Dull color schemes seem to be a running theme with these covers. It's not appealing. Stop.

The Werewolf in the Living Room:

Just like with the previous cover, the feet are the highlight of the cover for some reason. This could have been a charming cover if the werewolf wasn't so exaggerated looking.

Horrors of the Black Ring:

This one's a mess. What is even going on? It appears to be a pile of jewelry, and there's this ring with some monster face behind it. The color scheme is also, once again, dull. No wonder this series didn't live as long as it did. These covers aren't eye catching or cool. They're boring.

Return to Ghost Camp:

Some hideous horse skull ghost thing emerges from a fire. It looks kinda cool, but it's still not all that great.

Be Afraid – Be Very Afraid!:

There's a dragon on the cover, yet, still manages to feel boring and lifeless. The color scheme is putting me to sleep. Next.

The Haunted Car:

There's a car, and it's spooky and stuff. It's whatever. Next.

Full Moon Fever:

This werewolf looks a little off to me. And nothing's really going on. It's just a werewolf glaring at the viewer. Next.

Slappy's Nightmare:

This cover's a real nightmare! Seriously, what is up with Slappy here? How did we go from this...

*insert NotLD artwork here*

...to that? Are we done yet? Oh boy, only two more to go. Surely they can't be as bad as this nightmare.

Earth Geeks Must Go!:

This was the first Series 2000 book I came into contact with. I was in a special education class (I think? It something to do with reading or something). They had this big long bookshelf (like the ones you see in libraries). Of course, they had several Goosebumps books. Two of them I remember being Chicken! Chicken! and Phantom of the Auditorium. They only had one Series 2000 book, and it was this one. I didn't read Goosebumps at the time (even though I was totally obsessed with it), but I wanted to take it home for the day, because... Goosebumps. When I got home from school, my mom took us to the grocery store, and I remember walking around the store just looking at the cover. So I have a bit of a soft spot for this cover, as it is pretty nostalgic to me.

Taking the nostalgia goggles off, the cover is... okay. It's just some alien thing flying towards earth, and you can see the earth's reflection in the windshield. So it's kinda clever.

Ghost in the Mirror:

Some skeleton-like hand (a ghost??) is reaching out of the mirror. And it's dull. Really, really dull. Are we done yet? Oh? One more? Pleasebegoodpleasebegood.

The Incredible Shrinking Fifth Grader:

And it's good! This is probably the best cover in the series. Yes. The best cover in the series was never officially released. Ugh. Anyway, what makes this cover so good? First of all, the color scheme is way less dull compared to the others, especially compared to the last book. The cover shows a very tiny fifth grader warding off a rat with a pencil. It's not really creepy, but it is awesome. The rat looks pretty rad. So the Series 2000 series went out with a bang, and no one ever saw it. Sad.

Overall, Goosebumps Series 2000's covers are bad. They took everything about what made the original covers so great, and threw it all out the window. They're ugly, boring, lifeless, lack color, and lack charm. It's not surprising to me why the Goosebumps books died in the 2000s. Not only did people have Goosebumps fatigue, but these covers suck. So no one bought them. Yes, I'm aware that not everyone buys a book just for the cover. But this is a children's book series. So kids are more likely to want a book based on the cover alone. And I know; not every cover is bad. There's a handful I like. But for the majority of them, they're bad.

Next I'll be looking at Most Wanteds or Give Yourself Goosebumpss covers. We'll see. If you thought this was too negative, don't worry, the next one won't.