#tim jacobus

[goryhorroor]

put some respect on tim jacobus' name

[peteneems]

[retroscifiart]

Art by Tim Jacobus for Goosebumps The Curse of Camp Cold Lake (1997)

[sandmandaddy69]

Tim Jacobus

[90smovies]

[thedopestthrill]

Goosebumps books Cover Art by Tim Jacobus

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔗𝔦𝔪 𝔍𝔞𝔠𝔬𝔟𝔲𝔰

[brokehorrorfan]

Trick or Treat Studios will release Goosebumps action figures in December/January. The set of five is available to pre-order for $125 with free shipping.

The line includes the Mummy from The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Slappy from Night of the Living Dummy, Carly Beth from The Haunted Mask, Mud Monster from You Can't Scare Me, and Scarecrow from The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.

Each 5" scale toy has five points of articulation and comes with a trading card featuring its respective book's original cover art by Tim Jacobus on a display stand. Collect all five to build a Curly the skeleton figure.

[tlbodine]

Overthinking: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp

After a run of books I hadn't read, here's one I enjoyed: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, released in December of '93. This is one of my all-time favorite Goosebumps covers. I had a poster print of it on my wall that I bought at a yard sale even before I'd read the book.

To set the stage for why I loved this book, it's helpful to know that I went through a stage where just about the only thing I read were "boy and his dog" books: Lassie Come Home, Where the Red Fern Grows, Sasha My Friend, Big Red, you name it. And whatever else it may be, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp is absolutely a boy-and-his-dog book.

First, the Plot: Grady, his teenage sister Emily, and their scientist parents move to the Florida swamp so their dad can experiment with importing some South American swamp deer into the local ecosystem. It's not really clear why they're doing this or what the scientific value is, but it doesn't matter. What does matter is that their property is next to a big spooky swamp, which the kids immediately get lost in.

While wandering the swamp, they encounter a swamp hermit who lives out there in a hut. He scares them, but when they get home their dad assures them he's heard about the hermit and the hermit is harmless.

Grady meets a neighbor kid, Will, who tells him a story of how the swamp got its named: a long time ago, a fever swept through everybody in the swamp, causing disorientation and death. Neat!

Grady appears to catch a bit of swamp fever of his own, or maybe it's just the regular kind. While he's stuck in bed, sweating it out, he hears awful mournful howls in the swamp and something scratching at the door. Upon investigation, he finds a huge dog outside. The big guy is friendly, and Grady convinces his family to let him keep it, naming it Wolf.

Unfortunately, Wolf isn't the tamest of dogs. The first night, he wrecks the house trying to get outside, and his family makes him sleep outdoors. He roams the swamp. And evidence is mounting that Wolf may be responsible for a string of animal attacks, despite Grady's protests to the contrary.

Then again, there's another theory, proposed by neighborhood weird girl Cassie. SHE is convinced that the swamp hermit is a werewolf! Will is skeptical of this, but Grady thinks it's plausible. The hermit overhears this theory when the kids are hanging out in the swamp and frightens them, chasing them away; Grady gets bitten by a snake in his effort to escape.

One night, Grady hears something outside, and emerges to see one of his dad's deer ripped apart in its pen. Despite his protest, his dad decides that Wolf must have been responsible, and says he's going to take the dog to the pound. Grady urges the dog to run away, chasing him into the swamp. Later that night, he sneaks out to see what Wolf is up to, and bumps into Will in the swamp. That's weird! But then they get separated, and Grady is attacked by a werewolf! He recognizes the humanoid face -- it's Will!

Wolf protects him from the attack, but not before he gets bitten. Grady passes out, coming to in his bed. He was apparently rescued by the swamp hermit, who brought him home. He tells his parents everything, and they don't entirely believe him but they do let him keep Wolf after all, seeing as he saved his life.

A month later, at the next full moon, Grady -- who had been bitten, after all -- transforms into a werewolf and runs into the swamp with Wolf at his side.

Overthinking It: This is one of the more heavily atmospheric Goosebumps books, really relishing in the gothic vibes of its titular swamp. A lot of the story happens off-screen and in implication, and many questions are left unanswered.

How long has Will been living alone without anyone noticing that his family home is empty and deserted? What happened to his parents, anyway? Did he eat them? Did he eat the neighbor who went missing?

What was the significance of the swamp fever? The way Will describes it, it sure sounds like rabies. And where I see rabies in fiction, I think of werewolves (and sometimes zombies). I'm not wholly convinced this entire town isn't just teeming with werewolves. There's nothing to say the swamp hermit isn't a werewolf. Or is he out there keeping an eye on werewolf activity to protect the place? Or is he just a harmless hermit after all?

Where did Wolf come from? Is he really just a normal dog or is he preternatural in some way as well? He sure seems to have an uncanny knack for understanding what's going on (and for fighting werewolves).

If Grady's parents are scientists, why do neither of them appear to believe in medical care for their damn kid?

All of these questions and more open up some deep troves of fridge horror possibilities. But ultimately they're beside the point -- because from Grady's perspective as narrator, this book is essentially a romance. A love story, if you will. It's his werewolf origin story -- and an explanation of how he and his bestest best dog pal became masters of the swamp.

(And, yes, you don't even have to ask. Animorphs-obsessed, dog-obsessed, wolf-obsessed furry-without-knowing-the-term preteen me went absolutely feral for the ending, I wanted to turn into a werewolf and run around in the swamp with my own wolf-dog more than fucking anything).

If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:

Obviously, this book invokes the spirit of The Wolf-Man. But time and again what I thought of most reading it was actually an old Bollywood film called Bees Saal Baad (1962), which is also an atmospheric gothic about a swamp and a guy who keeps being lured into it. Idk, the plots are very different, but watch it and tell me it's not a whole vibe.

If you like my theory about the town actually being chock full of werewolves who need to protect their secret and maintain the power dynamic of their territory, watch The Howling.

If you really just want an A+ primo werewolf action movie, watch Dog Soldiers, which is one of the best in the genre. If you prefer your werewolf movies to come with a heaping dose of puberty metaphor, go for Ginger Snaps.

[a-book-of-creatures]

Happy Easter weekend?

Confession: this cover used to scare me as a kid. It’s the colors and the warped perspective. It made me feel like I was peering into someone’s nightmare. And that’s before going into the melted hollow-eyed creature…

I never read a single book in the series, only stared at covers. :/

[goryhorroor]

part two of my appreciation for tim jacobus: the man whose book covers haunted my nightmares

[peteneems]

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Invisible Man (1897) by H. G. Wells

Cover art by Tim Jacobus

Aerie, 1988

A curious man, wearing a long coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and whose face is entirely swathed in bandages save for an obvious fake pink nose, walks into an English inn to the shock and horror of many of the townspeople. Beakers and chemicals in tow, the man demands his solitude. It’s strange enough as it is until his money begins to run out and mysterious burglaries occur all over town. This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.

Read The Invisible Man Here

[sandmandaddy69]

Tim Jacobus

[90smovies]

[mtg-art-daily]

Exhume

Those who try to rob a grave claimed by a necromancer rarely make the same mistake twice.

Artist: Tim Jacobus