While Goosebumps is primarily known for its large cast of monsters, aliens and mutant offspring, there’s only creature (aside from Stine himself, har-har) who’s actually achieved the title of “de-facto spokesperson and mascot” for the franchise: Curly the Skeleton.
As the face skull of numerous Goosebumps merchandise during the mid-90s—from plush pillows to watches, Halloween costumes Boglins-inspired hand puppets—Curly’s origins are largely unknown…until now. For the first time ever, artist Tim Jacobus revealed to us exactly how Curly came to be:
We were looking to create a spokesman for the [Tales to Give You] Goosebumps Special Edition series…an all new character that didn’t already exist anywhere else in the Goosebumps world. Although, we didn’t refer to him as Curly yet, the very first incarnation was this long haired ghost like character. None of us—including me—were overly enthusiastic about this character. His long hair made it hard to determine if this was a guy or a girl and the ghostly body limited the range of position we could put him in. We needed a guy who could do it all…
We gave him a nice flat top butch hair cut and a full skeleton’s body…and Curly was born! Of course whenever possible, he would be wearing his red, Chuck Taylor, high top sneakers!
As we now know, Curly’s look would continue to evolve before being plastered all over store shelves. His white hightop haircut would become a more pronounced purple (sometimes pink) mohawk and he’d trade in his Chuck Taylor sneakers for no shoes, round shades and a red ascot with a ‘G’ pendant. And there you have it—the origin of Goosebumps first official mascot! Thanks to Jacobus for taking to time to clarify this for us.
Check out a sample of Goosebumps merchandise featuring Curly’s mug below:
