Countless horror fans are often born after stumbling upon a scary movie they weren't supposed to watch as a child. It's a rite of passage that I can very much attest to. But at the same time, the genre can provide written and visual gateways for younger viewers that may have that same curiosity but aren't quite ready to dive headfirst into the harder stuff. For some, it's "Gremlins." For others, it's "Coraline." But for an entire generation of '90s children, there was nothing like picking up a "Goosebumps" book.

The long-running children's novel series from author R.L. Stine often made an impression before the reader even flipped through its pages on account of Tim Jacobus' stunning cover art. Inside were stories of kids coming across all sorts of creepy happenings imagined by Stine, be it a haunted mask, monster blood, or a cursed ventriloquist dummy. "Goosebumps" didn't have...