The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: The Prom Queen

 It's time for yet another visit to Shadyside. Well, judging by when I finally put this one up, prom season should be in effect. Which makes for a perfect time to finally get this one done for the blog. That, and it's always been a book I've intended to cover but constantly forget exists. Wild how that happens with a cover as cool as the one this book has, huh? Was I missing out? Let's check out The Prom Queen to see for ourselves.

Fear Street's covers are often lacking in solid supernatural horror. You'll get one every now and then, but the covers often don't go for the scare factor on, say, a Goosebumps level. So when you get a cover like this, it always stands out above the pack. This is an iconic cover for Fear Street. Our titular prom queen looking in a mirror, seeing her skeletal visage on the other end. Though I will say it's a bit wonky, mainly for the angle, making it hard to tell if this is a reflection or like a doppleganger. I guess when I get into the book itself that will answer itself better. But, for what it sets out to do, it does it very well. Top tier Fear Street cover.

NNtG: Spinetinglers #02: Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried

It's been a while since we covered a Spinetinglers for the blog, so let's amend that, shall we? We got ghost dogs this time. Now, we know that R.L. Stine is 50/50 when it comes to ghost dogs, so it'll be interesting to see how our M.T. Coffin handles the concept. This time being George Edward Stanley, who was a bit more of a prolific author in this case. Stanley was an author of a few series like Scaredy Cats, Third Grade Detectives, and even some Nancy Drew books. He also wrote several books for Spinetinglers. Will this be a good dog or a bad dog? Let's see why Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried. 

This cover doesn't really do much for scares, but it's still effective. Especially the transparency that we get from our titular unburied dog Howard. Something about ghosts with a blue hue to their transparent form just makes me love any work that uses that. Also, love the cute touch of a ghostly dog bone. Even in the afterlife good dogs get treats. Solid work.

The Stinal Countdown: The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night

It's time for another good old fashioned Stine short story anthology. We really haven't gotten to cover any since the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series. And thankfully we have a couple more that came post-Goosebumps. In 1999, Stine released Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror, which we'll talk about in a later blog. In 2001, in the middle of his run with The Nightmare Room, Stine followed that up with The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night. A short story compilation which also featured unique art by different artists. Each story is about 18-20 pages in length, so they're not as rushed as they could be, so hopefully that's a good sign of what we get here. So, given the importance of both the art and the story we'll be covering the artwork as well. Let's see what chills await us in the dead of night... or afternoon, morning, evening, whenever you read this.

Also yes, I did mistakenly do this one first thinking it was the first of the two books, so yeah. Wouldn't be this book series if I didn't do these out of order, eh?

This cover is really cool. I love the warped angle, the destroyed shape of the skull inside the hour glass. The nice touch of the spiderwebs. It sells the concept of this being the "Haunting Hour" alright. Interesting that I cover this after covering Grandpa's Monster Movies where I said that there was a lack of much in the background to keep the cover interesting. But here, I think the simple hardwood floor background works better since it takes up less space and doesn't take away from the focus of the really cool artwork. Which is something the entire book has to offer. So this is a great start.

NNtG: Deadtime Stories #10: Grandpa's Monster Movies

It's showtime as we sit back and observe yet another edition of Deadtime Stories. This time we have two true elements of horror: Old timey movies and the ravages of age. But also a monster that's more than ready to ravage as well. So will this book be two thumbs up or was it better to just leave it in the cannister? Let's roll film on Grandpa's Monster Movies.

Cover is very basic and simple. Not bad mind you, it sells the concept very well with the black and white footage and the old looking car to sell the fact that this is definitely an old home movie. Then you have the giant claw slashing through the screen which works to sell the idea that something's going to emerge from the world of the movie. Very "Magic Ticket my ass, McBain!" feel to it. I just feel like it's missing something to make a more memorable cover. A rug and a hardwood floor kind of just leave everything feeling too empty, you know? So it falls more in the "just okay" category of covers. 

NNtG: Cliffhangers #02: Don't Look Down!

It's time to HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE as we enter yet another book series for the blog. Now if you want to be super duper ultra mega anal about this one, technically it's not a GB-like in the normal sense. It's not a book series focused around supernatural horror like most. This one is instead focused more on thrills and suspense, putting characters in real life danger and having them try to survive. So I'll count them here on a technicality. The series was written by Eric Weiner who I just know must have went through hell as a kid. He did a few different books, some standalone stuff, but notably did works for book series like Clue and Ghost Writer and a whole bunch of Dora the Explorer books apparently. 

So let's see how Eric was able to translate a suspenseful thriller into a kids book. And if you got a fear of heights then maybe our book du jour will work this time around. Whatever you do, Don't Look Down! 

So while you could play semantics on if these count as Goosebumps-like, then the covers don't help the argument much. They're some CA-RAY-ZAY warped perspectives. And while this one is pretty tame (though Denise's body looks so alien from this angle), trust me, there are some other ones that go wackier. And if you want to sell that these kids are way up on the thirteenth floor, that shot of the ground below will sell you on that. So it's a weird cover that does the trick for the most part...

Then you notice this stoned as fuck cat on the ledge and yeah, this cover becomes a 10/10. 

NNtG: Bone Chillers #14: A Terminal Case of the Uglies

It's time to take another look at Bone Chillers. They're usually a great place to go if you want some crazy stuff. I mean, Frankenturkey II and Little Pet Shop of Horrors are great examples to what I mean. But now we're waist-deep in the ghostwriter era, where Betsy takes the back seat and new writers take over. This time our author is David Bergantino, who didn't do much kids horror outside of Bone Chillers, but did do the Freddy's Tales of Terror books, so we've got somebody at least well-versed in horror given he's written for Freddy Krueger. This time we have ugly mugs to look at, or in this case, mugs about to be made ugly. Will this be a picture-perfect book, or a flash in the pan? Let's get A Terminal Case of the Uglies and find out.

This cover is simple and very effective. A perfect combination. If you like shocked kid faces, you're getting a whole bunch of them in the background. And a garish checkerboard ceiling in case maybe you thought this somehow wasn't Tim Jacobus' work. I love the shocked reflection in the camera especially. It's so great that you might not even notice the monster photographer snapping the picture. Honestly, monster aside, if not for the skeleton picnic concept, this could have made for a fitting Say Cheese and Die! cover. Maybe I would have read these as a kid if that were the case. But a world without skeleton picnics is not a place I want to be a part of. Solid Jacobus work as usual.

NNtG: Deadtime Stories #15: Cyber Scare

It's time to take another trip down the series of tubes that is Deadtime Stories. It is the year 1997 and the internet is still a bizarre wild west, rife for new ideas when it comes to horror given that most people still didn't know much about the internet or computers to really get what they can do. But the pandora's box that is the internet can still give us some imaginative ideas. Is this edition one of them, or worth putting in a spam folder? Reader beware, it's a Cyber Scare!

This cover is decent. Not exactly one I'd call incredible, but it does what it needs to to sell you on this book involving computers and monsters. We get our fair share of mummies on these covers and this one is fine. Though I really do like how wrapping looks all stringy, like it's barely holding together. Adds that right amount of realism needed, I guess. Another solid effort from Broeck Steadman.