Tomorrow, Goosebumps The Haunted Mask (the graphic novel) officially releases. With the help of the folks at Scholastic, I got to adapt the book into the final product. How exciting. No, really, I mean it.
One of the most exciting things I got to draw was the Goosebumps mascot, Curly the Skeleton.
A rude dude with ‘tude. Uh… a skelly with the jelly. The bones with the groans. Something like that. I don’t know.
I suppose one can call this a redesign of Curly, but it feels more like a Draw-This-In-Your-Style… then again, that’s essentially what happens when you adapt one of your favorite childhood books. That’s what I got to do with Haunted Mask, and if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to keep doing it with different books for a few years.
Do you like the color of his shoes? Do they seem familiar to you? THEY DON’T?! Oh, dear… just keep reading…
In my adaptation of The Haunted Mask, there's a special hidden drawing of Curly. It's not entirely clear in the book’s back matter, but Curly can take on many looks (or “lurks”, if you really want to get into a certain spirit of things).
Indeed, he’s not going to look exactly like that snazzy PNG. Nope, not even if you cross your eyes, or look at the book upside down and read it backwards, or tear out all the pages and collage them onto the back wall of your bedroom.
Anyway, here's a drawing I made about a year ago to clarify the many ways Curly can potentially appear. Good luck finding him!
That’s me in the glasses. No, the other glasses.
I hope you enjoy reading the book. Remember, the power is always in your hands to make a comic book of your very own.
-MG