In 1986, the world was introduced to an author by the name of R.L. Stine—or so they thought. His debut novel, Blind Date, was a hit with young adults and launched his career as a horror writer. A few years after that, he created the Fear Street series of horror novels, and a few years after Fear Street came Goosebumps. Both became massively successful franchises, with the Goosebumps books selling more than 400 million copies to date.
But Stine wasn’t a complete unknown when he wrote Blind Date. In fact, he’d been a writer for over two decades at that point. He worked on whatever projects he could in his early days, even writing coloring books when he had to. “Somebody’s got to write that stuff,” he told The Albany Herald in 1996. “When you start out as a freelancer, you don’t say no to anybody.”
His main focus in those days, however, was on comedy writing. While attending Ohio State University in the 1960s, Stine served as editor of the humor magazine, The Sundial. From there, he got a job as a writer for Scholastic, where he published a series of short-form joke books under a pen name. As Jovial Bob Stine, he released collections such as The Sick of Being Sick Book and Jovial Bob’s Computer Joke Book.
His true calling, though—so he thought—was launching his own humor magazine. Inspired by Mad magazine, Stine launched a similar periodical, Bananas, in 1975, serving as its editor-in-chief. Geared toward readers younger than those Mad or National Lampoon focused on, it included the same types of features you’d expect to see in a humor mag from those days, from recurring comic strips to parodies of popular TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard. It ran for 72 issues before ending in 1984.
Sometime around then, one of Stine’s editors suggested that he take a stab at writing horror. If the success he’s had in that area since is any indication, we think it’s fair to say he’s found his actual true calling.
The post The Famous Horror Author Who Started Out as a Comedy Writer appeared first on VICE.
