Goosebumps Author R.L. Stine To Pen Man-Thing Series For Marvel

Goosebumps author R.L. Stine will write a new Man-Thing series for Marvel Comics beginning in March, The New York Times reports.

"I'm going to do a lot of action and a lot of great violence and make it creepy, but I'm going to make it funny at the same time," Stine told the newspaper. "It's what I try to do in my books."

Stine said that he had originally hoped to be a comic book artist as a child, but when his artistic chops weren't up to the task, he decided that he had to be a writer. Working in comics, then, is a lifelong dream -- even if he's coming at it after decades of being a successful writer in other media.

Man-Thing, one of Marvel's long-running monster series, is heavily inspired by the comics that used to be Stine's favorite, including seditious horror books like Tales From the Crypt, which more or less perfectly fits the description of Stine's quote above.

Man-Thing is a large, slow-moving, empathic, humanoid swamp monster living in the Florida Everglades near the Seminole reservation and the fictitious town of Citrusville. Created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in 1971 and was a Marvel Universe staple for years. In 2005, Lionsgate produced a direct-to-DVD movie based on Man-Thing.

In the reinvented series, Man-Thing will not be mute, as he has been depicted in the past. Stine told the Times that he will not only be able to speak, but "he's very sarcastic."

Marvel's solicitations for product releasing in March should be released next week and will likely include the name of the artist working on the project with Stine.

The Times reports that each issue will feature a backup horror short written by Stine and drawn by a different artist.

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