Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

This new character was The Night Night Porter, a creepy owner of a hotel (named The Hot Hell Darkness) that used vague anecdotes and proverbs to show the reader how they would relate to the stories he was about to tell, and would open his check-in book where the stories have been placed.

The story of the Spaghetti Man would be included in the franchise debut's Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, which was published in 1990 by André Deutsch's eponymous publishing house.

Its popularity led to three sequels: Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids (1992), Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids (1996), and More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (2001); the latter book was released as the first cartoon aired on CITV.

Possibly due to the franchise gaining popularity, the first four books have been re-released numerous times amongst Puffin and Orion.

Six years later, Rix created a new series for the franchise, now named Grizzly Tales: Cautionary Tales for Lovers of Squeam!; eight books were published between 2007 and 2008, the ninth a compilation full of 12 previously published stories from the first and second in the brand.

This series borrowed heavily from the CITV cartoon's format by imitating its framing device style of a character telling the stories to the audience, whereas the previous book series was only a collection of short stories.