By no means is this the official name for this Grinch. However, because I need to delineate the difference between the Jim Carrey Grinch and this, and because this is what I've called him since I was a kid, I decided it would probably be appropriate.

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As you may have figured out, the "Creepy Grinch" is an illustrated version of the Jim Carrey Grinch. Across multiple videos and forums, I've seen people refer to the "Creepy Grinch" as the 1966 Boris Karloff Grinch. This isn't true in the slightest, as the overall color/design is completely different. All this design is, is a cartoon version of the Jim Carrey Grinch designed for marketing purposes only. Nothing more, nothing less despite what some merchandise like the collector cards seem to imply.

 

However, the thing you may not know is that the "Creepy Grinch" is not the illustrated version of the Grinch you see in the 2000 film; rather, he represents the version of the Grinch shown in the shooting draft of the 2000 script, before Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer reworked it. A prototype of the Jim Carrey Grinch, if you will. The Grinch in the shooting script is an arguably cringy, more evil take on the character. This could explain some of the odd phrases used in marketing, such as the "If you're hungry for humbug" line, and could also explain why the "Creepy Grinch" has a evil-looking appearance, with sharp teeth and such.

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Many of the toys/marketing phrases came directly from that script, such as the "Extreme Grinch" line, which will have it's own section down at the bottom. Many of the weapons that came in the mainline action figures also came from the script. 

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Most interestingly, the "Creepy Grinch" was used in marketing far more than his live action part. The two running theories for this are that drawings cost companies less ink to produce than real pictures, or the more likely option: Universal wanted to be able to market the live action Grinch without having to make most of the products too realistic. Imagine Gemmy attempting to make a inflatable with a realistic face; it probably wouldn't have worked. Apparently, this design worked so well that products modeled after him were sold until at least 2012, with signage at Universal's "Grinchmas" seen up until at least 2022.  

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There are a few different "Creepy Grinch" variations. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the artist who did the main marketing renditions of the character, but we do know five other artists who did their own take on the "Creepy Grinch" design: Ted Enik and Gita Lloyd, Robert Poper, Christopher Moroney, and Ray Goudey. Ted Enik and Gita Lloyd illustrated for the "Happy Wholiday, Mr. Grinch!" coloring book, Robert Poper illustrated for the "Who's Who In Whoville" coloring book, Christopher Moroney illustrated for both Play-A-Sound books, as well as "The Care and Feeding Of A Grinch", and Ray Goudey illustrated for "How The Grinch Got So Grinchy."

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First, lets talk about Ted Enik and Gita Lloyd's designs. Arguably, their style is the closest to the original design; throughout the coloring book there are images that either recreate the original renders, or just straight up copy them. However, there are a few major differences. There are typically more wrinkles in the designs, whether that be adding extra fur to the grinch, adding another crease to the forehead, etc. There's also a certain "flowiness" to it, which makes it slightly more stylized than the original renders.

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Second, we have Robert Poper's designs.  One of his designs did end up on a product, that being the illustration of the Grinch laying on his couch, which was used on a pair of boxers. It's unclear if any of Poper's other designs were used on marketing material, but it's definitely possible. As for his style compared to the original, his "Creepy Grinch" is closer to the original designs as far as line art goes, but that's as far as the similarities go. The eyes on this version are often smaller and include visibe eyelids. The lines also tend to end rather abruptly instead of continuing them to a point.

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Thirdly, let's discuss Christopher Moroney's "Creepy Grinch." This is the only design out of the four, including the original, that actually resembles the Jim Carrey Grinch. It's a really nice balance of the "Creepy Grinch" elements, like the 3 cheek fur shapes, yellow irises with white sclera, etc, while also making the design softer and including the underbite and eyeliner the Grinch has in the film. Honestly, I wish they'd gone with this design instead of the original for the marketing. It's more clear which Grinch it's supposed to be, whereas the original looks like it could be completely seperate from the Jim Carrey film. This alternate design out of the four also made it onto the most merchandise. Books aside, this version appeared on a shirt, a pair of boxers, and on the How The Grinch Stole Christmas video game for the Nintendo DS.

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Finally, we have Ray Goudey's "Creepy Grinch". Goudey's version is like a combination of Poper and Moroney's design. His "Creepy Grinch" is softer looking, which makes sense, given that it's for a preschooler's book. However, this design still retains some of the elements from Poper's design such as the smaller eyes. It's also of interest to note that some of the poses from this book, particularly the one on the cover, are near exact copies of some of the original marketing renders.