‘Trick ’r Treat: Witching Hours’ Brings Sam Back for Four New Halloween Stories This October

Sam is taking Halloween all the way into outer space.

Trick ’r Treat: Witching Hours, a new original graphic novel from Trick ’r Treat creator Michael Dougherty, arrives October 13 from Legendary Comics, distributed by Simon & Schuster.

The anthology features four previously unpublished stories featuring the little Halloween enforcer, with settings ranging from a rundown nursing home to a distant space colony. That last one alone has my attention. Apparently, leaving Earth behind doesn’t get you out of celebrating Halloween.

Here’s what’s waiting inside:

• “One Last Halloween” follows lonely nursing-home patients who summon the spirit of Halloween for one final celebration together. Their invitation brings unexpected and frightening consequences.
• “Did You Miss Me” gives a man who returns from the dead on Halloween one night to reunite with his wife and find closure. Instead, he uncovers a horrifying secret.
• “Harvest Moons” heads across the galaxy, where kids living on a conservative space colony discover that Halloween is much more than a forgotten Earth tradition.
• “Halloween Country” finds three ranch hands in Wyoming interrupting an occult ritual and becoming prey for a half-formed creature pulled from Halloween folklore.

I love how far these setups stretch the world of Trick ’r Treat. There’s something especially creepy about a group of people trying to celebrate one last Halloween, while the space-colony story opens up a completely different playground for Sam.

The book’s credited writers are creator Michael Dougherty, with Todd Casey, Zach Shields, Curtis Waugh, and Breehn Burns. Illustrations come from Rafael T. Pimentel, Andrea Mutti, and El Garing, with colors by Valerio Alloro.

Four new stories, four very different ways for Halloween to go horribly wrong. Sounds like Sam’s going to have a busy night.