Sam is making the rounds again. Trick ‘r Treat: Witching Hours, a four-story graphic novel anthology set in Michael Dougherty’s beloved 2007 horror-comedy universe, arrives October 13 via Legendary Comics, distributed by Simon & Schuster, a $19.99, 168-page trade paperback that’s been a while in the making.
Witching Hours started life as a Kickstarter campaign back in October 2024, where it blew past its $90,000 goal to close at $242,013 from 3,070 backers. Two years on, those backers should be seeing their copies land around the same window as this wider retail edition.
The anthology collects four new stories — “One Last Halloween,” “Did You Miss Me,” “Harvest Moons,” and “Halloween Country” — written by Dougherty alongside Todd Casey, Zach Shields, Curtis Waugh, and Breehn Burns, with art from Rafael T. Pimentel, Andrea Mutti, and El Garing, coloured by Valerio Alloro.
“I’m thrilled to return to the twisted world of Trick ‘r Treat.”
Dougherty, who wrote and directed the original Trick ‘r Treat before spending the better part of two decades keeping Sam alive through comics, toys, and one perpetually rumoured sequel, called the book “a true labour of love, created by a top-notch team of writers and artists. I’m thrilled to return to the twisted world of Trick ‘r Treat for more of Sam’s mischievous adventures… I can’t wait for fans to join us for the best Halloween party ever.”
Whether four new stories can match the tight, interlocking dread of Dougherty’s original anthology structure is the real question. Trick ‘r Treat’s reputation rests almost entirely on how well its threads knot together, but Sam showing up anywhere is a welcome knock at the door, and this is more new material than most 2007 cult favourites ever see.
