Halloween may be over, but for real horror heads it’s always spooky season. A new anthology from Old Town Café & Comics in Williston will keep fright fans up at night well into the months ahead.
Café co-owner Ben Chase has enlisted a host of comic artists and writers from Vermont and beyond for a terrifying magazine compilation titled Samhain Harvest. Chase is also co-owner of ECGCE, a local independent comic book retailer and distributor that specializes in exclusive preorders, limited editions and special artist collaborations. He’s combining the two entities to produce the free magazine, which comes out on Saturday, November 14, with a daylong release party at the Williston store, where it’s exclusively available. It’s the second issue of Samhain Harvest, following its debut in October 2025.
This year’s lineup of writers and artists features several national heavy hitters, including film critic and horror aficionado Joe Bob Briggs, artists Enzo Garza and Alex Cormack, and frequent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles contributor Steve Lavigne. Los Angeles artist Rustem Shagisultanov illustrated the cover. Among the local contributors are current and former Vermont cartoonists laureate Stephen R. Bissette and James Kochalka, respectively, and writers (and musicians) Justin Boland and Jim Heltz. Chase penned several stories for last year’s edition and contributed more for the new one.
“We initially hoped to have it ready for Halloween, but putting this together is a pretty big project,” Chase told Seven Days. “Coordinating so many creators is a lot of work and planning, so I’m really just ecstatic it’s come together.”
Technically speaking, Samhain, the ancient Gaelic festival marking the start of winter, when it’s believed that the veil between the physical and spirit worlds recedes, can stretch into November. So Chase is still hitting his seasonal goal, more or less.
The new issue includes stories such as “Hollow Head” by Kochalka, about a living pumpkin looking to find some spare brain matter, as well as a sneak preview of Joseph and Hazel Schmalke’s holiday grind-house comic, Krampus.
For Chase, it was a coup to get Bissette, a comics legend who worked with writer Alan Moore on Swamp Thing for DC Comics in the 1980s.
“Vermont has such a legacy of great artists like Steve and Rick Veitch … and so many talented people on the scene now, like Tillie Walden and Kochalka,” Chase said. “It was something I really wanted to tap into.”
Like last year’s issue, the new Samhain Harvest comes with a soundtrack. Once the digital edition of the new issue goes live on the ECGCE website, readers can scan a QR code and listen to a suitably creepy score of atmospheric electronic and spooky ambient music, courtesy of producer Brkn Hvn.
By releasing the magazine exclusively at Old Town, Chase aims to cultivate connections beyond the comic-book page.
“We hope [Old Town] is a place that serves as a sort of hub for the community,” he said, “and something like this really helps establish that.” ➆
This article appears in November 4 • 2026.
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