Vertigo’s seasonal hodgepodge is about as good as spooky anthologies get. The House of Mystery: Halloween Annual, priced at $5 for its oversized content (“oversized” being a relative term in the medium nowadays), offers readers a trick-or-treat bag stuffed with stories from popular Vertigo titles. Linking them, four cursed costumers—a devil, princess, pirate, and cowboy—time travel in an endless pursuit of candy.

The issue throws its first jack-o-lantern at the House of Mystery (Matt Sturges as writer, Luca Rossi as penciller). The special introduces the foursome, who wander from door to door because of a gypsy curse cast in their 1950s childhood. The comic itself skips around decades, showing the group of friends begging for candy in both their younger and older days. After hearing the visitors tell their woeful tale as payment for their stay, the Jersey native and magic-user Madame Scarpignato tries in vain to lift the spell. A few minutes later, they zip off to another doorstep with a quick tip of a cowboy’s hat.

Next comes the Madame Xanadu insert, a much-welcomed piece penned by Matt Wagner and rendered in dazzling psychedelic splendor by Brandon Graham. As adorable as Graham’s illustrations are, they can’t mask Wagner’s dark spin on the childhood characters’ tour of Xanadu’s domain. Oddly enough, the narration and dialogue feel confused at times, but after seeing a devil slide down the elongated tongue of a yellow wolf, there’s little to gripe about.

As with most anthologies, the quality starts dipping after the second or third story, and for the most part, the same holds true with this annual and its Hellblazer mini. John Constantine doesn’t exactly embrace the commercial spirit of Halloween, and for good reason: with a real-life succubi named Gloria tagging at his heels in Stella McCartney attire and memories of a Guy Fawkes night swirling around in his head, who wouldn’t turn bitter at the sight of fakes? Writer Peter Milligan’s “Bonfire Night” feels cut short, but fortunately the comic burns brighter with the following “Devil’s Lake.”

Chris Roberson (writer) and Michael Allred (artist) collaborate on the penultimate story rooted in the iZombie series. A younger, human Gwendolyn and her two schoolmates, Tricia and Darius, paddle across a moonlit lake supposedly home to a monster of Indian folklore. Despite her friends’ fears, Gwendolyn swears there is no such thing as monsters … it’s a traditional, campfire-type horror movie scare, and Roberson does well with the few pages he’s given. Like with “Bonfire Night,” the spellbound trick-or-treaters make a cameo appearance.

Lastly, the devil, pirate, princess, and cowboy reach the end of days: Armageddon. Mike Carey’s lighthearted Lucifer story is decent enough to wrap up the annual, but it’s one of the comic’s few weaker inclusions.