If you’re in the Toronto area this weekend and want a chance to pick up a new (or vintage) horror collectible and see some of your favourite television, film, wrestling and comic book celebrities, you might want to head down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the Wizard World Toronto Comic Con, which runs tomorrow and Sunday.

After a bit of a hiatus, Cryptic Collectibles is up and running again – just in time for Halloween.  While mulling over what to post, I serendipitously came into possession of a few vintage (30-year-old or more) issues of TV Guide – one of which covered Halloween of 1981. So, seeing that many horror fans (particularly if you’re of a certain age) were introduced to the genre through television, I thought it would be nice to celebrate our favourite holiday with a look at some the classic ads featured within the magazine.

Thirty-two years ago this week, a certain little indie film called Halloween was first released to theatres. Making its premiere in Kansas City on October 25th, 1978,  John Carpenter’s low-budget tale of a homicidal maniac who escapes from a psychiatric institution and returns to his hometown where he  stalks a trio of teenaged girls would go on to break box-office records and become one of horrordom’s most iconic films. So, to celebrate the film’s 32nd birthday, here’s a look at some of the collectibles Halloween and its sequels have inspired.