The wailing of wind through barren trees. Black ice on an unlit backroad. A baker's dozen of snowmen in your yard--they sprung up overnight. Halloween may be the season of tricks and treats, but on Planet Scumm the dead of winter is for horror.

Inside, we have a skin-stealing witch snuggled up next to a lost traveler--he says he came through the payphone. There's a businessman, too, over there by the fire. He's hiding from his employers, or so he says to the ghostly woman sitting across the room. Poor fool can't tell she's just a hologram.

And what's that jingling on the roof? Why, it must be the festive stars of our cover story, James Dorr's Holly Jolly. Don't remember Ol' Kris Kringle needing quite so many elves. And certainly not with all those weapons...

Our chilly winter horror issue has arrived Issue 6 features the stories:

• Touch-tone by j.l.oneill

• Muttonscalp by I. Horsburgh

• Scarlet Hide Molly by Hailey Piper

• The Company Man by Klaus Wenzel

• Holly Jolly by James Dorr