Skulltastic Book FairEast Rock Brewing Company285 Nicoll St.Oct. 18, 2026 Outside East Rock Brewing Company on Sunday’s sunny afternoon, a person was walking their dog wearing devil horns that sprouted from their hair as if they’d been there for years. It was a sign for those looking for Sk ulltastic Book Fair that they’d come to the right place. The fair, for the third time in as many years, was a “free event for lovers of horror, mystery, dark fantasy, and sci-fi books”; as advertised, participants could “shop new and used books, meet local horror authors, and get your books signed.” All these claims were true, but attending the event, inside East Rock Brewing Company, meant experiencing something deeper, about being part of a community that celebrated physical media — and being together to do it. Inside East Rock Brewing Company Sunday afternoon. Skulltastic is the brainchild of Eric Bruce, owner of Weirdo Wonderland, a shop that features books, art, stickers, and other collectibles, stocking classics and new authors in horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Bruce opened Weirdo Wonderland in Milford in 2019 and moved it to Shelton in 2023, but also extended his footprint by attending shows and conventions like the New Haven Comic and Collectible Spectacular and the Massachusetts Tattoo and Art Festival. Bruce’s business arose from his passions. “I’ve been a constant reader since I was a teen and my collection outgrew my living room,” Bruce said. He opened Weirdo Wonderland after “my to-be-read pile avalanched on top of me, and I realized I needed to let go of some of my books.” Skulltastic Book Fair grew out of the schedule of events Bruce ran out of Weirdo Wonderland, beginning in Milford. “We started doing one-off author signings in the store, every other month or so,” he said, and “interest kept growing and growing.” He held the first Skulltastic in 2023 in an American Legion in Shelton and got, by his estimation, 500 to 600 people throughout the day. “We needed to find a bigger spot,” he said. Bruce got connected with East Rock through a mutual acquaintance who knew the East Rock Brewing owners, and knew they were looking to host a Halloween-appropriate event sometime in October. “So it worked out,” Bruce said. On Sunday afternoon, the back room of East Rock Brewing Company buzzed with laughter and conversation as dozens of people moved from table to table, whether those tables featured area genre booksellers with an array of new and used books, posters, pins, and other collectibles; a coffee vendor; or independent authors selling their books. One of those authors was Tory Tallberg (pictured), who got involved with Skulltastic by answering a call Bruce put out for vendors for the first event. “I answered with a lot of hope,” they said, and got a table. “Ever since then, I’ve been coming back for the events, which are very, very fun.” Tallberg is a nurse in the area and began writing horror stories drawn from what they saw at work in their early twenties. They wrote their first book, Crowe County Hospital, during the pandemic shutdown, which “gave me the time and the inspiration” to write and produce it. They and their younger sister were “in our little COVID bubble together,” and their sister served as first reader and editor. It was a “creative process” that was “very of its time,” they said. But it “gave me the confidence to write.” Their second book, Resurrection Cemetery, grew from there, and their third book, The Thesis, was just released this month. “We’re cruising now,” they said. Independent bookselling, Tallberg said, “gave me a lot of creative freedom for how I was able to market” the books. And in the end, they write for the community of readers and fellow creatives around them. “I love the spooky book community,” they said. “Everyone knows each other and knows what’s up.” They wrote a book aimed at younger readers specifically because they saw kids showing up at the conventions where they had a table. Tallberg noted that, years ago, they had been one of those kids themselves. Part of the table for Fiddlehead Reclaim. Alesia, of Fiddlehead Reclaim, felt a similar sense of intergenerational connectedness. “I’m an oddities dealer, but I am personally a bibliophile,” she said. Like Bruce, she started Fiddlehead Reclaim out of her personal library of 1,500 books and vintage ephemera for people who do collages and journaling. She connected with Bruce when Bruce opened Weirdo Wonderland close to her own studio in Shelton. “We met, and we’re kindred spirits,” Alesia said. “We like the same things, and the same genre of things.” Like Tallberg, Alesia has participated in all three Skulltastics, driven in part by her passion for what she’s selling. “Books are very important in the digital world we’re living in,” she said. “Nothing is more satisfying than reading something in its physical format,” and perhaps, she added, in its original edition, with the original cover art. For Alesia, the pull of physical media felt different depending on age. Older readers, she suggested, may “love nostalgia,” she said. “I think people like to connect to things that make them feel comforted,” as things from childhood can be. But she and Bruce both also noticed a resurgence of interest in material culture among younger people. For Alesia, that spark of interest felt natural. People in their 20s, Alesia said, have been “overdigitized” and are “done” with having to buy subscriptions and create accounts on platform after platform. In his work at Weirdo Wonderland, Bruce likewise sees people who “are over the streaming,” he said. He has similar feelings. “I want the physical book. I want to smell the book, flip through the pages,” and “actually own it, and not just have it disappear when some streaming service decides to not pay the royalties on it any more.” Alesia saw, especially in younger attendees, how “AI puke” is “backfiring” because “AI cannot do what we’re looking at here. AI could maybe write some crappy book, but it cannot come up with an original idea. All it can do is take an idea and try to redo it. It’s like a sequel that sucks.” Younger genre fans appear to have noticed. They “come in and buy a bunch of stuff,” Alesia said. Bruce said he also noticed “people walking out with armfuls and tote bags full of books,” which is “great to see.” The way they moved through the space finding those books, from table to table, sharing knowledge, insights, and humor, made the back room of East Rock Brewing Company a great place to be. The post Skulltastic Book Fair Revels In The Real appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less